What an evening! Those of us fortunate enough to be at this event enjoyed a wonderful evening of music presented by SEMVC together with Laura Wright and the Downham Prep School Choir.

 

The Choir gave us a beautifully balanced programme which included powerful pieces such as Amen and Do You Hear The People Sing, the poignant Bring Him Home, the soft and gentle in Autumn Leaves and Embraceable You. The second half included Mustang Sally, and the audience was both amazed and delighted by the very ‘spirited’ performance of one Ross Van de Zande who gave it his all and a bit more.

 

It was a real pleasure to see and hear the Downham Prep School Choir. The children sang songs by Elton John and Bob Dylan and also joined with the SEMVC for four other pieces which included Anthem from Chess and Angels. Their singing was lovely, clear and strong and sung with enjoyment. It is perhaps a measure of their commitment that one little girl appeared wearing a temporary plaster cast having broken her ankle that morning but insisting that she must be at the concert.

 

The icing on the cake was of course Laura Wright. This lovely young lady, with such a beautiful voice, was accompanied by the talented Andrew Moore and gave us a taste of the range of her repertoire performing classical pieces by a number of composers, traditional pieces including The Last Rose of Summer, for her grandmother who was in the audience, and more modern pieces such as The Girl From Ipanema. She also joined with SEMVC to sing the Sanctus from the St Cecilia Mass by Gounod.

 

Laura, who is an Ambassador for the Nordoff Robbins charity, presented a short video of the work carried out by Nordoff Robbins and finished the evening by joining the SEMVC to sing The Rose.

 

A lovely concert and a wonderful evening which raised £1,500 for the charity.

 

M Driscoll