Male and female singers sought for Acapella performance group

Far Cry is a performing acapella group based in Huddersfield and looking for new male and female singers (limited spaces available).

What do you need to know?

About us

Far Cry is a mixed acapella group that has been meeting for just over a year. This is not a professional group but we aim for the highest standards possible. We meet under the guidance of Musical Director Jenny Goodman on Thursday evenings 7.30 to 9.30pm at The Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen St, Huddersfield HD1 2SP. Term dates for 2016/17 are: Sept 29th to Dec 8th (no session Oct 27th), 12th Jan to 23rd March (no session 24th Feb) 4th May to 13th July (no session 1st June). We aim to perform each term in some form - this might be busking, organising our own gigs, responding to requests, doing fundraisers, singing at Festivals. There is no obligation to sing at EVERY gig and members are expected to be able to be flexible around parts. We aim to organise our own main gig in the Spring this year.

Our material falls into 3 main categories - world music/roots - this can be Bulgarian, African, Georgian, British folk: political - although we are not a political choir the group shares a interest in social justice and equality and some of our songs reflect that: popular/original - we like a good pop arrangement and also sing songs and arrangements by contemporary acapella group composers including Jenny. We now have a core repertoire which we will add to - practice tracks are available.

We operate within the learning and teaching philosophy of The Natural Voice Practitioners Network which Jenny is a founder member of - this means we learn our material orally and do not use sheet music - so there is no need to be able to read music and there is a strong emphasis on listening and tuning in. We are expected to learn words and parts by heart so we can perform without paper (tho there are sometimes little prompt cards hidden in people's hands!). There is also a strong emphasis on working on our voices - warming up properly with technical exercises to develop the voices ,tuning exercises - we also sometimes work on improvisation.

In the year ahead we hope to really perfect the songs we already have in our repertoire, refining arrangements etc as well as learning new songs. There will also be the opportunity to small group singing as part of arrangements. We also plan to really work on our performance skills - both vocally in terms of blend, pitching and dynamics and in terms of presentation.

The group is really friendly and welcoming and there is much laughter and fun alongside the hard work.

The group costs £82 per term but concession places are available by negotiation with Jenny and you can pay the fees in half term blocks if that is easier (i.e. £41 per half term)

About you

We're looking for keen, enthusiastic singers - you don't have to be an expert.

For men you need a low voice (in convention choirs that would be bass or baritone) - but if you don't know what you are and would like to join then contact Jenny and have a chat. For women it depends where we need spaces but currently women with lower voices are needed.

You need to be able to hold your part in a small group but we do have a group audition process where you can try that out.

We ask for people to commit for a year to singing with the group and to attend as many of the weekly rehearsals as possible - there is not usually an expectation to attend additional sessions tho we do sometimes have day rehearsals prior to a big gig - however not everyone is able to attend those.

Interested ?

The please contact Jenny on singing.jennyg@googlemail.com or 07984 584923.

We look forward to hearing from you and singing with you

Jenny