News of TMVC Events

FOOTNOTE

The concert at Cheadle Community Arts Centre on 13th April was chiefly memorable for three things. First of these was the sing­ing of Carrie Ann Williams, a fourth year student at Birm­ing­ham Con­serv­atoire and a supremely accomp­lished young lady with the voice of an angel. She sang a thought­fully con­struc­ted pro­gramme of con­trast­ing pieces with great auth­ority and assur­ance and elic­ited rap­tur­ous app­lause from a de­lighted aud­ience. Tides­well Male Voice Choir has a rep­uta­tion for en­courag­ing young per­form­ers, and pro­vid­ing oppor­tunit­ies for them to per­form and ex­hibit their tal­ent. Carrie Ann Williams is a more than worthy add­ition to the con­stell­ation of young solo­ists, such as Erin Alex­ander, Char­lotte Hoather and Matt­hew Mellor, they have had the pleas­ure of shar­ing the con­cert plat­form with.

The second thing which made this an evening to remember was the singing of the justly acc­laimed Tides­well Male Voice Choir. Resp­lend­ent in their hand­some must­ard coloured jack­ets, they treated us to a demon­strat­ion of re­fined choral sing­ing which fully just­ified the in­vitat­ion which the mayor and coun­cil of Cheadle had ex­ten­ded to them, to at­tend this con­cert in aid of The Mac­millan Nurses charity.

The third thing for which this concert will be remembered was an un­fort­unate in­cid­ent in­volv­ing a foot and a very heavy key­board. The foot was att­ached to a limb of TMVC’s prin­cipal ac­com­pan­ist, Chris­topher Ellis, and the keyboard was being carr­ied to its sta­tion a little before the con­cert start by him­self and musi­cal dir­ector Den­nis Kay. These two gentle­men be­ing per­haps un­skilled or in­exper­ienced in man­ual hand­ling, let the in­stru­ment drop and its des­cent was inter­rup­ted by Chris­topher’s toe – re­sult­ing in the frac­ture of that ap­pend­age! What to do? The irre­press­ible Chris­topher, not­with­stand­ing a good deal of e­xcruciat­ing pain, con­tin­ued with the con­cert, his band­aged toe rest­ing on a stool and his per­form­ance seem­ing so little affec­ted as to be in­dis­tin­guish­able from his usual mag­nif­ic­ent self. A later visit to A&E confirmed that he had sus­tained quite a seri­ous in­jury to his toe, but the latest news is that he is making an ex­cell­ent re­cov­ery.

It is per­haps worth a men­tion, al­though maestro Den­nis Kay did not thank me for re­mind­ing him, that the beau­ti­ful church of Saint Giles stands but a little re­moved from the scene of this mis­hap. Saint Giles, it will be re­mem­bered, is the pat­ron saint of cripples!

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A DOUBLE HELPING

For those fortunate persons who attended the first concert of the season by TMVC on the evening of 7th April, it was a case of “buy one, get one free”, because the Peak District’s famous choir shared the concert at The Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton, with their guests from the east of England: the Huntingdon Male Voice Choir.

The concert opened (appropriately) with Let All Men Sing from the ninety voices of the two choirs under the baton of HMVC’s distinguished musical director, Peter Davies.

So these two fine choirs took their turns on the stage, Huntingdon with its unashamedly traditional approach and Tideswell with a more contemporary programme. Audience reaction to both ensembles was sufficient testimony to the enduring popularity of this unique genre of choral singing.

It is interesting to reflect on the changes in repertoire and indeed in audience expectations in recent years, and on how TMVC has responded to these trends. While other choirs ex­cavate their libraries for dog-eared copies of old warhorses such as Martyrs of the Arena and Comrades in Arms (not that these are undeserving of occasional performance), TMVC are delighting audiences with their interpretation of contemporary popular pieces and bringing the uniquely beautiful male-voice-choir sound to a new and appreciative generation.

The programme was punctuated with scintillating performances from guest soloists Erin Alexander and Matthew Mellor. Erin is a glittering talent; her slight but elegant figure belies the vocal power she is capable of generating. Her versatility was demonstrated in The Girl in 14G, where she astonished us with an awesome range of vocal styles from Broadway musical, moody cabaret, Mozartian coloratura, grand Italian Opera and Wagnerian helden-soprano.

