Birmingham 2022
Monday 26th September, 2022 - 11:38amBirmingham 2022
Each
year the choir plan to have a weekend away. This year’s choir trip was
the first since the outbreak of the pandemic and included participating
in the Cornish Federation of Male Choirs’ concert in the Symphony Hall,
Birmingham. This was combined with a separate concert for the choir with
Kidderminster Male Voice Choir. Forty-three members of the choir made
the outbound coach journey of 1st September and the singing started with
a flash mob at Exeter Services to the delight of many customers. A
further stop was made on the M5 north bound, but word of our singing had
beaten the choir to the next stop and we were told that they didn’t
want the choir to sing! Embarrassment of this decision precludes them
from being named, not for our sake but theres!!!
Having
arrived in Birmingham, on the Friday morning, the choir were missing
the water surrounding the village and decided to go for a canal trip
around Birmingham, and sang ‘Calm Is The Sea’. The afternoon was taken
up with travelling to Kidderminster and on arrival treated to a high tea
made by the wives, partners and friends of Kidderminster choir members.
The evening concert took place at St Mary’s and All Saints parish
church to a packed and very appreciative audience. Both choirs came
together at the end to sing Alwyn Humpreys' arrangements of Rogers’ and
Hammerstein’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “An American Trilogy” for
which the audience gave both choirs a standing ovation. The concert was
in aid of Cancer Research UK and raised over £4,000.00. Following the
concert there was a reception afterwards at The King and Castle pub and
restaurant situated on The Severn Valley Steam Railway in the station,
where a welcome supper had been provided. As always, social singing
there ensued and new and old friendships from our previous visit in 2014
were renewed. Malcolm Horwood, the president of Kidderminster MVC
presented the choir with a painting of the choir to our chairman, Jon
Pender. In return Jon presented Kidderminster with a framed water
colour print of Mousehole which had been painted by his great
grandfather, William George.
Saturday
morning dawned bright and warm and a large contingent of the choir
gathered in Centenary Square under the watchful eye of the mechanical
bull, which had featured in this year’s Commonwealth Games, and sang
several pieces of music too many listeners. In the afternoon a rehearsal
took place at the Birmingham Symphony Hall, which is considered to be
one of the finest concert halls in the world, in preparation for the
evening concert. The concert was compered by Daphne Skinnard from BBC
Radio Cornwall and the concert was sung by the combined choir of two
hundred choristers from twenty different Cornish choirs. Four of the
Counties conductors, including our very own Steve Lawry conducted four
pieces of music each. Dave Ceredig-Evans, from Mousehole was the
accompanist when Steve conducted. The concert also included an organ
solo from Jonathan Delbridge and music from the professional soloist
Samantha Rowe, from near Liskeard, who played the flute and sang so
exquisitely, and made a great impression on all of the choir. The
concert was brought to an end with the singing of ‘Trelawny’.
Away
trips like this do not just happen. In particular the choir would like
to pay special thanks to their very own Vance Webster, who organised the
accommodation and transport. This particular away trip was an even
bigger headache for him because of having to deal with the delays caused
by the Covid-19 pandemic which meant two years of changes. Thank you
Vance!
Photograph acknowledgements: Michaela Perry Kay, Tony Howes
