As the apples and cherries are blossoming and the birds are chirping, we continue our weekly singing sessions on Thursday evenings at 6.30pm. We regularly add new songs to our repertoire and you can get a flavour of the range of material we sing on our “Latest Songs” page. We’re taking a one week break on 21st May 2015 and planning an outdoor session possibly in June – details will be posted. Do come along and join us at any session, we welcome new participants – learning to sing together is a joyful and uplifting experience 🙂
Spring 2015
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After a short Christmas and New Year break, we re-grouped for our weekly sessions on 8 January when we started to learn, among other things, a few new wassails. This was in preparation for the Transition Edinburgh South (TES) Wassail at which we had been invited to sing and which took place at the Gracemount walled garden on 17 January 2015. Our singing group, although now independent, has roots in the Transition Edinburgh South community and it was great to re-connect with people there given that we have received a good number of new members over the last year. We had a bonfire, spiced apple juice and people (including little ones) joined us in singing around the fruit trees in the garden.
One of the wassails we sang:
Wassail! Wassail! May the coming year,
Peace and plenty bring, to all who wassail here.
Peace and plenty bring, to all who wassail here.
Drink to the bud and the blossom, drink to the root of the tree,
Drink to the fruit of the summer, wassail, let cider run free.
Fire at the spirit of winter, fire at the spirit of night,
Fire at the spirit of darkness, wassail the bringer of light.
Wassail the silver shilling, wassail the silver moon,
Wassail the silver apple, drink, hail the sign of the sun!
Our singing group leader, singer, songwriter and activist, Penny Stone is holding a singathon to mark International Women’s Day on Saturday 7th March St. John’s Church Hall Princes Street, Edinburgh 15.00 to 23.59. This year is the centenary of the founding of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the oldest international women’s peace organisation in the world. The story of the founding of WILPF is quite amazing, and you will hear about it if you come to the singathon where we will sing 100 songs to celebrate this. Penny will lead most of the singing, which will consist of singalong songs or choruses. The song choices have a range of themes such as: women, peace and freedom. This is a drop-in and out event ( you can come and return throughout the period), there will be cake and refreshments, no charge but donations are welcome. Previous singathons have proved uplifting and fun events. For more information, please click here:
We continue to meet at the Eric Liddell Centre every Thursday from 6.30 to 8.30 p.m. We have no auditions and anyone is welcome to join at any time.
Autumn 2014
We’re continuing to meet weekly at 6.30pm in the Eric Liddell Centre until sometime in December – the exact date yet to be specified… Many of us joined with Protest in Harmony to sing at the People’s Climate March on Sunday 21st September – I think it was a first experience of marching and singing in public for many of us and it was a very enjoyable experience. There was a lovely atmosphere with lots of folk joining in with us as interested bystanders and enjoying it, so I’m hoping that some of them may make it along to join us at the weekly sessions in the near future.
We’re missing Fergus’ contributions at the moment – he’s so good at getting us started on the walk-around harmonies and is particularly good at the ape warm up, so we trust he’ll return to aping around with us soon.
1 week Summer break – no singing session on 7th August
Singing sessions will run as normal this Summer every Thursday 6.30-8.30pm at Eric Liddell Centre as usual, apart from on Thursday 7th August THERE WILL BE NO SINGING SESSION. Please join us on a Thursday if you are wanting to do some fun singing this Summer. We look forward to meeting you!
July 2014
We’re back in the Eric Liddell Centre this week (3rd July onwards) after our trip up the road to join Songworks at the Columcille Centre last Thursday. We started a couple of new songs for those who missed us – good fun with a four parter from South Africa and a rumour that the Japanese lullaby we learnt the other week might actually be a Yoruba song from Nigeria – to be continued…!
9th Jan first session in 2014
Thursday 9th Jan is the first singing session in the New Year. We hope to see you then and for now have a wonderful happy festive season!
12th Dec last session in 2013
Singing sessions will not be running throughout the Christmas and New Year period. The last session in 2013 is on the 12th Dec, then sessions will resume in Jan 2014. Stay tuned for the start date soon!