Matthew Mellor is another of those talents which streak across the show-business firmament like a shooting-star; they seem to come upon us “ready made”. He entertained us with two large-scale solos from recent show hits: I Wont Send Roses from “Mack and Mabel” and This is the Moment from “Jeckyll and Hyde”. He sings with passion and conviction; a comparison with Michael Ball would not be too extravagant

The duets by these two prodigiously talented teenagers were achingly beautiful.

In the second half, Christopher Ellis (Principal accompanist to TMVC and a a much-sought-after concert pianist), gave performances of Rachmaninov’s Etude Tableaux op 39 No.1 and an unpublished sketch by Gershwin: For Lily Pons. Two contrasting pieces, the latter a rarity, performed with consummate virtuosity.

Before the final item, the President of TMVC, Edwina (there is only one Edwina), made an eloquent and witty address in which she reminded potential and hesitant gentlemen in the audience that they would be welcomed into the community of The Tideswell Male Voice Choir if they turned up to their rehearsals and decided to stay.

Matthew made his choir-conducting debut as TMVC’s musical director Dennis Kay reaffirmed his superb vocal credentials in a moving performance of Bring Him Home.

The evening came to a tumultuous climax with all performers joining in the stirring Do You Hear the People Sing, which naturally elicited a demand for an encore. A fitting finale to a superb musical experience.

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TMVC to appear at the ancient Manor House, Gawsworth Hall, Macclesfield, Cheshire

Don’t miss the opportunity to listen to TMVC as they present an evening of music from the musicals, in the spectacular setting of Gawsworth Hall, Macclesfield, Cheshire.

Picture the scene: a glorious evening in August, an open-air thousand-seat theatre, set in the glorious floodlit gardens of this ancient Manor House with all its romance and charm, listening to the songs from the musicals brought to you by the award-winning Tideswell Male Voice Choir and featuring some of the country’s leading young talent.

If you love Musical Theatre and the songs from them, in particular Les Miserables, you won’t want to miss this.

For further details, visit gawsworthhall@btinternet,com or telephone 01260 223456

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TOGETHER – Tideswell Male Voice Choir with The Military Wives’ Choir

Sunday 7th October at Buxton Opera House was an evening of un­alloyed excel­lence.

The occasion was the long-anticipated concert by Tideswell Male Voice Choir (TMVC), The Mil­itary Wives and guest solo­ists. A sell-out since it was first adver­tised in April, there was not a seat to be had in the 900-capac­ity aud­itor­ium, such are the repu­tation and pop­ular­ity of these fine en­sem­bles and artistes.

This was not the only opportunity the public had of hearing the Military Wives that week­end, for they sang with local school­children and TMVC at Bux­ton Foot­ball Ground on the Sat­urday before.

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With thanks to our Poet Choreate, to coin a phrase.

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In a truly splendid display of Buxton hospitality, the Military Wives were enter­tained and ac­com­modated through­out by the gen­eros­ity of local bus­ines­ses: Tarmac, Markovitz, The Palace Hotel, Lomas Dis­trib­ution and Holds­worth Chocolates.

Those fortunate enough to have obtained the precious tickets to the Opera House were treated to a suc­cess­ion of per­fect pieces from both en­sembles, punctu­ated with su­perb per­form­ances by solo­ists Erin Alex­ander and Phil Rigley. The demure figure of TV’s Charles Foster wel­comed us to the show and linked the vari­ous items seam­lessly with his enter­tain­ing wit.

The Military Wives, now something of a national treasure, brought their own brand of heart-warming enter­tain­ment to the pro­ceed­ings. They are vis­ually de­light­ful and voc­ally su­perb and we are never far away from re­mind­ing our­selves who they are and what they rep­resent, which gives added poig­nancy to their per­form­ance. Not that they don’t know how to enjoy them­selves, as evid­enced by their spir­ited ren­der­ing of A. Lloyd Weber’s Sing. Their per­form­ance of their sig­nature tune Wher­ever You Are was heart­felt and mov­ing. And when they ming­led with TMVC in the joint item You’ll Never Walk Alone, which opened the show, the effect was awesome.

