uncategorised « Basildon Choral Society

22 Nov 2010 1 Comment

We are especially indebted to our soprano and tenor soloists at the Autumn Gold concert on 20th November. Diana Vivian stood in at the last minute for Michelle Jarman who was indisposed; Diana is no stranger to BCS and we were grateful that she was able to take Michelle’s place. John Upperton, our tenor soloist appeared after a somewhat harrowing couple of days. John had been appearing the previous evening at the Polish Embassy in Amsterdam where he performed a number of Chopin songs, in Polish, which he had never sung before. He was staying in a borrowed flat in the city and was awakened at 2 a.m. on the Saturday morning by an alarm in the flat – not smoke but carbon monoxide. Having tried to reach the owners of the flat who understandably were asleep at 2 a.m., he had no alternative other than to fully ventilate the rooms and then stay awake all night !! Remember – carbon monoxide is odourless ! Obviously he survived, but on only a couple of hours sleep. He came to Basildon on his motorbike which served the purpose of waking him up and keeping him awake.