We were delighted to hold a charity concert in St. Mary’s church last Thursday in aid of the Red Cross. There was a very enthusiastic audience of people on holiday and of course local Red Cross supporters, those people who give up their time for things like this to support their cause but of course give up their time in many other ways. Those local efforts often have a benefit in far flung places to aid people in need from the effect of all sorts of disasters. It would be impossible to count the number of people who owe their lives to these efforts all over the UK and in other parts. Just one of the good causes we help.
The concert featured local musician James Crowney Richards on Saxophone accompanied by Mark Thompson. James is only 17 years old and currently attending Greenhill School but he has been playing Tenor Sax since he was 12 years old.
He recently passed Grade 8 with merit.
He is a very busy musician performing with Greenhill School Wind Band, Jazz Band and Orchestra, the Pembrokeshire County Schools Symphonic Wind Band and Big Band and is a member of local 7 piece function band, Tuxedo Funktion established in 2013.
James performed four pieces being Melody (in search of a musical) by Graham Lyons, Bethena by Scott Joplin,Pastorale by Edward German and The Adagio and the Allegro from Sonata in G minor by J.S. Bach
There is little rest for the choir as two days after that concert we performed in Fishguard at a dinner of the Fishguard Lions where we received a standing ovation from the large audience. Paul Varallo performed four solo songs on the night being Stars, Anfonaf Angel, At Lan y Mor and La Danza by Gioacchino Rossini lyrics by Carlo Pepoli. Paul sang this final number in Italian.
Our busy programme continued on Monday evening with a rehearsal for our 2018 Massed Choirs concert which will take place in 2018 at the Royal Albert Hall and this weekend we will be at an international competitive festival in Cornwall featuring 21 British choirs, six of them from Wales, 8 Overseas choirs from Russia, Germany, Norway, USA, Australia, Czech Republic, Sweden and Finland and no less than 28 Cornish choirs..
This competition has meant us not only practising our singing but also what we refer to as “staging” this being our positioning and the process of assembling and leaving the area where we are to perform. Whilst we don’t take this lightly it has to be said that it has not always been undertaken with military precision or at least if it was I am not sure which army it was based on. Perhaps a clue may be found in the tune which our accompanist Jill Williams often plays which is a World War 2 song featured in Dad’s Army. This at least gives the audience something to smile about.
Our full choir programme for 2017 can be downloaded in printable version from the choir website.
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 as Secretary on anything to do with the choir on 01834 844926.
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