Tideswell Male Voice Choir were on scintillating form – not least in their breath­less (and hum­orous) inter­preta­tion of Drun­ken Sailor and a vis­ceral per­for­mance of Anthem from the mus­ical Chess.

In the right hands, a male voice choir is a magnificent instrument, cap­able of great power but also great subtlety. Mus­ical Direc­tor Den­nis Kay is the man who has brought this won­der­ful en­semble to the per­fec­tion it ach­ieved this even­ing. With seem­ingly bound­less energy, he also con­duc­ted every piece by the “Wives”

Erin Alexander is a vocal prodigy. At eighteen years old (astonishingly!) It is dif­ficult to see how her voice can fur­ther im­prove since it has ar­rived at a level of matur­ity and sonor­ity which give her the abil­ity to de­liver am­bitious pieces such as Un Bel Di Vedremo (One Fine Day) and Air Des Bijoux (The Jewel Song). She sings with con­vinc­ing auth­ority and with an eleg­ance and grace of move­ment which are pe­rfectly choreo­graphed with the mood of the lyrics. Her voice is never less than beaut­iful – we shall hear more of Erin Alexander.

Phil Rigley – another teenager – stepped for­ward from the ranks of TMVC to de­light us with Tell My Father in his pre­cocious but manly bar­itone. Phil joined Erin in the touch­ing duet Come What May and they were joined by the “Wives” and TMVC in a mag­nif­icent fin­ale which brought the aud­ience to its feet and made a fitt­ing cli­max to this mem­orable Show. At its con­clusion, Edwina Currie, TMVC’s pres­ident, gave the thanks and ack­now­ledge­ments, fill­ing the house with her in­imit­able per­son­ality and charm.

This was a magical evening – a celebration of music and the power of the human voice to elicit the en­tire spec­trum of emo­tions in the list­ener. But there was a matrix to all this rev­erie and that was the play­ing by TMVC’s prin­cipal accom­pan­ist Chris­topher Ellis. I am al­ready at risk of adjec­tival exhaus­tion, so I will say no more than that this extraordinary young man’s contribution was, in every respect, “perfect”.             – TME

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Concert with Abbeydale Singers

When two widely acclaimed, talented and enthusiastic ensembles come together in the same programme, you have the formula for an exciting and entertaining concert. Such was the case on Saturday 22nd September in the superb gothic setting of St John the Baptist Church (the “Cathedral of the Peak”) in Tideswell, when Tideswell Male Voice Choir were joined by their guests the Abbeydale Singers on the occasion of their special Annual Concert. TMVC were of course on home ground while the Abbeydale Singers, a mixed ensemble of some 30 singers, had travelled from the Fulwood district of Sheffield.

Tideswell MVC opened the concert with their top tenors: exposed, alone, but relaxed and confident in the opening first verse of You’ll Never Walk Alone, to be joined in harmony by the entire fifty-strong choir in a second verse which would have thrilled the hearts of Liverpool FC supporters everywhere! They continued the opening section with arrangements of familiar pieces, each performed with feeling and energy, and quickly established a palpable rapport with the highly appreciative audience.

Vocal diffidence is a quality unknown to Abbeydale’s musical director, Kevin Haighton; in his animated preamble to each piece, he delivered as many syllables per second as a Bakewell auctioneer on market day; all of it however, interesting, informative and germane.

There could not have been a greater contrast between Abbeydale’s first offering: Thomas de Luis Victoria’s O Quam Gloriosum and the arrangement of Bohemian Rhapsody from TMVC which preceded it. Both were excellent in their own way. The Victoria beautifully performed and evoking an authentic contemplative mystical feeling even further enhanced by the surroundings of gothic stonework tracery and the magnificent Hunstone wood carvings ... and TMVC’s Bohemian Rhapsody? Well, it was simply – rhapsodic!

Abbeydale treated the audience to a historical exploration of religious choral masterpieces in a thoughtfully constructed programme finishing their first selection almost up to date, with Durufleé’s Notre Père.

