Our New President
The choirmen are delighted to make the following announcement, which has also appeared in local newspapers.
Hard on the heels of her dancing exploits on BBC TV, Edwina Currie has assumed a new musical mantle as president of the Tideswell Male Voice Choir. Well known as a writer, broadcaster, politician and guest speaker, Edwina has a lifelong interest in music. Edwina commented: “I never thought I would win Strictly Come Dancing and coincidentally, when I was eliminated, I was invited to become president of a wonderful male voice choir in the Peak District. I was delighted to accept the opportunity. So, while I may have lost Vincent Simone, I have now gained sixty men from Derbyshire!”
Tideswell Male Voice Choir is a highly acclaimed and progressive choir based in the Peak District. Bill Preece, chairman of the choir, said: “Edwina is an ideal choice to represent and promote the choir’s burgeoning reputation for excellence in choral singing.”
Edwina’s first appearance as president of the choir will be a charity Christmas Musical Spectacular at the Winding Wheel, Chesterfield, on Sunday 18 December 2011. The concert will feature the choir and the Sir Richard Arkwright’s Masson Mills Band, whose president, Lord Hattersley, will also be there.
Edwina was born in Liverpool and went to the same school as the Beatles’ George Harrison and Sir Paul McCartney. She admits that much of her education time was spent in the Cavern Club listening to their music. This stimulated her love of music.
As a youngster, she took real delight in singing uplifting psalms in Hebrew as part of the Orthodox Jewish congregation in Childwall, Liverpool, to which her family belonged.
Music has played a big part in her life and she likes nothing more than listening to music on the radio while driving in the Peak District. Her eclectic musical tastes range from Simon and Garfunkel to Beethoven.
While Edwina was MP for the South Derbyshire constituency, she was an active supporter of Gresley and Melbourne Male Voice Choirs. Gresley MVC travelled to London to sing at Edwina’s 50th birthday celebrations. She also arranged for Gresley MVC to visit the Loire region of France where she has a home.
In 2006, Edwina appeared in Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes in which she featured as French singer Edith Piaf with a rendition of Milord.
In 2009, her musical prowess was demonstrated when, as part of the TV Show Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, she teamed up with Declan Donnelly, Anthony Costa and Nicky Clarke to release a charity single. The release was a cover version of the Wham hit song Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go) and it reached No. 64 in the UK charts.
Continuing the musical theme, Edwina describes her marriage to her husband, John, as being: “Married to the most handsome baritone in the High Peak.”
Edwina has had three successful careers – so far! In politics, she became one of the nation’s best-known MPs and served in Margaret Thatcher’s government 1986–88, in the Department of Health.
Writing proved a lot easier than politics. In all, she has had ten books published. She started with non-fiction then turned to novels which were instant best-sellers in the UK. As a broadcaster, she is a frequent contributor to news and current affairs programmes. For many years she has been a well known radio and TV presenter and performer.
Reach For The Skies
If the characteristics which make for a great concert are: a standing ovation from a packed house, an enrapt audience, tumultuous applause, cries for “more” and enthusiastic banter in the foyer after the performance, then the concert on 9th October at Buxton Opera House eminently qualifies.
This was to be the highlight of Tideswell Male Voice Choir’s 2011 programme – after all, they were singing with their special guests, the Band of the RAF College, a highly accomplished and famous ensemble. They rose admirably to the challenge and between them delivered what is already being spoken of as “our best show yet”.
The RAF College Band, under the energetic direction of Flight Lieutenant Matthew Little, treated us to a programme of amazing variety and versatility. The MD’s own arrangement of Brazil was particularly memorable, exploiting all the possibilities and sonorities of a military band in latin mood. The percussion section was conspicuously active, demonstrating their skills on a bewildering assortment of things which could be hit with a stick or banged together and positively peripatetic in action!
The three “Swing Wing” numbers led by Warrant Officer Gary Stevens had the audience tapping their feet and humming along to familiar big band sounds performed with consummate musicianship and virtuosity. Who can forget that saxophone lineup, still less the solo on the bass trombone?
I am becoming bankrupt of superlatives when speaking of Christopher Ellis’s piano playing. His interpretation of Rhapsody in Blue with the RAF College Band brought the audience to its feet and would, I am sure, have received full approval from old George Gershwin himself had he been there to appreciate it.
In the presence of musicians of this quality, the challenge for Tideswell Male Voice Choir was to excel – they did not disappoint. Among their many entertaining offerings was a particularly animated performance of We ain’t got Dames, a poignant interpretation of Anthem from the musical Chess and a powerful and dramatically convincing solo from 19-year-old bass Phil Rigley in the song Stars from Les Miserables.
The Audience had their opportunity to sing (attended by much waving of programmes) in a Last Night of the Proms style singalong of Land of Hope and Glory, with band and choir.
And the encore? What else but the regimental march of The Royal Air Force: March Past.
This concert, like that which the choir performed with the Central Band of the RAF in Longton in September 2010, was organised to raise funds for Help the Heroes.
