Much Wenlock Male Voice Choir

The choirs first concert of the season is about to take place at the Festival of Imagination in Ironbridge Gorge. The event is a celebration of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, which plays host to a wide programme of events including the choir who will be appearing alongside the award winning Jackfield Brass Band. The venue is the Speigel Tent in Dale End Park (Regatta Field) on Saturday 17th September at 7.30pm; parking is available on the Regatta Field and there is a pre-concert bar available from 6.45pm. Proceeds from the concert will go to Hope House and the Alzheimers Society. For more information on the Festival including tickets head to www.ironbridgefestival.co.uk

This year signalled the return of the festival with a host of events including a performance by the choir in the Marquee on Monday 6th June. It’s three years since the event last took place and wonderful to be back again to entertain on home ground.

It was also great to share the stage with mezzo soprano Bethan Langford, who grew up in Much Wenlock and Piran Legg a Bass-Baritone who orginally hailed from Kent. Both artists performed solo and duet numbers ranging from classical opera aria’s, musicals and some fun comedy pieces. They also combined with the choir to produce what was a very memorable evening of song. Rising stars on the music scene Bethan and Piran have performed in opera’s at home and abroad; if you get a chance to hear either of them at future events don’t miss it….

A big thank you to the organisers of the Festival and to those of you who came along to listen. We hope you enjoyed the evening which ended, appropriately for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, with a rousing Rule Britannia, enhanced by an enthusiastic audience!

The choir held its first ‘live’ AGM since 2019 at the William Brookes School, Much Wenlock on Tuesday 12th April, an event that heralded well deserved recognition for some of its members for their long standing contribution and committment to the choir over many years.

Chairman Dick Langford presented Len Kelly and Mel Bardsley with life membership certificates while Les Pinder was presented with a tankard in recognition of more than 25 years service.

In the votes for committee members Dick Langford continued as the choirs chairman while Robin Padgett was elected as Secretary; the choir and committee wishes to express its thanks for the hard work and dedication of the outgoing Secretary Harry King who has stepped down after 10 years in the post.

The choir’s first concert of the year will be a celebration of the patron saint of Wales, St David. Bridgnorth Rugby Club are hosting a special St David’s day lunch at their Edgar Davies ground in Severn Park on Saturday March 5th (a few days late!) prior to their match against Oundle and the choir has been invited to entertain guests in the impressive marquee. In recognition of the occasion the choir will be singing some Wesh ‘classics’ including Cwm Rhondda (Bread of Heaven), Myfanwy and of course Gwahoddiad together with some regular choir favourites and one or two new pieces.

If you would like to hear the choir ‘at home’ this spring a joing concert with Ludlow Male Voice Choir is due to take place at the William Brookes School, Much Wenlock on Saturday April 2nd at 7.30pm. Tickets for this event are £8.00 and can be obtained from choir members or at ‘Penny Farthing’ in The Square.

The choir turned out to give a Christmas Carol Concert at the Cavalier Centre near Much Wenlock on Sunday 19th December. Songs included the classic ‘White Christmas’ and ‘O Holy Night’ and were well received by the audience who enjoyed the whole event. Manager Rachel Lambert-Jones praised the choir for an “exceptional performance” and it is hoped the choir will be able to return to the venue sometime in the New Year.

The Cavalier Centre is the home of the Perry Riding for the Disabled Group a not for profit organisation founded in 1995 with the aim of improving facilities for disabled young people to enjoy riding ponies and horses. Building the £1.4 million centre commenced in 2015 and it was officially opened by HRH The Princess Royal in 2019.

The choir regret to announce that the Christmas Social due to be held at the William Brookes School on Saturday 18th December at 7.30pm has now been cancelled owing to the ongoing health risks posed by the transmission of the new covid variant. The decision has been reluctantly taken at short notice following a meeting at the School on Tuesday evening to discuss the event. The choir wish to apologise to the many patrons and guests who had tickets for this event which was sold out.

The short carol concert at the Cavalier Centre, Farley on Sunday 19th December will however still be taking place as planned at the present time.

The choir are set to make their first public performance since March 2020 at Much Wenlock Xmas Fayre this coming Saturday 4th December. Always a popular event the Fayre also makes it’s first comeback since 2019 with plenty of entertainment and a wide variety of stalls on hand to offer something for everyone. Check out the Fayre’s website for full details and be sure to come early to catch all the action. The choir will be singing at the Corn Exchange from 1100 – 1200 with a varied programme including some festive favourites!

What a Wonderful World

The choir’s second online production has been released and is ready for you to listen to – in the event that the link doesn’t play the video can also be found on the choirs facebook site. The positive message of this classic song seems a fitting way to look forward as life gathers pace once again and the choir anticipates resumption of it’s rehearsal schedule at the William Brookes School on 7th September. If you enjoy singing why not consider coming to a practice, start time is 7.30pm. Many thanks to our Musical Director Richard Fox for the work on this piece which I think sounds good despite the technical difficulties of ‘distance singing’!

The choir committee and MD have continued working behind the scenes and since our last online offering a plan is afoot to have a stab at recording one of the choirs repertoire songs for your enjoyment. Choristers are practicising the piece and if all goes to plan the individually recorded tracks will be uploaded and merged to form the complete song…more on this as it progresses over the coming weeks.

There is at present no news about when the choir will be able to meet and resume full rehearsals but with the end of many of the restrictions by the middle of next month the prospect of a return to some normality is at last on the horizon….a tentative date of 27th July has been proposed for a get together of choristers and our new MD….

Thanks to much dedicated work from our new MD, Richard Fox,  the choir has met virtually to produce a version of the Gloucester Wassail Song for Christmas, which is available to listen to here, or via the choir’s facebook page or on You Tube.

The Tetbury wassail tradition dates back more than 150 years “In early December for 3 weeks, finishing at Christmas, a band of about 8 farmworkers went wassailing.  They toured round the outlying villages and then finished up with the town, going in pubs and private houses.  The men wore fancy clothes, flowing robes, Arab hats, crowns, and masks, anything to make them look fancy… Their music was an old accordion, mouth organ, bones and triangle and they took with them the wassailing bowl and the Bull’s Head.  The bowl was a large round china washstand bowl with wires round and trimmed with evergreen held by the wires around the edge of the bowl.  This was filled with fruit and sweets – apples, oranges and bananas – to give to the children.

Much Wenlock Wassail