Bookings now open for MozFest workshop

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Magenta’s contribution to this year’s Moseley Festival will be a close-harmony workshop. Scheduled for the last afternoon of MozFest, it will be a great way to round off the festival on a natural high. Spend an afternoon with Magenta learning a brand new arrangement of a popular song and be a part of its first performance at the end of the day. No experience is necessary, just come along and enjoy yourself!

Magenta About Town at MozFest 2011

Date: Sunday 15 July 2012

Time: 2.00 pm – 5.00 pm

Venue: Moseley All Services Club, 91 Church Road, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 9EA

Ticket Price: £5

To book a place please email workshop@magentacloseharmony.com or call 0121 449 1939

Magenta wedding

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For us in Magenta, adding extra delight by singing at a wedding is always special: this time it was one of our own members who was getting married.  Becki (who sings a mean ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’!), and Ben were married on 21 April 2012, with a reception at the stunning Brockencote Hall.

Snapshots from the day: the light in the reception rooms, the big glass bowls on the tables with magenta daisies, Becki arriving from the church gorgeous in her white dress, and later, running, in the distance against dark green woods, with her dress held up in front of her, a tiny white figure.

We sang two sets before the wedding breakfast.  For the first, we were there in the bar as the guests arrived, making a magical welcome with our versions of songs such as ’Happy Together’ and ‘Shine’. The photographs were taken (in a rare spell of sunshine, this being the wettest April on record – could it have had anything to do with us singing ‘Here Comes the Sun’?) and then with the guests in relaxed mood we offered our second romantic set, with Becki herself joining us for ‘Somebody to Love’ and a heartfelt ‘God Only Knows’.

“Mesmerising” was how one person described our harmonies: we hope we contributed something unique to Becki and Ben’s very special day.

Brockencote have booked us for their Christmas evening on Friday 14 December 2012, when you can enjoy a festive meal to the accompaniment of Magenta’s unique harmonies.

Worcester Festival triumph

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Vicki Carrabin writes:

Working in Worcester I am used to the drive down the M5 but on Saturday 17 March I had a feeling of excitement and anticipation. Magenta were meeting up at the Royal Grammar School in Worcester to sing in the Worcester Music festival.

The contest was to be held in the beautiful Jacobean style Perrins Hall built in 1914. The acoustic of the hall was perfect for our well blended tones. With smiles all round, and a case or two of the jitters we began to warm up. Once we began to sing our worries lifted and we felt the wonderful feeling of harmony and togetherness we always experience when singing together. Going round the group we each described one marvelous thing that we wanted to achieve in the competition. Our main goal as always was to make our audience feel wonderful.

The competition went well. There were three choirs in our category: Vale Harmony from Evesham, Medchoir from the University of Birmingham and us. It was really nail-biting listening to the judge’s feedback as there was little to choose between any of the three. In the end though the judge said he could not award first place to any choir other than Magenta and we all applauded and cheered once we had got over the shock.

The adjudicator, David Lawson, praised us on our ‘smooth, well-balanced sound, which has plenty of warmth’ and the ‘great atmosphere’ we created in a performance he described as ‘immensely enjoyable’ and ‘very expressive’.

Magic beam shines despite weather…

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The heavy snow fall covering Birmingham on Saturday night felt like Never Never Land but did not deter the energetic spirit of Magenta from performing to an equally determined audience gathered at Kings Heath Cricket Club for Moseley Ladies Circle Quirky Quiz night.

Quiz goers experienced the unique and engaging arrangements of popular songs and even found answers hidden to some questions while Magenta turned on their magic beam onto the music round, with cryptic references to other dreamy songs hidden in their most quirky version of ‘Mr Sandman’.

Despite the weather the evening was a great success and raised over £400 for St Mary’s Hospice and Queen Elizabeth Hospital.