On a gloriously sunny Saturday evening, some 50 members of the choir wended their way northwards through the verdant Wye Valley to the ancient town of Monmouth, gateway to Wales and the birthplace of Henry V and Charles Rolls. Our destination was, once again, the historic St Mary’s Priory church, splendidly adorned with its recently refurbished, elegant 14th century spire to help the small but very active Monmouth Lions Club raise funds to support local charities, in particular the Attic Youth Organisation.
As the high vaulted roof of the church lent itself to superb acoustic surroundings, the choir skilfully demonstrated its wide musical talents to a supportive audience of about 150 with a varied montage of genres from classic Welsh hymns, Llanfair and Tydi a Rhoddaist, romantic folk song, Lleucu Llwyd, the Queen hits Bohemian Rhapsody and Find Me Somebody to Love, melodic yet haunting African Trilogy, Anthem from the musical Chess, film scores Can You Feel the Love Tonight from the Lion King and Somewhere Out There from An American Tale, a Cole Porter medley, our interpretation of West Life’s You Raise Me Up and finalising with the wonderful music expounding the glories of Wales, O Gymru in which baritone Tom Hole sung the solo verse.
Siân not only conducted the choir superbly in her unique, versatile style but also expressed her wide vocal skills by singing solo parts of African Trilogy, Can You Feel the Love Tonight and the rock style of Find Me Somebody to Love. This choir is fortunate to have the musical talents of Assistant Musical Director, Shirley Ann James at hand to lead us in these and our Welsh items which enables us to perform a concert with such a varied content. We must not forget the huge keyboard talents and stamina of accompanist Stephen Berry who played for us tirelessly throughout the entire programme.
The expected solo artist, tenor Paul Badley, had to defer to the extraordinary singing talents of his wife Angela Kazimierzuk for whom he expertly accompanied publicly for the first time on the piano. Soprano Angela interspersed the choir’s performance by treating us all to a range of light operatic music including Lascio Chio Pianga by Handel, Mozart’s Ridente la Calma and showtime hits of Can’t help lovin’ that man of mine by Jerome Kern and that all time favourite, George Gershwin classic Summertime from the musical Porgy and Bess.
Following a rousing ovation from a delighted audience and the comments from Angela, the audience and Lions’ organisers Peter Davies, Tim Warmington-Gardner, Brian Ramsay and Paul Badley that the choir sound was ‘superb, professional, entertaining and wonderfully varied’, the choir finalised the evening by making the short walk down the road to be hosted by Monmouth Conservative Club for a well deserved feast of ale and sandwiches.
Many thanks to Steve from the Lions for taking the photos in the church.
Lyn