Letter detailing the course 1 agenda

Having won the school singing competition in 1995 by the skin of my teeth to beat the three times champion I was sent to Eton Choral Courses in the summer of the same year 1995. The letter on the left signed by the then course administrator Lydia Smallwood details the programme of course highlights that were part of the deal and the repertoire that we sang on those occasions. 

It shows that we sang evensong at the famous Kings College Chapel at Cambridge University with the then incumbent choir master Sir Stephen Cleobury. As the choirmaster since 1983 he became Anglican Choral Music’s first knight.

Also on the agenda was a recording for the BBC World service programme In Praise of God broadcast on the 3rd and 10th December 1995 having been recorded at Eton College Chapel on 18th Jult 1995 with Ralph Allwood MBE

We had 2 private singing lessons included in the price mine in 1995 were carried out by Margaret Humpfrey Clark

We also had use of the Eton College Private Sixth form Bar Tap where there Murphys and Beamish stout were readily available after hours. The culmination of the social calendar was the choral course barbecue party on Eton College’s private rowing Island Queens Eyot, where I got my very first yes from a lady friend to having a friendship. Eventually it only turned out to be a postcard form Norway but it was my first yes. 

Here is one of our tracks we recorded for the BBC I have digitised and remastered with a few pics of me at Eton College and at Kings College, Cambridge with a few of the choral course ladies.