The School of Medicine’s performing arts society, Artefacts, performed a spectacular Christmas carol concert, showcasing their singing talent whilst getting us in the festive spirit.
In a candlelit St Margaret of Antioch church, the Artefacts choir delighted the audience with a beautiful variety of carols, along with some special pieces from their recent annual variety show. Following a great amount of hard work and practice, they definitely got the festive season off to a wonderful start.
This year, Artefacts members Matthew Heneghan and Hannah Anderson were tasked with the roles of choir directors and, along with fellow choir members and piano player Ciara Merriman, clocked up a large amount of rehearsal hours!
Matthew and Hannah reflect on the evening, the preparation involved and what’s coming up next for Artefacts.
Preparing for the carol concert
“A lot more preparation went into the carol concert than I had initially imagined- as much as I enjoyed the show, I'm very glad that I'm not going into events as a career! From risk assessments that focussed on mulled wine to printing half the amazon rainforest in sheet music, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes.
I can't complain, though, at how much we enjoyed rehearsing with the choir.
"No matter what kind of day you'd had on placement, you could always rely on somebody in the choir to make your evening."
I have to say as well that, as much as I am biased, there are some amazing singers this year too, so to have the opportunity to conduct this fabulous group of people was one that I won't ever take for granted! I will certainly miss our choir rehearsals on a Monday!
Choosing songs for the evening
We sang such a variety of pieces in the carol concert - it really was a great festive mix! We also sang pieces from our recent annual variety show in November so, for the grinches in the audience, it wasn't all about Christmas! From our variety show performance, we sang 'Seasons of Love', 'What About Us', 'A Million Dreams' and 'Seal Lullaby'.
We couldn't do a carol concert without some of the classics: ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’, ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ and ‘The First Nowell’, to name but a few. It was lovely to perform a couple of sectional pieces where we had the Tenors and Basses sing 'Misty Mountains' and Altos sing 'Parting Glass'. Rhyanna Morris kindly organised a 5th Year Choir performance, to mark our very last Christmas show with the medical school. For this, we performed 'Somewhere Only We Know', and it was one of my personal highlights from the evening.
Highlights of the evening
‘O Holy Night’ is one of my all-time favourite Christmas pieces, so to have the opportunity to sing this in the beautiful church setting was amazing and (I hope) beautiful to listen to! The fifth-year piece, 'Somewhere Only We Know' was such a special piece to be involved with too!
The choir is made up of about 30 members, all of whom performed at the Carol Concert.
“We are so lucky to have such a variety of students in the choir, ranging from those just starting out in their first year of medicine, right up to those in their 5th year.”
A special shout out goes to our amazing soloists- Katie Murray (5th Year), Anna Turnbull (5th Year), Erin Jenson (5th Year) and Chinonso Nzewuji (2nd Year)!
Being part of Artefacts
My favourite part of Artefacts has remained the same right from when I started in my first year of university, right up until now in my 6th year- it’s the opportunity to make friends with people across the year groups, to come together having fun and putting on a show!
“Nothing quite beats the feeling of getting that final round of applause at a performance after putting on a great show with your friends, which you have spent months practising for! It certainly makes for a great way to socialise and relax outside of placement and allows us to keep doing the hobbies we love the most.”
I love spending time with people who I don’t normally see on placement, and especially those who are in different years to me. Making friends across different year groups has always been important, and in my first few years I was lucky enough to get so much good advice from those in the older years. It is lovely to now get to do the same for those who are just starting to come up through medical school.
Matthew Heneghan, Ciara Merriman and Hannah Anderson show off their festive jumpers!
Coming up next from Artefacts
From the 15th-17th of February, Artefacts will be putting on Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ It is bound to be a fantastic show, featuring all your favourite Disney songs, such as ‘Be Our Guest’, ‘Gaston’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and many more.
Both the Artefacts Band and Cast have already started rehearsing and will continue working after the Christmas holidays to create an unforgettable show. Be sure to keep an eye out for tickets, we can’t wait to see as many of you there as possible - it’s going to be the best Artefacts’ musical yet!”
Discover More
- Keep up to date with what’s coming up for Artefacts via their Instagram page (link)