It was just another Friday evening in December – or was it? The interior of St. Pol-de-Leon Church was beautifully lit with long streamers of lights, augmented by lines of candle chandeliers. Multiple tiers of staging, empty for now, faced the body of the church, the members of Mousehole Male Voice Choir were gathering in the hall across the road and members of the audience were taking their seats inside the church with happy expectation writ large on their faces. You could feel it in the air – this would be good! Amongst the audience we were delighted to see Bridget and Robin Fairlie, our new friends from the Sherborne RNLI branch.

Moments after 7.30pm Annette Turton played the introduction to “Come and Hear the News” and the choir started to file in, singing as they came. This song consists of six sections, each with its own tune and words but all sung simultaneously – eventually. The first group enter, singing alone, then the second follow behind and add their part and so on until the complicated whole is filling the church as the choir, around 72 strong this evening, took their places in front of our musical director Stephen Lawry.

The next item was the first of five carols where the choir was joined by the whole audience: “Angels From The Realms Of Glory” and this was followed by the first reading, read by Reg Osborne taken from Luke chapter 2.

We then had two more pieces from the choir: “The Angels’ Song” and “While Shepherds Watched” followed by the second reading, also from Luke chapter 2, read by Assistant M.D, David Williams. 

The next two numbers were from the choir were “In the Beginning” and “Hark What Music Fills Creation”, the latter being conducted by David Williams and sung unaccompanied.

The second community carol was “Hark the Glad Sound!” All of the congregational carols were accompanied by Dean Hayward on the organ. Dean comes down from Kent to take part in our Christmas concerts and we are indebted to him.

Next on stage were twins Jenna and Morwenna Matthews, better known as “Twin Harmony”. They were accompanied by David Ceredig-Evans on guitar for their first piece which was a combination of two songs: “What Child Is This” and “Child of The Poor”. David then moved to the piano to accompany the second piece “O Holy Night” which I thought to be the finest rendition of this song that I have ever heard and all the more amazing as Jenna was still recovering from one of the seasonal illnesses currently doing the rounds. Well done ladies, we are truly blessed to have you as our friends.

The choir returned with “See Amid the Winter’s Snow” followed by “The First Noel with Pachelbel’s Canon” in which David Ceredig-Evans joined Annette 
Turton in a piano duet to accompany this beautiful piece.

The third congregational carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” was followed by two more from the choir, firstly “A Tiny Little Baby” and then “The Three Kings”, an unusual piece in which the 70+ voices of the choir sang one song while talented soloist Graham Warren sang something completely different. Graham’s task was extremely difficult but performed magnificently. Well done Graham!

The third reading from Matthew chapter 2 was read by the multi-talented David Ceredig-Evans who then returned to the piano to accompany Twin Harmony in their second set of two songs “Mary, Did You Know” and “Christmas Medley” , 

The fourth congregational carol was “Come and Join the Celebration” followed by “We Three Kings” and “Coventry Carol” from the choir.

The fourth reading “Not So Very Merry” by Linda Cooper was read by our musical director Stephen Lawry and this was followed by a short address from choir chairman Brett Farmer in which he told us about the two charities benefiting from the proceeds of the concert. The first is the neo-natal unit at Royal Cornwall Hospital Treliske, the other is a mental health charity “Man Down”. Both are hugely deserving and worthy of every bit of support from us all. We learned later that the revenues from ticket sales, augmented by a retiring bucket collection had enabled us to donate £2,000 to each of the charities.

No Christmas event would be complete without an appearance by Santa and so Kevin Jones donned the traditional outfit to distribute gifts to the music team and to our guests. I’m not saying that Kevin IS Santa but you never see them both in the room at the same time. I leave you to make up your own minds!

The choir then performed their last two pieces “Sweet Chiming Bells” and “Ding Dong Merrily On High”.

All good things end and the concert concluded with a final congregational carol “Once In Royal David’s City”.

Our grateful thanks go to (in no particular order):

Stephen Lawry. Stephen is our tireless musical director but also wears many other hats, under one of which he arranged no fewer than five of the pieces we sang tonight.

David Williams. David is assistant MD but behind the scenes is also our treasurer and a big contributor to the choir’s IT department.

Annette Turton. Annette is our principal accompanist who makes a difficult job look easy.

Dean Hayward. Dean was the organist for this and other concerts. Dean is from Kent and we appreciate not only his skill but also the effort involved in coming down to play for us.

David Ceredig-Evans. The multi-talented David is our assistant accompanist and for this concert not only joined Annette in playing for us but also provided accompaniment on keyboard and guitar for Twin Harmony.

Twin Harmony. Twins Jenna and Morwenna Matthews have an amazing talent and are highly regarded by everyone in the choir. We always look forwards to occasions when they join us. 

Our readers: Reg Osborne, David Williams, David Ceredig-Evans and Stephen Lawry

Church authorities for allowing us to hold our concert in this lovely church.

Our wonderful audience. We really appreciate your enthusiastic applause and participation. Tickets for this concert were sold out in less than a week, which says it all really.

King’s Arms and Morrab Studio for help with ticket sales.

Wild Associates Ltd for programme and poster design and production.

June Stevens. June keeps the music stand in order for Annette.

Our lovely and hard-working Ladies’ Committee for their help and support throughout the year.

This was the first Christmas concert since 1949 when Derek Harvey was not part of the choir. He is greatly missed.

Looking forwards, we are always pleased to welcome new members and there is no better time of year than this to join us as we put away old music and start to learn new pieces. We rehearse in Paul Church every Monday evening from 7.30. Every rehearsal is an open rehearsal and anyone is free to come along and listen to part or all of any practice. 

Finally, if you would like to follow us online, we are easy to find on many social media platforms.

Happy New Year for 2025 to you all.