{"id":967,"date":"2020-02-14T08:26:40","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T08:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=967"},"modified":"2020-02-14T08:26:41","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T08:26:41","slug":"singing-in-the-choir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2020\/02\/14\/singing-in-the-choir\/","title":{"rendered":"SINGING IN THE CHOIR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SINGING\nWITH THE CHOIR: Anne Rees<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We brought you a review recently of a\nperformance by Lanzarote Gospel Choir (see archives) and mentioned an English\nlady in the choir, called Anne Rees who charmingly agreed to sit through one of\nour hugely interrogative, but always polite, interviews. Sidetracks and Detours\nare delighted to now include on our all\nacross the arts<\/em> blog Anne\u00b4s responses to our questions. Her answers\nperfectly describe how new residents from other countries can help themselves\nsettle into a new country by tasting the the tapas or smorgasbord of arts and\ncultures available. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In much the same way as Anne Rees joined\nthe various organisations she talks about in this interview, so my wife Dee\nbecame the only English person in a yoga group of mainly Spanish ladies and Dee\nwill tell anyone willing to listen that those ladies were hugely helpful to her\nin settling here on Lanzarote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, we introduced Anne to the \u00b4five bums\nat the bar\u00b4 (so named for reasons we have explained previously on these pages),\nand invited messrs. Who, What, When,\nWhere<\/strong> and Why<\/strong> to fire questions\nat her. She handled the salvo perfectly, and informatively, from the opening\nquestion of,\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHO<\/strong> is Anne\nRees from England and how did she end up in a Spanish Gospel Choir?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Anne Rees
a member of The Lanzarote Gospel Choir<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4<\/strong>My husband and I first came to Lanzarote in 1985.\u00a0 Between 1985 and 2007 we visited the island many times each year.\u00a0 During this time we made many friends and learned many of the local customs. When I say customs I include those of the banks, utility companies and government bodies, which do involve using patience and understanding!! In 2007 we made the move to come and live in Lanzarote permanently, a decision we never regretted.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I had taken Spanish in evening\nclasses in England and even passed a GCSE but that was not a great deal of help\nwhen living here and talking with the locals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not wanting to live feeling I was\nan outsider I was determined to get as involved as possible with the Spanish\ncommunity.  In England I had attended\ncookery evening classes and thought that would be a great way to meet and mix\nwith Spanish people while helping my Spanish language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I telephoned Zonzamas school in\nArrecife to see if they offered this type of class but discovered they only\noffered it as a route to working in a hotel or restaurant.  However the person who answered the\ntelephone, and the only time she had answered the telephone, was the Head of\nEnglish. I told her what I wanted to do and she told me she wanted to practise\nher English so we met and have formed a very good friendship.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From this friendship, along with\nother English volunteers, we go into schools in Arrecife to give the students\npractice in conversational English.  All\nof us volunteers agree that we gain as much from this experience as the students.\nIt is great to hear of the young people\u2019s hopes and aspirations.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the students I have met there\nis a Canarian Chess champion, a student who wants to be a seismologist, and\nanother who wants to study in South Korea making computer games, as well as\nothers who are very content and happy to remain living in Lanzarote for the\nrest of their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have dabbled in many Spanish\nactivities including Salsa dancing (a complete disaster \u2013 no rhythm and not\nunderstanding the Spanish), cookery classes (I eventually found some), bridge\nclasses, intercambios (a great way to make friends), and dog training to name\nbut a few.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Gareth Malone choir master<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

WHEN<\/strong> did your love of listening to and singing\nmusic begin?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I was brought up in the sixties so my love of music comes from Top of the Pops. Every week there were new pop songs, to which I probably know the words to this day. It was a great decade for popular music.It was through a Spanish friend who I play golf with that I became aware of the Gospel Choir.\u00a0 Having watched programmes on TV featuring Gareth Malone I had always wondered what it was like to sing among a group of other people.\u00a0 I had no previous singing experience apart from with the radio at home.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT<\/strong> does it\nfeel like when Ezequiel raises his hands for you all to sing the first note of\na concert in a full theatre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I only started with the choir in\nOctober 2019 and at first was very nervous about singing out in case I ruined\nit for everyone. I soon became more confident and Ezequiel goes into great\ndetail to make sure we practise each part of the song to get it right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The girls in the choir have been\nvery supportive and welcoming even though most of the time I do not understand\n\u201cCanarian chat\u201d when everyone is talking together as we do in English. The\natmosphere behind the stage on Thursday evening was so exciting.  It was like being back at school, a real party\nfeeling, all in it together and we were so animated that we were told off for\nmaking too much noise as the theatre was beginning to fill up.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHERE, <\/strong>geographically and spiritually has your love of music takenyou? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4Having joined the choir and now\nlearning the gospel songs I now realise how uplifting they are and when you\nhear the sounds made purely by human voices it does send a tingle down your\nspine.\u00b4<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nWHY<\/strong> did you choose a gospel choir to join, and\nWHY<\/strong> does gospel feel so uplifting?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4I must admit that Gospel music\nwould probably not have been my first choice (of musical genre) at this stage\nin life.\u00b4 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b4However, having been brought up to\ngo to church I remember how good it felt to be singing with the congregation\nwhen I was young. I went home on Thursday evening on a real high. Ezequiel had done such a great job of involving the\naudience that everyone, audience and choir, had fun and everyone took part. Who\nknew you could have so much fun singing?\u00b4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SINGING WITH THE CHOIR: Anne Rees We brought you a review recently of a performance by Lanzarote Gospel Choir (see archives) and mentioned an English lady in the choir, called Anne Rees who charmingly agreed to sit through one of our hugely interrogative, but always polite, interviews. Sidetracks and Detours are delighted to now include […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}