Choir History

On May 19, 2019, we collaborated with a choir from Copenhagen on a piece titled A Correspondence Course in Singing, inspired by the poem of the same name by Gregory Warren Wilson in his book, "Preserving Lemons."  (Composer: Siobhan Lamb).    Location: Temple de Commugny. 

We performed at a variety of venues during the 2018 December holidays, including:

• Coppet Marché de Noël

• La Chat's Marché de Noël 

• The EU Delegation holiday party

We performed with other members of the Ecolint community and over 100 (confirm) children as part of Ecolint's "Unison 10th Anniversary Concert" under the direction of Scott Stroman.

Watch the video of our concert (new!)  

Remember all the fun lyrics?  

"And the moral of the story is the tree will have no glory

‘till the little bee has kissed her with the sweetness of her sister

and the nectar from another travels over to its brother

by the mediator's often travelled route."  (The Go-Between, Scott Stroman)

We had two concerts in the spring of 2018 as part of Geneva and Nyon's Fête de la Musique.  Our line-up: 

• Soualle

• Mamma Mia - Abba

• Vive La Rose - Stephen Hatfield

• God Only Knows - The Beachboys

• Tu Es La - Johnny Hallyday arr. John Aram

• Were you there? - Spriritual

• And so it goes - Billy Joel

• Don't Stop Me Now - Queen

• In This Heart - Sinead O'Connor

• Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel

• Every Time I Feel the Spirit - Bob Chilcott

We collaborted with the La Châtaigneraie community orchestra and performed this piece in the Sports Hall:

• Dry Your Tears, Africa by John Williams from the film, Amistad.

Here's a version of the song on YouTube (not us).   

Listening to this, fellow choir members will likely remember the lyrics...

Mu ya mah mu yeh

Mu ya mah mu yeh

Mu ya mah mu yeh, Afrika!

We performed for the first time at "Concert in the Park" at La Chat, though it was moved indoors to the secondary schooll's multi-purpose room due to the risk of inclement weather.   Our song list (dug up from an old email):

• O-re-mi - Nigerian folk song

• Alleluia

• And so it goes -Billy Joel

• Li'l Liza May

• Somewhere - West Side Story

• Hey Jude - Beatles

After the Year 7s sang a few songs, we ended the night with...

• Africa - Toto

Here's the original letter (from 12.2016) announcing the formation of the choir, after many of us participated in the school's collaboration with Scott Stroman that December.

Look at what we've accomplished in such a short time!  Brings to mind the Margaret Meed quote...

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

We'd like to think making music has changed the world in some small but meaningful way.  In this case, we must surely add, it would not be possible without the dedication, leadership and guiding spirit of our choir director, Rachel Harris Lindop; along with the continued support and encouragement of John Aram, head of music at La Châtaigneraie; Mary Eileen Marie, Music School; Principal David Woods and Principal Jennifer Armstrong; and countless others who have supported our efforts at the International School of Geneva.