Choirs Raise £3200 for Charity

his week Christian Aid will received £3200 towards an important project in Burkina Faso, West Africa. The proceeds of a charity concert, plus support from an EU initiative, are a major contribution to this worthwhile cause.

The concert, which took place at Trinity Methodists Church in Bury St. Edmunds on Saturday evening, was a great success. Singing to a full house, the two choirs offered a thoroughly entertaining and very diverse programme. The St. Edmundsbury Male Voice Choir opened the evening’s entertainment with a selection of songs from the traditional ‘Welsh Male Voice’ repertoire. Under the assured direction of Mark Jefferson, the choir produced a performance strong in tone and emotion which delighted the audience. As the evening progressed they were able to demonstrate a wonderful range of songs in different styles; Soloist David Sadler giving show stopping performances in ‘The African Trilogy’ and ‘Turtle Dove’. The choir’s rapport with the audience is evident and a light, intimate atmosphere prevailed for the entire concert.

The Horbury Singers, a ladies choir from Yorkshire, were the guests for the evening and they played their full part in this excellent concert. Their programme contained a selection of popular, well known songs, enabling them to engage with audience from the very start. Particularly well received were ‘All That Jazz’ from the musical ‘ Chicago’ and a wonderful arrangement of Dusty Springfield’s ‘You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me’. Cynthia Cotton directed her choir with confidence and obvious enjoyment.

The evening concluded with both choirs joining forces to great effect – over 100 voices singing together. The audience showed their appreciation with long and heartfelt applause, drawing a memorable evening, which raised so much for charity, to a close.

Stephen Cook

Mayor presents cheque for £1000 to SEMVC

 

t. Edmundsbury Mayor, Bob Cockle, has presented the choir with a cheque for £1000. This follows a friendship between the mayor and the choir with both parties working hard to promote the town both at home and abroad.

Stephen (Vice-Chairman) and Elena Cook receive the cheque from the mayor

 

 

 

St. Edmundsbury Male Voice Choir gain a place at Laulupidu 2009 - Estonian Song Festival

he Estonian Song Festival (Estonian: laulupidu) is an event which takes place in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, every five years in the month of July. The last song festival was in 2004, the next festival will be in 2009. Nowadays those festivals are held on The Tallinn Song Festival Grounds.

The tradition of the song festival was born along with Estonian national awakening. The first national song festival was held in Tartu in the summer of 1869. One of the organizers of the first song festival was Johann Voldemar Jannsen. In the first three festivals only men's choirs and brass orchestras participated. 822 singers and 56 brass players participated in the first festival. Starting with the fourth festival, mixed choirs were also participating. Starting with the sixth festival in 1896, the festival tradition moved to Tallinn.

In 1947, due to Soviet rule, strict restrictions were set on repertoire. Because of the inclusion of children's and boys' choirs the total number of participants rose to 25 000-30 000 people. Dance nights started in 1947 became predecessors of later National Dance Festivals accompanying the song festival.

Not many visitor choirs are asked to join the massed choirs at the festival and we are extremely privileged to be taking part.

Click here for more details of Laulupidu 2009

John Ottley to star in Children In Need Carol Concert 2008

ohn Ottley, as well as being our Deputy Conductor and Chief Accompanist, is also a receptionist at BBC Suffolk. As he was our accompanist at last year's Children In Need Carol Concert, he can now claim the honour of being the only person apart from the presenters to appear in more than one of our Christmas concerts. John will accompany the audience carols and this will be the first time Radio Suffolk will have an organ solo in the concert. Also taking a lead role in the Carol Concert this year are Pluck and Squeeze -traditional folk band, The Abbott Consort of Singers, Four Voices, Close Harmony and St. James Middle School Choir.

