Verdi Voices
Testimonials

Members of the choir

Pre-performance:

• Hard work but well worth it! Hard work for Vetta too.
• I’ve loved the experience and challenge of singing in such a BIG choir, such a complex work.
• It has been a fabulous experience. Bring on the next one!
• This is an amazing opportunity to sing this wonderful work.
• What an amazing and wonderful opportunity to sing with good soloists and a fabulous orchestra. Worth all the hard work. Thank you.
• I have found it extremely challenging throughout, but now love it and am looking forward to the performance with an odd mixture of trepidation and excitement.
• Good to be part of such a large group. Hard work but very rewarding.
• The enthusiasm of Verdi Voices and their commitment to all the necessary rehearsal times has made this a very worthwhile experience. The huge amount of organisation required for a production such as this needs to be recognised and applauded.
• Have sung with Vetta 3 times now and enjoyed every minute. I would welcome the opportunity to sing with her again. Although I have found the Verdi challenging I am looking forward to the performance. It’s great to make music.
• Learning the tenor part for the Verdi Requiem has been atremendous but challenging experience after singing bass for 50 years. The teaching and directing of Vetta Wise has made the task much easier and morerewarding.
• Exhilarating. Very challenging but worthwhile. Would love tosing it again. Learnt a lot from Vetta as usual! Especially about articulation.Great too sing with such a large group, and such a dramatic work. Congratulationsto all those responsible for the organisation and management, so smooth andmaking it easy for us participants.
• Thank you to Vetta for all your hard work and tuition.
• It’s a good way to bring local singers together and enable us to tackle a major work. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
• Verdi Voices has been a joy. The attention to detail has been insightful and welcomed… this journey has restored my faith in”country choruses”. I look forward to the next big project.
• Great (but challenging!) work. Musical detail just brings it to life; it’s great to get this window of insight to the range of vocal techniques to execute such a rich work to one’s maximum.
• It has been a challenging but very rewarding experience to be part of the Verdi Voices. Would particularly like to thank Vetta for her belief in us and her endless patience, always (well nearly) leading us with good humour and enthusiasm.
• An excellent experience.
• The workshops were most helpful and enjoyable.
• I have only recently joined Pakefield Singers and thoroughly enjoyed Verdi Voices.
• Vetta is inspirational and we get so much out of experiences like this.
• A great first experience of Verdi’s Requiem. Probably a hard one to follow.
• It has been a huge challenge for me to learn this work and it has been stimulating as well as nerve-racking. I don’t read music so have used a training CD which was invaluable but meant me taking the time and energy to stick with it. All this is really good stuff for an old bird to use the parts of me that had as yet been untapped. A really therapeutic, outstandingly invigorating experience.
• I enjoyed the opportunity to sing with members of other choirs, this combination made the work enjoyable and challenging.
• Nice to work with different people and to do a big experience like this.
• It has been a privilege to sing the Verdi Requiem.
• Firstly, thank you Pakefield Singers for this great experience: a hugely friendly welcome. Very efficient, helpful organisers, best of all, an excellent musical director from whom I’ve learnt tons. First Class. Thank you again.
• I have had the most wonderful time.
• A very welcome opportunity to sing a major work under such good musical direction.

Post Performance:

• Spine chilling!
• Wonderful
• I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. A wonderful musical experience.
• I can’t believe we actually did it! We’ve just sung Verdi’s Requiem!!
• All that hard work really paid dividends. Thank you Vetta.
• What an enjoyable and challenging few weeks. Many thanks to all concerned.
• I surprised myself. It was amazing.
• I was a Verdi Virgin!! Awesome!
• Great opportunity for all. Excellent venue etc. and a sense of being part of a real EVENT locally. Roll on the next one.
• It was a privilege, great performers, great venue, great experience!
• Bellisimo!
• A really enjoyable sixth rendition.
• Wonderful event!
• An unmissable experience. My subconscious is still singingextracts
• We got through it, and what doesn’t kill you makes youstronger! What a memory!
• Privileged to take part. Nice group of people.
• Performing in the Minster was inspirational – let’s find other amazing spaces to fill with our music.
• What an amazing musical experience. We have been taken to new heights.
• Wonderful welcome and outstanding leadership.
• A very emotional experience.
• How lucky I was. A glorious experience with a talented choir. Fingers crossed for more…

