Well its here again, the end of another summer
season. Thirty concerts in all and a lot of charity funds raised. There is a
definite feeling amongst the choir that we have reached a new level this year
particularly towards the end. This is backed up up by our MD “Wilbur” Williams
who has been uncharacteristically complimentary of late. I’m sure it won’t last
but it’s nice while it does.
Both concerts this week were of the highest
quality. After the Giltar concert on Tuesday 27th September “Wilbur”
was quoted as saying “that was possibly chorally the best Giltar in memory. I
certainly believe it to be the best in my personal decade with the boys.”
Soloists on the night were Peter Neate with Danny
Boy, Eric Mullins with "If I were a rich man." and a mammoth session
of stand up comedy from Eddie Stapleton.
Then on Thursday 29th September at a
packed Arts Festival concert the best compliment of all was the almost
universal standing ovation and demands for an encore. I feel sure that the few
people not standing were not doing so because of their inability to do that
easily. Delight was evident on the faces of members of the audience. It can be
hard work sometimes going over difficult parts of a song when we are learning
it or practising it but evenings like that make it all worthwhile. Of course
our performances are immensely enhanced by the beautiful piano accompaniment of
Jill “No Relation” Williams. They say that children should be seen but never
heard but in Jill’s case she very much heard but hardly ever seen.
The only remaining founder member of the choir is
Tom Pearce and that means he has been with the choir for over 40 years but he
has lost none of his enthusiasm or singing quality. He often performs a solo of
“My Little Welsh Home” but this time he also sang two other solos with the
lovely John Denver song “Annie’s song” and Panis Angelicus.
Annie’s song is said to have been written in
about 10 minutes by John Denver on a ski lift in the Aspen
mountains in Colorado as an ode
to his wife at the time Annie Martel Denver. Panis Angelicus which is Latin for
“The Bread of Angels” no doubt took longer than 10 minutes when written by
Saint Thomas Aquinas.
For the second interval spot we had something
completely different with a trumpet solo by Fred Smith who played the Trumpet
Concerto in E flat major. 1st movement. by Joseph Haydn. Fred tells me this is
his real name and not just a deeply thought out stage name!! It has a definite
“Bert Weedon” ring about it and we all remember him. Don’t we?
Fred is a 17 year old student at Ysgol Greenhill
Having started trumpet aged 7 he has been playing trumpet for over 10 years and
has just recently achieved his Grade 8. In addition to solo playing, he is an
active member of numerous County Ensembles
The choir has a really interesting and information packed
website. If you haven’t visited it at www.tenbymalechoir.org
then it’s really worth a visit. Amongst other things there are videos of the
choir. These videos are all live so they may not always be our best performance
but they are still enjoyable. Webmaster
David Stewart-Walvin keeps the website bang up to date with news, photos, the
choir blog and absolutely anything you need to know about the choir. If you’ve
enjoyed a concert there is also a guestbook where you can put your comments and
read what others think. David also maintains a choir Facebook page.
He can be contacted on anything to do with the choir on
01834 844926.