This is a fine choir, with a well balanced ensemble – each section assuming responsibility for its own contribution and never over-singing and eclipsing neighbouring parts. All the pieces were sung a capella, in contrast to TMVC who had the benefit of Christopher Ellis’s masterly accompaniment.

The “Men” were doubtless conscious of performing to their own dedicated Tideswell followers and inspired by the larger-than-life personality of maestro Dennis Kay. They gave a superb second half, provoking not a few tears in poignant renderings of He Ain’t Heavy, He’s my Brother and Two Little Boys. Nineteen-year-old Phil Rigley (baritone) was equally poignant in his moving interpretation of My Father. We wish him well as he leaves TMVC for a while and embarks on his Oxford University studentship.

There was more than a hint of sea breeze around the venerable masonry of St John the Baptist church as Abbeydale delivered their final selection. Bobby Shaftoe made more than one appearance, and there were a risqué Mermaid (or rather a Mermai-id) and an intoxicating arrangement of Drunken Sailor, all sung with nautical panache.

The audience demanded more and Abbeydale metamorphosed themselves into authentic early instruments such as crumphorns and sackbuts and whatever other improbable antiques might have featured in the piece by Henry VIII which they chose to delight us with.

TMVC’s president, Edwina Currie (that doyenne of the after-occasion speech), rounded off the end of the evening with an effusive thank-you to all concerned. Well, not quite the end, as there was much exchange of Yorkshire and Derbyshire musical “wisdom” in the nearby George Hotel until late that memorable night.

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Sounds Sensational

As a music critic, my task in reviewing the concert which took place at Daneside Theatre Congleton on the evening of 28th August would have been easier if there had been any imperfections to draw attention to; but there were none! And no wonder, with two superb “turns” on the bill: Tideswell Male Voice Choir with guest soloist Erin Alexander.

TMVC is rapidly increasing its reputation as one of the best ensembles of the genre, largely due to the exacting standards expected of it by musical director Dennis Kay. A concert by them nowadays is always going to be special. So while one member of the audience may have been disappointed – a critic with nothing to carp about – the rest were certainly not.

Erin Alexander was undoubtedly the star of the show.

Erin’s slight but elegant figure and girlish charm belie the formidable talent which this eighteen-year-old soprano can summon. The voice is versatile and capable of mature sonorities astonishing in one so youthful. She has a disarming ability to engage and develop a rapport with an audience – relaxed and confident and with a stamina that is enviable, she entertained us with a succession of beautifully presented songs to increasingly enthusiastic response from a delighted auditorium.

Equally at home with demanding songs by Andrew Lloyd Weber or Krieger’s Dream Girls, she demonstrated another side to her (usually classical) singing personality. As if this were not enough, each song was accompanied with breathtaking virtuosity by Christopher Ellis (TMVC’s principal accompanist) on the electronic keyboard.

Tideswell Male Voice Choir (those extraordinary “men in black”) were on superb form this evening – as if if inspired by Erin’s flawless performance, they were not to be found wanting. They delivered a succession of highly entertaining and contrasting pieces including new repertoire (Sloop John B and Two Little Boys – yes, that one!) which left us in no doubt that we were in the presence of a choir which – as their new magazine asserts – is “Going Places”.

Erin was not the only soloist; maestro Dennis Kay in the absence of his two regular “John Valjeans” from the ranks of the choir, established his vocal credentials by performing Bring Him Home from Les Miserables with great beauty and feeling.

Then from the baritones, nineteen-year-old Phil Rigley stepped forward to join Erin in a lovely and deeply affecting performance of Baerwald’s Come What May. Phil had already impressed us with his manly baritone in a heartfelt performance of Tell my Father in spite of the “red badge of courage” he was wearing – a heavily bandaged left hand, crushed in a recent farm accident.

I may have been frustrated by my lack of anything less than perfect to criticise, but I have to concede, I have never before made my way through a foyer at the end of a show, overhearing so many expressions of appreciation at an evening's performance.

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Glittering Talent at Romiley!

Tideswell Male Voice Choir don’t do concerts; they do experiences – and the evening of Saturday 18th August at Romiley Forum Theatre was one such memorable experience. The choir also has a reputation for providing opportunities for emerging talented singers to experiment and punctuate the choir’s performance with displays of their own vocal virtuosity in front of a live audience. The talented singer on this occasion was eighteen-year-old Charlotte Hoather from Winsford.

