Recent Concert Reports

There was a fantastic concert in Churchdown Community Centre on Saturday September 27 when the choir welcomed the Wotton and District Silver Band in an event in support of Sue Ryder Care. The Band's musical director Dennis Grant led the band in a variety of pieces that showed to full effect the musicianship and artistry of the players. Particularly impressive was a Gavin Somerset composition Albion Treasures that wove several British folk songs together in a fascinating way. The band has some fine soloists and two of them were on display. Alan Bruton played the euphonium solo in Jeanie with the light brown hair and Jon Woodman played the flugel horn in the beautiful I don't know how to love him by Lloyd Webber. The band was in excellent form throughout and their enthusiasm and sheer joy of playing transmitted itself to the large audience.

The choir was also on top form. Under the brilliant conducting of its Assistant MD Ralph Barnes, favourites such as a Cole Porter Medley and Bohemian Rhapsody and new songs such as Sing for your life were given a new sparkle. Two of the choir's soloists also made appearances. Baritone Malcolm Webb sang the humorous song The Spaniard that blighted my life and tenor Jeff Bourton performed songs from his recent CD recording, including Over the Rainbow.

For the finale, Ralph Barnes conducted band and choir in a rousing performance of The March of the Peers from Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe. The final song had the band, the choir and the audience joining in with You'll never walk alone.

In his vote of thanks, the choir chairman Andrew Chalmers presented a choir plaque to Dennis Grant and a pair of cuff-links to first tenor Colin Acton, who has now served over 40 years with the choir. Colin was on the committee for many years and now he and his wife Janet are in charge of ticket selling for the many concerts that the choir performs throughout the year. Janet is also a loyal and keen supporter of the choir and has for many years been the Chair of the Ladies' Committee.

As a result of this splendid evening around £930 will be going to Sue Ryder Care.

A tribute in song was paid to the late John Sanders in a lively concert in Upton Bishop, Ross-on-Wye by Churchdown Male Voice Choir and soloist Sue Black. Until his retirement in 1994, John had been organist at Gloucester Cathedral for 27 years, taking over from his friend and mentor Herbert Sumsion. Retirement gave him more time to pursue musical composition and arranging as well as exploring the countryside with his wife Janet. He also moved away from Gloucester to Upton Bishop, where he would occasionally play the organ in the local parish church.

The concert was organised in support of St John the Baptist Tower Appeal Fund and a full audience appreciated the mixture of songs that the choir brought. The singers responded well to the brilliant conducting of their young Musical Director Ralph Barnes. With pianist Pam Taverner at the piano he led them through songs from the shows, the musical stage and traditional male voice repertoire. A medley of songs from Paint your Wagon was particularly exciting, as was the song Sing for your life. In a complete change of mood, the choir sang the lovely She by Charles Aznavour and Lily of the Valley, which has a special poignancy for the choir as it was one of the favourite songs of a dear member Charlie Roberts, who died this year at the age of 56.

The choir sang a John Sanders arrangement of Brisk Young Widow, an old folk song from the Cecil Sharp collection, which tells the story of a widow who spurns the advances of a farmer in favour of a sooty collier. The song had been especially arranged for the choir by John Blenkinsopp, its principal Musical Director.

Compere Barry Woods introduced the soloist, Sue Black as the choir's favourite soprano, in fact everyone's favourite! In the first half she sang a duet with Ralph Barnes of The Prayer, made famous by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli and two songs by Elgar. In the second half she performed the song cycle Heart meets Heart by John Sanders, a setting of 5 poems by Roland Pepper, a friend of the family. On a beautiful summer's evening, the Millenium Hall was the perfect setting for this lovely music.

When the Cornish Pasty met the Gloucester Sausage

There was a glorious concert on Saturday 12th when Churchdown Male Voice hosted a Cornish choir, the Launceston Male Voice Choir. The guests were on a four day visit to the county and as well as the concert would sing at Wells Cathedral on their way home.

The connection with Launceston choir came about when the Churchdown choir toured the west country some years ago and also because Chris Hitchings, a former member of Churchdown Male Voice Choir and his wife, Rose have now been living on the Cornwall/Devon border for two years. Chris is now a member of the Cornish choir and he and Rose travelled with the party to visit his old friends.

A capacity crowd in Churchdown Community Centre appreciated the unique sound of the Cornish choir with its soft and rounded vowel sounds. The host choir began the programme with Jubilate, a song set to the words of psalm 100 and then followed with a medley of songs from the musical Paint your wagon. The Launceston choir opened its programme with African Prayer, which is based on the South African national anthem and followed that with Pokarekare Ana, a Maori love song which the choir had picked up on its visit to New Zealand some years ago. The choir's final song in the first half was Proper Job by Goff Richards. Compere Barry Woods explained that Proper Job in Cornwall means 'that's OK, that's right'. And there were references to Cornish delicacies, such as nicey (lardy cake) and saffe, which is a sweet bun.

In the second half the Churchdown choir sang two pieces, All in the April evening and The Lost chord, and the Launceston choir sang, amongst others, The Floral Dance with a solo by Brian Jennings and The Newquay Fisherman's song. Finally the two choirs combined for spirited performances of The Rhythm of Life, She and Morte Criste.

There were also performances by two Churchdown soloists. Ralph Barnes sang Linden Lea by Vaughan Williams and Anthem from the musical 'Chess'. Jeff Bourton sang three songs, It had to be you, Elvis Presley's You are always on my mind, and the Andrea Bocelli hit I believe. Pianist Pam Taverner announced to the audience that she and Jeff had recently made a CD of a group of songs which has been entitled A Century of Songs, and which is now on sale.

In an exchange of gifts at the end of the concert the choir chairman Andrew Chalmers presented the visiting choir's chairman, Brian Jennings with a City of Gloucester Plate with views of Gloucester. In turn, Brian presented the choir with a brilliant cartoon in water-colour by Rose Hitchings. The cartoon featured their conductor John Beare presenting a Cornish pasty to John Blenkinsopp who is offering a Gloucester sausage in return.

The concert was in support of the Churchdown branch of the British Heart Foundation and raised over £1400 for the charity. Leader of the branch Pearl Stokes made a vote of thanks to the choir and, in particular, to those people who had given so generously to the raffle, for which there were 60 prizes.