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For tickets for any of our concerts, to book the Wedding Choir, or to book the choir
for your event, contact our concert secretary, Ros Meehan, on 07862 736766
Saturday 14th July - 7.30pm in the Hall of
St Hugh of Lincoln & St John's Church, 314 Manchester Road, Timperley, Altrincham WA14 5NB, we performed
a light summer concert, on a lovely sunny summer evening. We were privileged to have part of the St Hugh
Primary school choir - there were only 9 of them, but they sang enthusiastically and well. We started with John
Rutter's "Look at the world", then the children sat down, and listened to us for a while. But it
wasn't long before they were back up again, and taking the lead in the Howard Goodall "The Lord Is My Shepherd",
which was used as the theme tune to the TV series "The Vicar Of Dibley". At the end, the children sang
the "For Ever" lines, the last one being taken by one solo girl - there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
Follow that, as they say! So we did, with 4 nursery rhymes, which seemed to amuse the children! Abigail
Whitfield from the church community played the Elgar violin piece "Chanson de matin", accompanied on
the piano by Rosamund Meehan, and in the second half, played the "Chanson de nuit". It was
lovely to hear the notes of this as dusk fell, on a beautiful summer evening. We finished off with some rousing spirituals,
and with audience participation in "Down By The Riverside". The concert was held in aid of the St Francis
Trust, which provides care and shelter for vulnerable children in South Africa, and raised almost £450 for
that very worthy cause.
Saturday 16th June - we took part in a
Gala Concert at the Victoria Hall in Bolton, in aid of ACT, which encourages & supports community theatre.
We were royally entertained by the Operetta Company from Farnworth, with songs from the Desert Song. The Pennine
Quintet continued the royal theme with the arrival of the Queen of Sheba, and some piano quintet music. Ad Lib productions
gave us the Monty Python "Argument" sketch, and the "Four Candles" Two Ronnies sketch, amongst
other. Ladybridge Singers sang some lovely reflective pieces, and sang a Romanian carol - in Romanian! The Greater
Northern Folk Ensemble had us tapping our feet, especially to the Rochdale Coconut dance. New Rosemere gave us
some well oloved Gilbert & Sullivan, including Three Little Maids. The Brixi Singers sang 4 pieces, including
Exsultate Justi, and the White Cliffs of Dover. But for me, the highlight was the 2 sets of the Dawn Dawson
Academy Theatre School. Those youngsters have way too much energy - I was exhausted just watching them. I was
amazed when one of the girls threw herself at one of the lads, and he caught her high in the air, a la Dirty Dancing,
and held her up - breathtaking. Then he whizzed her round by wrist & ankle. But we managed to top it in the
finale, as the massed choirs, musicians, and dancers joined together in the chorus from Les Miserables - "Do
You Hear The people Sing?" - Bolton certainly did, that night!
Saturday 9th June - 7.30pm, in Christ Church
WEST Didsbury. The Brixi Singers have performed here before, and so enjoyed the experience, that we wanted
to return, and luckily they let us! The concert took place on a lovely sunny evening, and was focused around
Jonathon Dove's "The Passing of the Year". This setting of seven poems in 2000 make up 3 movements.
The first looks forward to summer (don't we all!) - the second follows the passing of summer, and the third movement
considers autumn, and ends in winter, on New Year's Eve. The song cycle is dedicated to Jonathon Dove's
mother "who died too young". We also performed a piece written by our MD, Rory Johnston, O Lux
Beatissima", and a piece written by a fellow student of his, Credo Quod Redemptor. Other items included
Fayrfax's "O Lux Beata Trinitas", Thomas Weekes' "Hosanna to the Son of David", OTallis'
"O Sacrum Convivium", and John Ireland's "The Hills". Some beautiful Renaissance music complemented
by some beautiful modern pieces., in a wonderful setting.
Sunday 28th January 2018 - in the Bolton Central Library Lecture Theatre,
we presented the Holocaust Cantata, to mark the international Holocaust Memorial Day. There was
no charge for this event. Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27 January each year. It’s a time for everyone
to pause to remember the millions of people who have been murdered or whose lives have been changed beyond recognition during
the Holocaust, Nazi persecution, and in subsequent genocides
in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. On Holocaust Memorial Day,
we honour the survivors of these regimes and challenge ourselves to use the lessons of their experience to inform our
lives today. 27 January marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest
Nazi death camp. The Holocaust
Cantata, written by Donald McCullough in 1998, is an emotional, musical journey through one of the bleakest episodes
in human history. Working from translations of original Polish materials found in the archives of the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and starting with just a single line of melody, McCullough fashioned a
haunting choral tribute to the 6 million Jews who were systematically persecuted and murdered as well as to the
millions of other individuals the Nazi Party classified as “undesirables,” including Poles, Romanian gypsies,
homosexuals, transsexuals, political opponents, religious dissidents, the mentally ill and the physically disabled. What
emerges from the insanity of one of history’s worst examples of man’s inhumanity to man is a sense of music’s
life-affirming powers. The Cantata moved us all deeply, and we were grateful for
the appreciation of the audience, and also for the use of the Hall.
Christmas 2017 - we
performed two Christmas concerts, the first at St Brendan's Church in Harwood, where we sang carols,
and parts of the Christmas music from the Messiah. The second concert was at Rivington Church, where we again
sang carols both old and new. At both concerts, the audience joined in enthusiastically with the old favourite
carols, and the Christmas spirit was alive and well!
| St Brendan's Church |
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| Rivington Church |
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