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Holy Trinity Church Choir, The
Croft Senior Choir, The Croft Staff/Parent Choir, Junior Saint James’s Singers
@ The Croft & Saint Mary’s Junior Singers will be teaming up to create a
festival choir of over 140 singers. For many of the eighty or so children
involved, several of whom are from Wellesbourne, this will be their first foray
into singing classical works in four part harmony.
The programme includes a wide variety of classical repertoire, with performances
from soloists and individual choirs too. The Festival Choir will open the
concert with a rousing chorus from Handel’s ‘Messiah’, and later perform a
beautiful, little known mass, composed by Mozart when he was just fifteen years of age.
Professional soloists Jennifer Lau (soprano), Christine Sjolander (mezzo soprano), Martin
Quinn (tenor), and Roderick Williams (baritone), will be there to sing with the
Festival Choir, and to inspire the young people with some Mozart arias. One
ex-pupil of The Croft School, Sophie Kearns, will also have her first
experience of performing Mozart’s ‘Laudate Dominum’, accompanied by the four
soloists.
Tickets for this event are available from Holy Trinity Parish Office (01789 266316),
and The Croft School (01789 293795) at £10 adult/ £5 child.
‘If music be the food of love...’
THE WARWICKSHIRE SINGERS
Saturday 9th July at 7.30pm
St Lawrence’s Church, Oxhill
The serious and the lighter side of food and feasting with music by
Tallis, Victoria, Handel, Bernstein, Rutter and Bratton directed by Oliver Walker with Barbara
Rodway (soprano) Gary Beman (tenor) George Parris (baritone) David King (accompanist)
Admission by programme £10 (children free) or phone 01295 680427 or 01608 661372
Interval refreshments
In aid of stonework restoration of the church
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Stour Singers
On 14 May 2011 Mendelssohn’s
dramatic oratorio Elijah was given an electric performance by Stour
Singers & The Cherwell Orchestra conducted by Richard Emms in St Edmund’s
Church, Shipston-on-Stour. The soloists, Sarah Power (soprano), Sofie Almroth
(mezzo-soprano), Richard Dowling (tenor) made a fine trio alongside the
renowned Welsh operatic baritone, Jeremy Huw Williams in the title role. He
portrayed the Old Testament prophet so vividly he had the capacity audience on
the edge of their seats. Richard Emms galvanized his choir to respond likewise,
transmitting all the emotions of the drama, from despair to serenity, with such
clarity that some experienced visitors in the audience declared this to be the
best Elijah they had ever heard.
Stour Singers’ next concert,
also in St Edmund’s, will be on Saturday 3 December 2011 at 7.30pm featuring
Handel’s Messiah. Rehearsals start at 7.00pm on Thursday 8 September in
the Community Lounge at Shipston High School. New members are always welcome –
no auditions! If you have always wanted to sing or especially to take part in
Handel’s great work, now is your opportunity. Please contact Vic Twyman on Tel:
01451 870361 for further details.
Tickets for Messiah will be £12.50, with accompanied children admitted free.
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“St Peter’s Rocks”
The headline is a quote from a member of the audience at the
recent concert at St Peter’s Church, Wellesbourne, given by Wellesbourne Choral
Society, with a guest appearance by children from Wellesbourne C of E School,
who joined the choir for the second half.
The first half consisted of songs, mostly well-known, with a
particularly moving, unaccompanied version of ‘Kumbayah’ immediately before the
interval. Then it was on to the main event of the evening, ‘Joseph and the
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’. Although written more than 40 years ago, there
is still a modern freshness and tuneful appeal to the work, which was evident
in the enjoyment shown by both the choir and its listeners. The audience
participated enthusiastically when encouraged to clap during one of the songs
and the children stole the show with their version of the hand jive.
At the end of the performance, there was a standing ovation
by many of the audience, who obviously felt that all the hard work put in by
the children, their teachers and the choir had paid off handsomely. With the
well-supported raffle to augment ticket sales, there will be a donation of
about £600 to be split between the two charities, chosen by the children, the
Acorns Children’s Hospice and Dampha Shipman Nursery School in Gambia.
The choir is grateful for the support of local businesses
who, through advertisements in the programme, will have contributed to the
financial success of the concert and also indebted to the vicar and
churchwardens of St Peter’s for their permission to use the church.
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