On Saturday 18th July, nearly 40 Eye Matter members attended our annual ‘Songs in Summertime’ concert to hear, (and see), the UK’s only peer-lead, visually impaired singing group. This show was the culmination of more than twelve weeks of Zoom rehearsals by the ‘Eye Matter Singers’, a group from across the UK, who had never even met before, let alone sung together as a choir.
Despite this geographical spread, the group got together to perform an eclectic mix of ten songs including solos, duets and even instrumentals. For the final performance click here.
Video Description
After a short introduction by Rachel the group are filmed before the audience. Lots of the women are wearing long, brightly coloured dresses. One of the group is reading a Braille transcription in some of the shots. The pianist, Thuy, is positioned slightly to one side and behind the group.
The singers opened with the Queen classic, ‘We Will Rock You’, and followed that with ‘The Heat is On’ rather appropriately given the weather we’ve been experiencing over the past few weeks!
First soloist Andy’s a cappella version of Elvis’ ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’, was quickly followed by Amrit’s solo of Richard Marx’s ’Right Here Waiting’. This too was also performed unaccompanied. The next song, ‘Rhythm of the Night’ originally by DeBarge was performed by the whole group, before Carrie stepped forward with her beautiful rendition of Diana Ross’s ’Do You Know Where You’re Going To’. Eye Matter Matter’s new sub editor George gave us, ‘The Reason’, by Hoobastank. Our very own ‘queen’ Suzie delivered an unaccompanied version of Queen Latifah’s,‘When You’re Good to Mama’.
The choir reformed once again for Roy Orbison’s ‘You Got It’, before we enjoyed two guitarists; Rikki ensured we had a ‘Lovely Day’, originally performed by Bill Withers and as for Daniel (wow!) ‘Riptide’, by Vance Joy. ‘What a Wonderful World’, (Louis Armstrong was performed by Kevin followed by an original score composed by Mark Pampel, ‘All I Do is Think of You, an Ode to the Piano’.
Accompanied by Thuy, now on guitar, the choir performed two more songs, ‘Wonderful World’ by Sam Cooke before excitedly launching into, ‘Stuck in The Middle with You’ by Stealers Wheel. Rachel (Eye Matter’s choir teacher) and Thuy (our pianist) performed the haunting duet ’Die with a Smile’ (Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars). The Eye Matter Singers regrouped to deliver, ‘For Once in My Life’ by the fabulous Stevie Wonder and ended with ‘Bring Me Sunshine’.
” I feel that Saturday’s concert was the Eye Matter singer’s’ best yet”, said Rachel “after months of rehearsing on Zoom, it was wonderful to come together to sing as a group.There were also terrific solos with a mixture of guitar, piano and backing tracks which made for a joyous, upbeat concert filled with fun from start to finish.”
This summer ten members took part in our Eye Matter Singers concert:
Gheorghe Sarvoc, Carrie Thould, Daniel Griffiths, Amrit Dhaliwal, Jane Sellers, Kevin Pereira, Suzie Simons, Andreas Georgiou, Thuy Mallalieu on the piano and Rachel Bowden Waterson as singing teacher.
Carrie offered her congratulations to Eye Matter, ‘I was so impressed by the sense of friendship and encouragement given to each other within this choir. There were no egos, just a shared camaraderie which made it joy to be part of. I travelled from Gloucestershire to attend my first Eye Matter Singers concert and absolutely loved it.”
“The afternoon was a toe-tapping, sing-along.’ Yet again showing the array of talent within Eye Matter and the fun that can be had.
Suzie agreed, “The concert was amazing. I was told by so many people that this was our best yet. I’m very proud of the Eye Matter Singers and friends, along with our so talented Choir Teacher Rachel.
Our visually impaired choir teacher:
Rachel Bowden Waterson has been our Choir teacher for over a year. All her life she has loved listening to music and singing. Rachel is a tall white woman, wearing a green dress, she has short hair and is smiling.
****Add her video of only her speaking here – as from WhatsApp
How our Shows are created:
This video explains the process involved in teaching visually impaired singers to learn lyrics. Rachel is a tall white woman wearing a green dress, she is standing in the busy room prior to the show. Behind her the choir are chatting excitedly. The first group video shows members of the choir singing ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’. The second group shot is ‘The Heat is On’ where the group are standing and some sitting, in front of the audience with the pianist accompanying them. Rachel continues to explain the different processes involved in organising the concerts and how it enables members to choose to perform solo pieces, such as Andy singing the Elvis classic or Amrit singing ‘Right here waiting’ by Richard Marx.
There will be another opportunity later this year to join the Eye Matter Singers and take part in our Christmas Concert in December.