Male Voice Choir’s gala concert is a resounding success

BY ANY reasonable measure the Gala Concert, given by Loughborough Male Voice Choir at Hodson Hall must be considered a resounding success.

The choir, under the baton of their musical director Chris Hill, performed a varied programme to an almost full house that included the Mayor of Charnwood Coun Pauline Ranson and her husband Trevor Ranson. Loughborough Male Voice Choir was ably supported by the Loughborough Concert Band and the Burton Consort.

The concert was organised to celebrate the choir’s fifty years of music making and, as part of this celebration, their lyric Tenor Lyndon Gardner, accompanied at the piano by Mr Anthony Wilson, performed a song cycle based on three poems of Oscar Wilde set to music by the choir’s founder the late George Towers.

Among the audience were many former members of the Choir and, to bring the first half of the concert to a close, they were invited to join the current choir in a performance of the hymn Gwahoddiad.

These days there are no members of the original line-up of 1967 still singing with the choir, however, John Holt joined in 1969 and is therefore the longest serving singer; a fact that was acknowledged on this special evening by conferring upon him lifetime membership.

The mayor was prevailed upon to make this presentation. The fine soprano voice of Caroline Sharpe further delighted the audience with songs by George Gershwin and Jerome Kern. After the interval she performed the much loved song from Les Misérables ‘I dreamed a dream’.

The whole proceedings were ably navigat- ed by Loughborough Male Voice Choir’s Master of Ceremonies Gerry Brennan.

Gerry’s easy and humorous style guided the entertainment to the grand finale which was a rendition of ‘World in Union.’ The evening’s soprano and tenor soloists joined the Choir and the young men of the Burton Consort in this splendid adaptation of Gustav Holst’s ‘Bringer of Jollity’ made famous by the Rugby World Cup.

The power of the piece was reinforced by the sensitive playing of the Loughborough Concert Band. Loughborough Male Voice Choir is a registered charity and supports needy causes whenever it can. Part of the proceeds of this highly successful concert will go to Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young people.