As we return to rehearsals after our summer break, here is a review of everything we achieved this year. What a fantastic year it was indeed!
The Choir made a winning start to the year by following up our Best Male Choir award at Bath Choral Festival, winning not one, not two, but three more awards at the Bangor International Choral Festival in Northern Ireland.
Next up was Cheltenham Festival later – can we keep our winning run going?
Remembering Christine Williams
On 14th June we came together with several local musical groups to celebrate the life of our dearly loved former Accompanist Christine – who passed away after a sudden illness earlier this year.
Christine’s love of music was infectious, and there was no better way to remember her than coming together to enjoy a wonderful evening of music from all those who were inspired in their own musical journey.
Summer concert
Over 200 came to hear our multi-award winning male choir this summer. We were joined by Barry Male Voice Choir from South Wales for our main ‘home’ concert of the year.
Off with a Bang(or)!
We had a fantastic tour to Northern Ireland – our first since lockdown, and a wonderful opportunity not just for winning competitions and making new contacts, but making and deepening friendships with each other.
Our weekend started with a stroll around the lovely marina and town of Bangor, before taking top billing at the Welcome concert, where we were stirred and wowed by a variety of choirs – and where new acquaintances were made, which we hope will lead to future shared concert opportunities.
On Saturday lunchtime we entered the Male Voice class and were delighted to take first place. We followed this up in the afternoon by performing in the Sacred Music class, where we competed against female, male and mixed choirs from across the United Kingdom, and against some very stiff competition we were thrilled to be awarded first place again.
Later that evening when collecting our trophies we were elated to receive a third trophy for best visiting choir. A truly stunning hat-trick for the boys.
That evening we let our hair down and enjoyed a wonderful afterglow thanks to our in-house accordionist Syd and the Di Voice Women’s choir!
Here’s a few photos showing just some of the things we got up to..
Beautiful Bath Music Festival
We kicked off the year in style as we won the male voice choir competition and came runners-up in the sacred music class in the emotive setting of Saint Swithin’s Church.
This was a very useful warm-up for both our Bangor tour and Cheltenham competitions, particularly as this was a first ever competition for 14 of our newer choristers!
Coming up…
Next up was the Cheltenham Festival of Performing Arts on May 18th, following which we were honoured to have been asked to perform at the remembrance service commemorating 80 years since D-Day on 6 June.
After our own Summer concert we finished the summer off with singing with the brilliant Jubilate choir in Harrow on 6 July – we were really looking forward to singing with these fabulous ladies again – both during the concert and in the inevitable afterglow!
Yes, we are certainly making up for lost time over those lockdown years… and long may it continue!