The Magic of Male Voice

n Saturday 25th October, St. Edmundsbury joins with Wigston Male Voice Choir and Dore Male Voice Choir in Magic of Male Voice, a concert of Massed Male Voices. The concert takes place in the Temple Speech Room of Rugby School at 7pm. Dore and Wigston Male Voice Choirs have a special relationship. The special comradeship enjoyed by the two choirs began in the early 1990’s when Dore became part of the successful, biannual series of Anglo-Welsh MVC Charity Concerts organized and hosted by Wigston. The concert series began in the late 1980’s continuing through until its final concert in 2003; bringing together male voice choirs from the Midlands & North of England and Wales. The concerts were held in the Leicester De- Montfort Hall and raised in the region of £100,000 for various charities. Dore and Wigston choirs have competed against each other in several well known competitions - these occasions have reinforced the bond of fellowship and mutual respect for the dedication to, and quality of, the choral music both choirs share. This unique fellowship continues to develop. The choirs have combined to participate in joint concert tours in Cyprus (twice!), Belgium, Jersey and Germany. During their time together individual choristers and their families have formed personal friendships and meet regularly to enjoy their mutual interest in music and other pursuits such as walking in the Peak District and family holidays in the UK and abroad.The choirs share a mutual open invitation to attend each other’s concerts and social occasions where their members continue to enjoy each other’s company. Dore and Wigston Choirs are truly 'Comrades In Arms' and St. Edmundsbury are delighted and honoured to have been asked to join them on their special evening.

Click here to listen to the concert

20th Anniversary Golden Ale

ed Rat Craft Brewery was founded in October 2007 and in a very short space of time they have won many prestigious awards including finalists in the Sainsbury’s Beer Competition. As a brewery based near Bury St. Edmunds we had no problems in their brewing our own 20th Anniversary Beer! The company have already won many major prizes! Why not buy a bottle!

 

 

 

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Joint Estonian Concert - 3rd August 2008

hen the Estonians gave me the medallion from their choir, I feel I was receiving it on everybody's behalf, as this was a typical SEMVC event where all the members of the choir family were working hard and doing their part to ensure success. An incredible team effort! Words are utterly inadequate to thank you all for all the hard work, effort and energy that made this weekend so successful. I know people were drawing upon rarely touched sources of inner energy, but hope that you feel that everything was worthwhile. I particularly want to thank the steering group, the hosting families, the SEMVC committee and especially the Ladies group, whose steady work underpinned everything.......but there were additionally a lot of people, unsung heroes, who were willing to agree to take on responsibility for something, come in for specific tasks, or who were looking for things needing doing, and quietly sorted it. We certainly gave our guests an immeasurable amount of pleasure. They were absolutely bowled over by the friendliness they received, and commented on both the way they had been received by those of us having the privilege to welcome them into our homes, but also the feeling of togetherness across the whole choir, thinking it particularly nice having lunch together at the Atheneaum. They loved our town and our music!

 

 

Michael Akehurst.

Breast Cancer Awareness

aritone,Terry Mills, is urging men to check themselves for breast cancer after he found a cancerous lump. Terry said that whilst men knew to check for prostate and testicular cancer, it was easy for them to forget that they, like women, can also get breast cancer. After being featured in the Daily Mail, Terry and the choir appeared on television to raise awareness.

 

Click here to view the TV report on Terry and the choir

Cheque handed over to Papworth and Addenbrookes

Bury Free Press 13th August 2008

wo musical choirs came together in Bury St Edmunds to raise more than £3,000 for a number of charities and celebrate two landmark anniversaries of making music.St Edmundsbury Male Voice Choir was formed in 1988 initially to help raise money for rebuilding the fire-hit Howard Middle School, while the Male Voice Choir of the Estonian Academy of Sciences is celebrating its 50th anniversary year. The two performed to more than 600 people in St Mary's Church, with a range of classical, religious, folk and contemporary music and raised money for this year's St Edmundsbury mayoral charities. These are the West Suffolk Voluntary Association for the Blind, the local branch of the Royal National Institute for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People, Haverhill Food Bank and the St Edmundsbury Male Voice Choir. During the concert, the Bury choir also presented cheques of £1,600 each to Papworth Hospital and Addenbrooke's Hospital. This was raised from its last charity concert. The two choirs will come together again in Tallinn next July at Estonia's National Song Festival, where the Bury choir will represent St Edmundsbury. It is the first overseas male voice choir invited to take part in the weekend festival, which is staged before an audience of 300,000 every four years.

Click here to download the programme from the concert