A true festive feast to savour
SPEEDY Jodie Ounsley has been selected to represent Team GB at the world’s biggest deaf games.
Jodie will compete in the 100m and 200m at the Deaflympics 2017, held in Turkey, Performance: Venue: Review by: AVE room for pudding!
Well, this fantastic feast of Yorkshire-inspired music left no space for ‘afters’!
Under the direction of Alexander Douglas, The Huddersfield Singers served us a packed programme of Yorkshire flavoured carols in a concert compered by Leeds’ own maestro Simon Lindley.
The choir excelled when all voice parts sang together, whether in unison or harmony. Diction was always crisp and the blend sounded fairly well balanced with secure tuning.
Carols which exemplified this high standard of ensemble singing included O Come, O Come Emmanuel (by York musician Andrew Carter), How Far is it to Bethlehem (arranged by Simon Lindley) and the Huddersfield repertoire, the Meltham and Colne Valley Carols.
I was pleased to see this choir continue to pursue challenging choral music, throwing caution to the wind in their attack of the syncopations in Hodie Christus Natus Est (arr. Andrew Carter). They accurately executed the angular melodies and contemporary harmonies in Can I not syng but hoy? (by York’s famous organist Francis Jackson CBE).
However, some of the pieces which required exposition of individual choir sections were slightly too ambitious for the forces at hand. There was the odd shaky moment, as in The Earth Has Grown Old (by Huddersfield’s Sir Edward Bairstow).
The tenors and basses soldiered on remarkably well throughout a demanding programme, and what they lacked in number they more than made up for in spirit!
We heard several accomplished solos, of which the tenor solo by Andrew Coote in Jacob’s Ladder (Leeds) and the unaccompanied soprano solo by Catherine Styring in An ode of the birth of our saviour (Wakefield) were memorable.
Simon’s two Christmassy organ solos spiced the airwaves and young for squad selection.
Jodie is the daughter of Insp Phil Ounsley from Kirklees Police and his wife Jo, who runs a luxury cat hotel.
Jodie took up rugby after spending two frustrating years unable to participate in sport because of a knee complaint called Osgood Schlatter disease. received rapturous applause.
Delightful to hear the The Clifton Handbell Ringers who brought eight players and 140 bells of all sizes, to entertain us, and that they most certainly did!
We were mesmerized by their Yorkshire style of hand bell playing, as they reached forward to their own set of bells and with utmost
Fortunately, medical advice to completely rest the knee has worked for a sports-mad girl who had previously been crowned junior world coal carrying champion on four occasions.
You can sponsor her at www.gofundme.com/ jodies-deaflympic-dream. precision led us through music ranging from Christmas favourites, such as Walking in the Air (Blake), to classics such as Troika (Prokofiev) which brought the house down!
An enjoyable evening of music from ‘God’s own country’ which closed with a vote of thanks from Mrs Susan Wilkinson, the choir’s new president.