{"id":1280,"date":"2017-07-13T18:08:53","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T18:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/?p=1280"},"modified":"2017-07-13T18:08:53","modified_gmt":"2017-07-13T18:08:53","slug":"blog-july-13th-the-portsmouth-university-gospel-choir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=1280","title":{"rendered":"Blog July 13th \u201cThe Portsmouth University Gospel Choir\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Final Battle: Kiss From A Rose with Seal - Pitch Battle: Episode 4 - BBC\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2Xp3n7IhbY4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_25391-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_25391-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_25391-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_25391-624x468.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><br \/>\nPortsmouth Uni Gospel Choir after a Risen! rehearsal<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1282\" src=\"http:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_25441-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_25441-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_25441-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/IMG_25441-624x468.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><br \/>\nPortsmouth Uni Gospel Choir with London Touring Cast<\/p>\n<p>Well I am not sure if you saw on Saturday, July 8th the fantastic Portsmouth University Gospel Choir on BBC 1s \u201cPitch Battle\u201d with judges that included Gareth Malone and Seal but if you did not then I strongly suggest you watch on I Player http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/iplayer\/episode\/b08yb0pj\/pitch-battle-series-1-episode-4\u201d because they were absolutely brilliant. The clip featured today shows them being chosen by Seal after their rendition of \u201cKissed By A Rose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One reason was I was so very pleased with their success is that I knew most of the choir including their leader, Heavilyn Sarpong as they had sang with the London Touring Cast in the first production of Risen! The Musical at the New Theatre Royal.<\/p>\n<p>They deserve every possible success as they are such lovely people. I will never forget how welcoming they were when I first went to their rehearsals for Risen! and how hard they all worked. I remember so well almost being in tears when I first heard them sing \u201cJesus Oh, Oh\u201d a clip of which I will try and post next week. I also treasure the friendships they fostered with the London Touring Cast and how moving it was when they prayed for the cast with us all in a circle on the stage of the New Theatre Royal just before the first performance.<\/p>\n<p>Afterwards I could not get the Gospel Choir out of their dressing room as they were all singing \u201cJesus Is My Lord\u201d at the top of their voices. I am sure one of the reasons why Seal chose them as winners of that \u201cPitch Battle\u201d episode and why they will continue to do well is because they convey such love and joy. Although the cameras quickly switched when some of them got down on their knees to thank God &#8211; their obvious love of Jesus just shone through- although the performances of the others in the programme were excellent they just could not match the Portsmouth University Gospel Choir\u2019s exuberance which I believe was Spirit led.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Portsmouth Uni Gospel Choir after a Risen! rehearsal Portsmouth Uni Gospel Choir with London Touring Cast Well I am not sure if you saw on Saturday, July 8th the fantastic Portsmouth University Gospel Choir on BBC 1s \u201cPitch Battle\u201d with judges that included Gareth Malone and Seal but if you did not then I strongly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-shearsmiths-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1284,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions\/1284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}