A wonderful, and super joyful evening. Extra special for us as 10 new choir members made their debut concert. Welcome to Andrew S and Andrew W (basses), Ian, Pete P and Pete BG (baritones), Gordon, David and Luke (2nd tenors), and to Wes and Joe. (top tenors). We were so proud of all our members, especially the new recruits. They’ll be 4 more making their debut performances in July!

A huge congratulations to the Singers Collective on their stunning program, everyone was completely blown away by Becky and Ruth’s Flower duet, but such a wonderful selection of solos, duos and whole group pieces, Thank you all… Chris, Mike, Anne, Becky and Ruth, what a talented group you truly are.

The concert came to a close with a set of Les Mis numbers with the combined groups, and an audience singalong of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. Thanks to Tess for these pics from the balcony.

A wonderful, uplifting and thought provoking evening at St. John’s in Penistone. Stories of hope, and light after dark times told on ‘Voices of Hope’ audio recordings. Alongside amazing art, creativity and encouragement. We loved all the ‘Trees of Life’ woven in to the displays. Huge thanks to Mick Rowe and her inspirational ideas. We were thrilled to be able to add some voices in song, We loved a bit of improv gospel “Amazing Grace” with the fabulous Lorna.
We were super grateful to the support from Julie Curtis in accompanying on the piano.
Do take a look at brilliant photography from Kat at Bumblebugs Photography
For more info on the ‘Suicide Sucks’, and their ‘Have you got 8 mins mate’ campaign check out their website https://www.suicidesucks.co.uk/

What a night we had at the Paramount. Old Silkstone Band are so talented, with amazing soloists, especially their horn section and their euphonium player! A special thank you to Norman for working with the band on Great Is Thy Faithfulness, so we could perform it as a joint item!

15 people who have been coming along to our Ready Steady Sing course came along to perform Don’t Fence Me In, and the Drunken Sailor with the choir. For an Encore we performed our Gospel Medley, thanks to Michael B for bringing his bass guitar (and hat!) along!

12 RSSers (at least) have decided to join our choir. It’s been such a brilliant experience for us all ❤️🎵🎉

• Here’s our Drunken Sailor – arranged by our MD Rachel, and performed by us (the choir and RSS), Philip (piano), Matthew (fiddle), Ralph (spoons and harmonica) and Gordon (Irish pipes)

Mulligan’s Muskateers, as requested by founding member Peter Green, losely inspired by American civil war hero Hercules Mulligan, a contemporary of Alexander Hamilton (of Hamilton the musical fame!)

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/hercules-mulligan

We can’t quite believe it’s all over… or is it?

Our last Ready Steady Sing was on Sunday 1st March, St. David’s Day, we warmed up with Calon Lan, and All Through the Night. The breath work, tuning and lyrical lines were incredible.
Philip (our pianist, and professional vocal coach), led us though a session on vocal range, and how to accurately find both higher, and lower notes, with good control, tone and support. We have all learnt so much from his sessions, even the choir members coming along, and our MD, who has been loving the vocal training.

Our MD, Rachel, took a session on conducting, so we can all now conduct, and understand how to follow conducting, in both simple and compound time. Such fun!

We worked hard on the pieces we are singing with the choir at the Paramount on March 21st. Don’t Fence Me In (complete with coconuts!) our MDs arrangement of Drunken Sailor (with our newly formed choir folk band!) and the Gospel Medley. We can’t wait to share with our friends, and family.

We’ve had fantastic feedback on the course, bowled over by how much you’ve all enjoyed it. This Monday, 9th, and next Monday, 16th sees RSS members joining MGMVC at the beginning of the practice to rehearse our joint items.

We can’t say thank you enough to those choir and committee members who made this possible – to Paul P for applying for funding, to Dave A for coordinating the events, to Jon J for all the correspondence, to Di A for tea making and welcomes, to John O’B for being the most fab tech team… and to all the members who came along to make everyone so welcome and support the singing.. and newly formed folk band (Ralph, Matthew and Gordon) what a team ❤️🎶

We’re looking forward to welcoming about 20 new faces to the Institute tonight, as we begin our ‘learn to sing course’! The snow is turned to hideous rain, so pack your brolly… as well as your smile and your singing voice. See you there at 6pm!

Thank you to you all for sharing Christmas with us! 3 super successful concerts – with the Penistone Ladies, with Thurlstone Brass Band and with our friends at the Millhouse Green Institute.

Highlights this year were the super arrangement of ‘Do You hear what I hear?’ for brass and voices, and our own arrangement of Stop the Cavalry for voices and instrumentalists!

We thoroughly enjoyed performing Phil’s Shchedryk arrangement as a whole choir in Ukranian, with violin as traditional accompaniment. There’s been pub carols twice – once after Christmas dinner at the Dog and Partridge, and once at the Blacksmiths in Millhouse. We’ve had a whole host of soloists, duos, group sings (an excellent Gaudete!) and so much fun and laughter. Merry Christmas all 🧑‍🎄 🎄 🌟

A wonderful concert of remembrance. Huge thank you to all our fabulous soloists – the beautiful soprano Ruth Bisby, our own lovely bass William Johnson, and to Emily Atkinson on the flute, and Flynn who came to play the last post for our act of remembrance. A small group from within the choir, sang a beautiful arrangement of ‘The Parting Glass’, a traditional Irish / Scottish melody sung at the parting of friends.

We were led into the act of remembrance by our choir Veteran Richard who read a moving poem, and then the words before the silence. Such a warm and welcoming church.

Thank you to Canon Keith for his kind words and blessing, and to all the church community who provided such amazing refreshments! The baking is always a highlight of our year. Such an important concert in the choir’s calendar.

#wewillrememberthem

Saturday 20th Sept – it’s never rained quite as much in any one day yet this year! So a very fitting day in which to raise money for the church’s much needed new roof. We’d forgotten how fabulous the acoustics were, and how much of a warm welcome we received. So lovely to sing to those in our local community. We’re really looking forward to performing with Penistone ladies on Sat 6th Dec in this church, and again in Oct next year with the Holme Valley Singers

We’re back from the most fabulous choir weekend away!
A few highlights for you –

Thursday 11th Sept: performance of a lunchtime concert in Durham Cathedral to a packed audience. The most wonderful acoustics and very fitting program, including Harbour, Cwm Rhonda, You Raise Me Up, My Lord What a Morning, and our first performance of Arthur Sullivan’s ‘The Long Day Closes’

Friday 12th Sept: Whole choir trip to Beamish, with a flashmob sing in the visitor centre (which our MD and pianist missed… as they were still riding the vintage tram!) Choir social and informal performances, with special guests from Sunderland Male Voice Choir. We gave another first performance, this time of ‘A Field of Gold’ as a special gift to Brenda Hind, in memory of John.

Saturday 13th Sept: An early breakfast before our MD rehearsed us and checked we were performance ready. The coach went back to Durham today, where a group flashmobbed the main square, by the Markets. The Durham Market Facebook page has 13.3k views to date.

Our evening concert was in the fabulous setting of Hartlepool St. Hilda’s, hosted by Hartlepool Male Voice choir and with Sunderland Male Voice Choir as guests too. Huge thanks to the leadership and MD teams from both choirs. We felt super welcome, and loved the performances from all 3 choirs. The joint items were our favourite – Philip, the MD from Sunderland led us through American Trilogy at the end of the first half, and our MD Rachel finished the concert by uniting the 3 choirs with ‘Bring Him Home’ from Les Mis, and Morte Christe.

Huge thank you to the fabulous trip organising team of Paul Pearson and Michael Bond. We can’t wait for next year!