Fernhurst Choral Society accompanist George Haynes will be their musical director for their next concert while Tim Ravalde is on paternity leave.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Always lovely
00:06to speak to George Haynes. And George, you are in a slightly unfamiliar role. You work
00:11as Companist with Fernhurst Choral Society, but at the moment, in Tim's paternity leave,
00:17you are the music director, choral director, and you are in charge for the concert, which
00:22is coming up very soon. Remind me of the date. What's the date of the concert?
00:28It's Saturday the 16th, yes. And we were saying that it's good for the choir and it's
00:33good for you, isn't it, that they're working with someone else, albeit someone they know?
00:38Yes, exactly. I'm really lucky to have an amazing opportunity to work with a choir that
00:45I know really well. I've played for them for several years now, but I'm getting this lovely
00:50opportunity to conduct them and get to know how I can improve things or change things
00:57a little bit and offer my own musical interpretation, which I think will be of great benefit to
01:02them and to me going on. And does it make a difference knowing that
01:06this is a very finite time you are in charge? Well, in a way, I suppose that's quite fun
01:12because you're only being allowed to do one big concert. There's a lot of pressure there,
01:17but also basically I'm determined to just have great fun on the day, especially with
01:24the fun repertoire that we're doing. Yes. Now Chichester Psalms, what's the challenge,
01:29the attraction to be performing that? So the Chichester Psalms are probably in
01:37the top level of difficulty in our repertoire, in Furness's usual repertoire. They're used
01:43to doing Romantic or Classical or Baroque works a lot of the time. But the Chichester
01:48Psalms have a few big challenges. They have the influence of Classical and Jazz and Musical
01:55Theatre on the music, so you have to sing in a slightly more bold way perhaps. And also
02:00you have to sing in Hebrew, which not really any other choral music exists that you have
02:06to do that. So it is a unique piece. Absolutely. And fabulous contrast then because
02:11you're also doing the Requiem for his Requiem, which the pressure is slightly different because
02:16it's a piece that everyone knows or thinks they know. Yes, you do feel that sort of looming,
02:22the audience knowing how it goes and they will want to hear a really perfect performance
02:27of that. But we're determined to try and do that and offer a nice fresh performance of
02:31that beautiful, famous piece. Fantastic. Well, all good wishes for the concert.
02:38Lovely to speak to you. Thank you so much. And you, thank you. Bye.