Every now and then, but rarely, one comes across someone who leaves you with the abiding impression that you have been in the presence of a very special talent. Charlotte had this effect on a packed audience that evening. Her singing was of a quality and maturity beyond her years and done with an assurance which comes from knowing that what you are about to deliver is nothing less than sublime. The voice is big, but versatile, as she demonstrated in the several contrasting pieces which she performed, each set with a change of stunning and appropriate costumes, ranging from sartorially elegant evening gowns to dazzling sequined glitz for the brash “Show” numbers and (memorably) a cowboy outfit for The Deadwood Stage with obligato whistling accompaniment from the choir! Each song was performed with conviction and sincerity of feeling; indeed, her ability to assume the persona of each character whether serious or frivolous was positively protean. And all this to an accompaniment from Christopher Ellis who, conscious of contributing to a stunning performance, rose to mephistophelian heights of virtuosity.

And the choir? Well they gave their usual brilliant heart-warming entertainment under the mischievous direction of maestro Dennis Kay. Oh, and our president Edwina Currie (never at a loss for words) gave a charmingly witty presentation, complete with a very cute curtsy from her grand-daughter Zoe.

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Annual Concert 2012

Our Annual Concert was a great success at Tideswell Parish Church on the 28th. Our guests were Cor Aber­gwaun, a mixed-voice choir from Fish­guard, who gave us some lovely songs, in­clud­ing sev­eral Welsh pieces of course. Our own per­form­ance was among our best-ever too, with Drun­ken Sailor and Bohem­ian Rhap­sody go­ing down par­tic­ularly well. Our two joint pieces with Cor Aber­gwaun went well too, espec­ially the fin­ale, Af­rican Tril­ogy. One lady wrote after­wards to say we’d re­duced her al­most to tears more than once.

Last year we were honoured to give a concert in St David’s Cath­edral, jointly with two other choirs. One of them was Cor Aber­gwaun. This year we re­turned the com­pli­ment by invit­ing them to join us, and here we all are (above).

During the concert Edwina Currie, the choir’s president, enter­tained us with her cus­tom­ary sharp wit. She was proud and de­lighted to make a for­mal present­ation to Helen Gentle, rep­resent­ing the teen­agers’ wing of Wes­ton Park Char­ity Can­cer Hos­pital in Shef­field, of a giant cheque for £8,190 which the choir helped to raise for them in 2011. In her accep­tance speech Helen was gracious enough to com­pliment both choirs on a splen­did even­ing of music.

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Pavilioned in Splendour

Those fortunate enough to have been in the aud­ience of the Pavilion Arts Centre, Bux­ton, on the even­ing of 1st April 2012 will have abid­ing mem­ories of an exhil­arat­ing mus­ical ex­peri­ence. The occ­asion was the first of this sea­son’s con­certs by the Peak District’s own Tides­well Male Voice Choir: “A Rustle of Spring”. It was actu­ally two con­certs in one, or rather a con­cert by the choir sand­wich­ing a re­cital by Chris­topher Ellis, the prin­cipal ac­com­pan­ist of TMVC.

The quality of singing from this amateur ensemble is consist­ently high – a trib­ute to the energy and commit­ment of their mer­cur­ial mus­ical direc­tor Dennis Kay. Their con­trib­ution ranged from the new and highly ex­peri­men­tal, such as Bohem­ian Rhap­sody and Voice of the Child, the for­mer elicit­ing a rap­tur­ous cheer from the aud­ience at its suc­cess­ful and clim­ac­tic con­clu­sion, to the well tried and famil­iar such as Anthem from the mus­ical Chess and Amer­ican Tril­ogy; the latter, honed to even greater sub­lim­ity and per­fec­tion, the re­sult no doubt of hours of pains­taking rehearsal.

The arrangement of the sea shanty What Shall we do with the Drunken Sailor, though fraught with every man­ner of pit­fall and unex­pec­ted entry for the un­wary sec­tions, was de­liv­ered with spir­ited ass­ur­ance and pan­ache and in There is Nothing Like a Dame, the choir trans­formed them­selves con­vin­cingly into the per­sonae of love-sick, sex-starved sail­ors far from home, to the evid­ent amuse­ment of a de­lighted audience.

