On 22nd November a 25 strong contingent of Soul Symphony Choristers met at Holy Trinity Church in Wallington to take part in the Open Class Challenge section of the Sutton Music Festival. This festival takes place over a number of weekends and has a huge range of classes.
The songs chosen to portray the range of the choir's harmonics were 'Melodies From Heaven' by Kirk Franklin and 'Total Praise' by Richard Smallwood. These two songs were well suited to the acoustics within a church. The judge, Neil Jenkins, said that the singing was warm, spiritual and devotional and that we honoured the vision of the songwriter. He was impressed by the range we covered in Melodies from Heaven, especially from the Soul Symphony men. He likened the harmonies and tones within Total Praise to a moist Madeira cake, as they were rich and delicious. He positively commented on the diversity within the choir and this came out in the rich musical layers in each part of the song. The choir plans to implement a suggestion on how our visual performance can be improved as the togetherness would enhance the performance further!
We hold on to our title 'award-winning choir'! Thank you to everyone who supports us. Jessica Craik, one of the Festival Organisers, had great pleasure in presenting Soul Symphony Choir with the Open Challenge shield for coming first.