Change of venue & time on Thursday 28th Nov
On Thursday 28th Nov we won’t be meeting at Eric Liddell Centre, but instead we will be having a special joint session with SongWorks who meet down the road at The Columcille Centre at 2 Newbattle Terrace from 7 to 9 pm on Thursdays.
*Please note different venue and time for one week only. Sessions will resume as normal the following week – on Thurs 5th Dec – at the Eric Liddell Centre*
Our wonderful singing teacher, Penny, will be leading the session, and there will be 20-30 singers from Songworks and as many of us at OCSG that can come along as well. It will hopefully be an opportunity for us to sing with a bigger group and exchange songs. Their website is here: http://songworks.info/
Great performance at The Hive – Royal Edin Hospital
Sang a few of our favourite songs @ the Hive activity centre in the Royal Edinburgh Hospital on Tuesday 15th Oct. The audience really enjoyed it and so did we!
A wonderful time singing @ the Botanics
This weekend on Sat & Sun the Open Community Singing Group had lots of fun singing a selection of African songs at The Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. It was for a Slow Food Edinburgh fundraising event called ‘A Thousand Gardens in Africa’ http://slowfoodedinburgh.com/1000-gardens/ . The vibrant songs were a wonderful start to the event and were warmly received, some of the crowd even joined in for a bit too!
Changes over Summer
11th & 18th July the singing group is still going ahead even though Penny will not be attending. It will be a peer led session and is a great opportunity to bring along a few songs you would like to sing or share with the group.
25th July Penny will be back and leading the session as usual.
The 1st & 8th August there will be no singing session at all. Many people are away so it will be a short break from singing until 15th August when sessions will resume as normal for the rest of the year.
No session on 28th March
We are taking a break next week around Easter. But sessions will resume as normal the week after on Thursday 4th April, hope to see you then!
Spring Fling and Easter break
On Saturday the 9th of March the group will be taking part in the Spring Fling run by the South Edinburgh Arts Fair Association in Polwarth Parish Church. We’ll be singing probably at lunch time (1:20 to 1:40), but the timing is still to be confirmed. This should be a good chance to let potential new members know about the group.
On the 28th of March we are taking a break for Easter, and so there will be no session that day. We’ll be back at the Eric Liddell Centre as usual on Thursday the 4th of April.
First session for 2013
The OCSG’s first singing session in 2013 will take place this Thursday 10th January 18.30 – 20.30 at the Eric Liddell Centre. We hope you can make it – everyone is welcome to drop-in!
It costs £8 (concessions £6) per session, or £30 (£20) for a series of five sessions. Sessions will be running weekly (on Thursdays) in 2013.
Weekly sessions starting in 2013
We have been having a wonderful time during all the singing sessions over the past few months. The Open Community Singing Group has doubled in size and expanded it’s repertoire of songs. If you have been thinking of coming to a session, this Thursday the 6th Dec is the last one for 2012. But don’t fret…there are plenty of sessions booked into the calendar on a weekly basis for 2013 starting on Thursday 10th Jan 6.30pm-8.30pm.
First 5 sessions
Will take place @ Eric Liddell Centre (Morningside) on:
Thursday 11th Oct, 25th Oct, 8th Nov, 22nd Nov, 6th Dec
18.30-20.30
It costs £8 (concessions £6) per session, or £30 (£20) for a series of five sessions.
No singing experience is required, just drop-in to the sessions if you fancy singing.
Welcome!
We are a very friendly, secular choir with no auditions. We welcome anyone who has a passion to sing with us- whether untrained singers or music scholars! Our singing style is folk rather than classical and varies hugely from song to song – whether it’s a blues number or a gentle African lullaby. Penny Stone is our incredible, charismatic teacher who specialises in voice production. We meet up fortnightly on Thursdays (starting the 11th Oct 2012) from 18.30-20.30 at Eric Liddell centre on Morningside Road. Anyone is welcome to come along!
Hope you can join us!
GLOBAL VOICES 