The young soloist who stepped forward from the baritone section was Phil Rigley. He enter­tained us with a very self-ass­ured per­form­ance of Some­where from Bern­stein’s West Side Story, foll­owed by an equally im­press­ive ren­der­ing of Stars from the mus­ical Les Miserables.

And now for the recital by Christopher Ellis: In my last review I said I was bank­rupt of super­lat­ives to des­cribe the play­ing of this young man. On this occas­ion he was noth­ing less than pro­meth­ean. Seated near the front and watch­ing him play, I was struck by the way in which he seems to merge into the very fab­ric of the ins­tru­ment over which he has such aston­ish­ing com­mand until pian­ist and piano speak with a single, al­most hyp­notic authority.

I cannot help thinking that Christopher Ellis’s talent might be more at home in the more ele­vated sur­round­ings of ven­ues such as the Royal Fest­ival Hall or St John’s, Smith Square, as his music may have been a little too cere­bral for some of the audi­ence. None­the­less, he be­guiled and as­ton­ished us in turn with his im­pass­ioned play­ing. His inter­pret­ation of Chopin’s Ballade Number 1 Op23 was auth­en­tic­ally ro­man­tic, sen­sit­ive in places, dark and brood­ing, de­liri­ous and turb­ulent in others. The young Mr Ellis is not above tak­ing risks! Sind­ing’s eponym­ous Rustle of Spring was, by con­trast, re­fresh­ingly airy and the Rach­man­inov Corelli Vari­ations and Gersh­win’s Three Preludes gave oppor­tun­ities to dis­play the vir­tu­osity and tech­nical brill­iance of this highly accom­plished artist.

This being our first outing of the year (as it were), it was also an oppor­tunity for our new pres­ident Edwina Currie to appear on stage with us and add­ress the aud­ience. Edwina ex­pressed her de­light at ass­uming her new office and charmed the aud­ience with her grace and wit. She was not the only wit, for in a depart­ure from the usual, Ray Whitely from the first tenors punc­tuated the pro­ceed­ings with amus­ing anec­dotes relat­ing to var­ious choir­men, cre­ating a prece­dent for hum­orous inter­ludes which I’m sure will be­come a reg­ular feat­ure of the concerts.

The Rustle of Spring concert demonstrated yet again that this superb ensemble, the Tides­well Male Voice Choir, can with noth­ing more than from within its own mem­bers and resour­ces, en­gage, edify and enter­tain an aud­ience, leav­ing them want­ing more and wish­ing to fol­low and sup­port them again and again.       – TME

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Chart-topping Military Wives Choir Comes to Buxton

This is a copy of a recent press release.

The hugely popular Military Wives Choir will be joining Derbyshire’s critic­ally ac­claimed Tides­well Male Voice Choir in its an­nual mus­ical spec­tac­ular at the Bux­ton Opera House later this year, on Sun­day 7 October.

The Military Wives Choir was formed at two army bases in Devon: the Royal Mar­ines Base, Chiv­enor, and the Royal Cit­adel, Ply­mouth. With a 2011 Christ­mas num­ber one Wher­ever You Are, writ­ten by the royal wed­ding com­poser Paul Mealor, and a new al­bum In My Dreams, re­leased on 5 March, this choir has made a re­mark­able mus­ical jour­ney since its inception.

Dennis Kay, TMVC Principal Conductor and Director of Music, com­mented that since the for­mation of the first Milit­ary Wives Choir others have sprung up around the coun­try, which is fan­tas­tic, but: “I am de­lighted that the orig­inal Milit­ary Wives Choir will be join­ing us on stage and bring­ing its spec­ial choral sound to our show at the Opera House. I be­lieve that, fol­low­ing last year’s bril­liant show with the Band of the Royal Air Force Col­lege, this year will be our big­gest ever.

“Don’t miss the opportunity to see and hear the Military Wives live in Bux­ton, along with an ex­citing new pro­gramme from the men of Tides­well MVC.”

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Updated 25 April 2013

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