The audience

• Excellent performance. I am in awe of the skill and discipline displayed.
• Brilliant and hair raising.
• Absolutely fabulous. Our 1st time and we loved it!!
• Fantastic
• Wonderful. The Dies Irae sent shivers down my spine.
• I thought the performance was absolutely stunning. I enjoyed every moment.
• Fabulous!
• Brilliant. Moving. Superb
• Uplifting. Well Done, a night to remember!
• Magnificent.
• Wonderful performance from all – both choirs super under the baton of Vetta Wise. The Kingfisher Sinfonia – excellent.
• Good to hear choral & Sinfonia together. Highlight – THE SANCTUS.
• Well Done!
• Bravo, Bravo, Bravo!
• Excellent. Very successful.
• Brilliant. Enjoyed it immensely. Thank You.
• WOW!
• Absolutely and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.Thanks to you all for bringing such joy to East Anglia.
• Amazing achievement.
• I often attend Kingfisher Sinfonietta/Sinfonia concerts and am always impressed with the quality of music heard. Tonight, with the addition of the soloists, conductor & choir the beauty of the music was exceptional. The setting of the Minster was perfect. Thank you!
• Magnificent
• Excellent!
• Well worth the wait.
• Lovely to hear a concert of such high quality in Gt. Yarmouth.
• This is such a beautiful work. Having sung in it twice myself – but now that I can’t sing anymore – am delighted to listen to such talented voices and such clear, dramatic and sensitive direction by Vetta. Loved the offset trumpets too. Many thanks.

The professional performers

• Kingfisher Sinfonia said:
  Wow yesterday! A breathless evening’s music of that great master of theatre Giuseppe Verdi. Saturday’s performance of the Requiem certainly brought out the incredible drama of faith and Judgement, ending in a disarming, disconcerting calm. Well done to Vetta Wise, the extraordinary 120 voices, Beth the Kingfisher leader, and of course, how could we forget those 4 stupendi!!??
• Jeff Stewart (Tenor) said:
  Wonderful evening with Vetta Wise, Mardi Byers, Cheri Rose Katz and George Stevens singing the Verdi Requiem in the astonishing Great Yarmouth Minster. Standing ovations, new friends and seeing old ones. Very special night.
• George Stevens (Baritone) said:
  I am still on a high. Thank you for a very special time. It will go down as a historic memory.
• Mardi Byers (Soprano) said:
  Congratulations on a fantastic evening. All of us soloists were very moved and felt honoured to be a part of this dream.

Other professionals

• Extract from letter to Vetta Wise from John A. Farmer B.A.(Mus) A.R.C.O.
  I want to congratulate you on an absolutely outstanding performance. Truly, my wife and I enjoyed the Requiem immensely. We thought that not only did your choir turn in a superlative performance, (and all the more so when Valerie Walker told me that many of them do not read music) but also we thought that the soloists and the orchestra were superb. Having been connected with St.Nicholas’ Church since 1975, we thought it was one of the finest concerts ever to have been held there. So please, if and when you meet your singers, do please extend to them our warmest congratulations on such a tremendous achievement. With all good wishes… and do come to Great Yarmouth again soon!
• Email to Vetta Wise from Jane Freeman – Chair of Great Yarmouth Choral Society
  Congratulations on the superb Verdi Requiem last Saturday at GY Minster. It waswonderful… you must be on the highest cloud there is! What a musical journey it must have been, right from when you had the first inkling to the performance… Quite a marathon. It was a thrill and a privilege to be in the audience – and yes I did wish that I was singing! It was a huge undertaking – and as they say, how are you going to follow that? CONGRATULATIONS again to you and all the people that you encouraged to be involved in this project.
• Email to Vetta Wise from Ian Bauers – Conductor and Musical Director, Wrentham Wind Band
  Congratulations on seeing this wonderful project through to tonight’s triumph! The choir sounded superb, the soloists were amazing and we (the orchestra) were treated to a gourmet banquet after the rehearsal – literally the icing on the cake!
  I have no idea how many concerts I have performed in through my life but I would certainly put this evening in my top ten. Thank you for giving so many people such a rewarding experience whether they were performing or listening.
  With warmest thanks