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Female voice choir based in Sonning |
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Christmas Concert—13th December 2008 On Saturday 13th December, Bel Canto Chorus performed to a 200 strong audience at St Peters Church in Earley. They sang carols including ‘We Three Ships’ in four parts, and a spine tingling ‘There Is No Rose’ by Benjamin Britten. The audience participated with great enthusiasm to the congregational carols, where the top sopranos did a magnificent job with the descant parts. The special guests, St Peters school choir sang with gusto and performed well. The concert ended with a festive ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ by John Rutter.
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Inaugural Concert—14th July 2008 We held our first concert after only eleven rehearsals. The concert was well attended by family, friends and visitors across Reading, Sonning, Woodley, Charvil and from as far away as Somerset!
We looked splendid with our uniforms and buttonholes and took delivery of our music folders just in time. As well as singing we also had time for a quick photo call for the local paper.
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Summer Concert—18th July 2009
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Nicky Jerrome, our musical director was presented with a beautiful bouquet and gift from the choir as thanks for all the hard work she has put in since the choir started in March 2008. Our organist, Graham Iles accompanied the choir brilliantly on piano and organ. The audience and choir enjoyed mince pies and wine to finish a festive and successful concert. |
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Christmas Concert—12th December 2009
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Christmas at Reading Minster — 10th December 2009
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Concerts |
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Nicky Jerrome Nicky achieved her BA(Hons) in Music at the University of Bristol. She runs a busy teaching practice, teaching piano, singing and music theory and she works as an accompanist; all of this she juggles with looking after her young family.
Nicky has undertaken conducting courses with the Sing For Pleasure organisation. She has been involved in choirs since childhood, as a singer, accompanist and now a conductor.
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Previous Musical Director |
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On the 13th December, the choir had their Christmas Meal at the Shurlock Inn, and delighted fellow diners and staff with ‘Winter Wonderland’ ‘White Christmas’ and ‘Let it Snow’. A very good time was had by all, again Nicky was thanked for all her hard work and for getting the choir to the standard we are today with her talent and humour. She accepted very generous gifts of vouchers and a spa day experience, and she thanked the committee and all in the choir for making her first experience as a choir director such a good one. We hope Nicky will be back with the choir sometime in the future either as an accompanist and/or a soprano! |
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Bel Canto Chorus performed their Summer Serenade for an English Summers evening, to a sell out audience on the 18th July in the sumptuous surroundings of the Main Hall at the Wokingham Town Hall . The choir performed a variety of pieces, starting off with a rousing madrigal of ‘How Merrily We Live’ by Michael East. This was followed by other classical pieces by Elgar, Faure, Brahms and Holst. The choir sang a lovely arrangement of Mozart’s ‘Laudaute Dominum’ to a very appreciative audience. The Bel Canto Chorus Chamber choir sang two folk songs arranged by their musical director Nicky Jerrome, and three challenging madrigals by 16th Century composers. To vary the type of music performed, a wind quintet lead by Jacquie Champion, a member of the choir, performed ‘Petite Suite’ by Debussy and in a flute trio, a Tchaikovsky piece. The concert was rounded off by beautifully sung ‘The Lord Bless You And Keep You’ by John Rutter. The choir were rightly very proud of their performance and was much enjoyed by the audience. |
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Our Christmas Concert held at Earley St. Peters Church on Dec 12th 2009 was ‘our best yet’ according to some members of the audience. We achieved an audience of 250, exceeding last year.
The choir opened the concert with a rousing ‘Angels from the Realms of Glory’ followed by a congregational Hark the Herald, which our Sopranos accompanied with a superb descant as they did with all the congregational carols. We performed 2 non Christmas pieces, ‘Tantum Ergo’ by Faure and an audience favourite Laudate Dominum by Mozart. Gabriels Message, Coventry Carol, Silent Night, Personent Hodie, are just a sample of the Christmas music performed.
The Chamber choir sang, ‘See amid the winters snow’ and ‘In Dulci Jubilo’.
Our special guests were the Dolphin School Choir who sang brilliantly, conducted by Jacquie Champion, Bel Canto Chorus’s secretary and choir member.
The closing pieces were arranged by Nicky Jerrome, our Musical Director, they were Merry Christmas, ‘Let it Snow’ and ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’, which were loudly appreciated by the audience.
We were accompanied by our fantastic organist, Graham Iles, father of one of the choir members and Mary Westley on the piano.
After the concert, the choir and congregation partook in festive nibbles and a glass of wine, which ended a successful year for Bel Canto Chorus.
Next Christmas, we will again be at Earley St Peters on the 11th December. |
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The choir were delighted to be invited to sing and direct the music of the Reading Single Homeless Project Christmas concert on Dec 10th 2009 at the Reading Minster. It was a high profile event which attracted 600 audience and was covered by local papers and TV. BBC1 ‘Rogue Traders’ and ‘ Watchdog’ presenter Matt Allwright, led the festive readings by reading Tom Krauses poem ‘A Christmas Lesson’. Actress Linda Thornson from Emmerdale also gave a reading. Other distinguished guests were Lord & Lady Carnarvon, the Mayors of Reading and Wokingham and the High Sherriff of Berkshire.
Bel Canto Chorus sang Gabriel’s Message, Lute Book Lullaby and Angels from the Realms of Glory, all arranged by John Rutter.
The excellent Abbey Girls choir sang ‘The Holly & the Ivy’ and the ‘Sussex Carol’, and there were also festive contributions from the Englefield School Recorder ensemble.
Bel Canto Chorus were proud to be part of an event which raised £5,000 towards providing shelter, employment, education and training for those that have fallen on hard times in the Reading area. |