Photos by Colleen Gauntlett
On a typically sunny, early Summer evening on Saturday 27th June the choir made its second appearance of the day (previously at Caldicot Town Centre prior to the Bardic procession) at the small Caerwent Parish Church of St. Stephen’s to help raise funds for the building restoration.
The choir has sung at this church on many occasions to full houses of some one hundred and this was no exception. Conducted by Siân Hatton and Shirley Anne James and accompanied on piano by John Nicholson and Stephen Berry, the choir of about sixty choristers, squeezed into a small space in front of the altar to present the audience with a mixture of Welsh hymns such as Llef, Gwahoddiad and Llanfair and the Welsh song O Gymru (with Tommy Hole as soloist).
The presentation also included My Fair Lady favourite ‘On the Street Where you Live!’; a song from the Steven Spielberg animated film An American Tail – ‘Somewhere Out There’; spiritual ‘Ride the Chariot’ with Siân Hatton and David Gould as soloists, ‘Rhythm of Life’; the Les Misérables hit ‘Bring Him Home’; ‘Anthem’ from the musical Chess and Elvis song ‘Can’t help falling in love with you’. The choir also performed for the first time for many years, ‘What would I do without my music’ written originally by Harry Middlebrooks and Bruce Belland. Finally, the choir closed with the all time favourite Morte Criste (When I survey the Wond’rous Cross) jointly accompanied by Stephen on the church organ and John on piano. It certainly moved the seagulls from the roof!
The evening of delightful music included two very talented soloists; Elliot Kempton a 15 year old violinist from Chepstow who skilfully played ‘Meditation (“Thais”)’ by Massanet followed by ‘Czadas’ in part two. Flautist Sarah Bufton thrilled us all by playing ‘Suite in A minor’ by Teleman followed by ‘Idyllle’ (2nd movement from Suite de Trois Morceaux) by Benjamin Godard. The two then performed a wonderful duet of ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me’ arranged by Emlyn Powell who also accompanied both artistes throughout their performances.. Sarah is originally from New Mexico and Pennsylvania in the USA before moving to Caerwent with her husband who hails from Magor.
There is no doubt that as usual our evening of choral and instrumental music provided Caerwent with another night to remember and we look forward to performing there again.