– TMEHuntingdon
On the afternoon of 17th September, 40 sets of vocal cords were travelling east by coach and car along the A14. The owners of these vocal cords, the men from Tideswell Male Voice Choir, were converging on the town of Huntingdon to perform that evening in a concert with their friends the Huntingdon Male Voice Choir. The pretext for this was an invitation from a friend of our ex-chairman. That was three years ago! But now it was finally happening and the occasion was the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of HMVC.
Our hosts had arranged for us to sing at the Performing Arts Centre in the leafy surroundings of Hinchingbrooke Country Park and they had done their marketing well, for the place was packed, as we adjusted our ties, cleared our throats and marched onto the stage.
The first item on the programme was a performance with HMVC of Rachie by Caradog Roberts. A great tune this and the eighty voices did it justice. You could almost imagine the Sally Army tambourines joining in! The audience loved it.
Tideswell then went on to deliver their contribution to the evening’s entertainment with an eclectic programme including a surprisingly animated performance of We Ain’t Got Dames and a highly charged interpretation of Stars from Les Miserables by nineteen-year-old soloist Phil Rigley.
The choral programme was punctuated with a performance by Christopher Ellis of three short Gershwin pieces on the Centre’s recently purchased grand piano. Christopher made this magnificent instrument speak with playing of brilliant and faultless virtuosity.
Huntingdon’s contribution under the charismatic direction of Haydn James was memorable for the two stirring items sung in Welsh and a lovely rendering of The Lily of the Valley.
The two choirs joined forces for the final item in the first and last halves of the concert, which were Morte Criste and Gwahoddiad respectively. These stalwarts of the male voice choir repertoire were delivered with great power and authority by the eighty performers, leaving the highly appreciative audience in no doubt that the male voice choir genre is very much still with us and has the power to lift the spirit, captivate and entertain. – TME
Romiley
Thursday 25th September saw the choir on the stage of Stockport Romiley Forum Theatre. Along with their very recent excursion to Congleton this is part of the choir’s strategy to enhance their customer base and make their unique talents known to a wider audience.
The concert was memorable, amongst other things, for its soloists, all with one exception drawn from the ranks of the choir.
The choir is proud of its recent youthful recruits and two of them, Phil Rigley and Mathew Hopkins with a combined age of 32, stepped forward in the first half, to join musical director Dennis Kay in a heart-warming performance of You Raise Me Up.
The second half featured a medley of pieces from the great stage musical Les Miserables. How well this music lends itself to the genre of the male voice choir!
But those soloists:
The poignant “Bring him Home” was performed by second tenor Stuart Gordon with great sensitivity and assurance. Stuart is a relative newcomer to the scary solo spot but no one in the audience would have noticed, especially the gentleman who exclaimed “super!” at the finish of the piece before the tumultuous applause.
Nineteen year old Phil Rigley looks too much the nice guy to be the calculating obsessive gendarme Javert, but he assumed that persona in a performance of Stars, delivered with authority and feeling in his robust baritone.
The family contribution was from 12-year-old Megan Kelly, granddaughter of the musical director. A slight figure on this big stage against a backdrop of forty men, Megan sang Castle On A Cloud and Only on my Own in a voice that is still child-like but charmingly beautiful.
I have hardly mentioned the choir! They of course delivered their usual entertaining excellence, not least in Leonard Cohen’s Halelujah, and Anthem from Chess – two fine interpretations with which they are becoming increasingly associated.
With concerts and performances like this one, the reputation of this fine choir can only be enhanced far beyond the horizons of their Peak District home, the small village of Tideswell. – TME
A Night at the Daneside Theatre
The Tideswell MVC came to the Daneside Theatre in Congleton for the very first time and treated its audience to a truly wonderful evening with a feast of music and some magical moments.
The evening commenced with a very effective, staged performance of You’ll Never Walk Alone followed immediately by an equally impressive rendition of There Is Nothing Like A Dame.
There then followed a selection of songs, all delivered with confidence and style, although Alexander’s Ragtime Band did run the risk of coming apart at one point, when some of the tenors attempted to leave the rest of the choir behind. A few stern looks from the MD soon got them back in step and the response from the audience told us how much they enjoyed this piece. The first half concluded with a very moving performance of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah stirring the emotions and leaving more than one person in tears.
Following the interval, the men appeared in a change of uniform having donned red, white and blue sashes to present songs from the musicals. An impressive performance of the song Anthem from the musical Chess opened the second half of this highly entertaining show. There then followed a medley of songs from Les Miserables which featured three soloists: Stuart Gordon (Bring Him Home) Phil Rigley (Stars) and 12-year-old Megan Kelly (Castle on a Cloud and On My Own), each of them bringing an added dimension to the medley as they performed with confidence and brilliance.
The finale gave an opportunity for everyone to join in with the choir as they presented a Last-Night-of-the-Proms sequence of songs. Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory lifted the roof and it was a truly brilliant end to a wonderful evening spent in the company of the Tideswell Male Voice Choir.
More, More, were the calls from the auditorium, and the choir obliged with the ever popular American Trilogy
My final comment has to be levelled at the choir’s Musical Director, Dennis Kay, and their Principal Accompanist, Christopher Ellis. What a superb team these two make! Dennis brings his own style and experience to events such as this, his evident inspirational leadership draws the very best out of the men of the choir. Christopher just oozes “brilliance”. He inspires confidence, and embellishes accompaniments in his own unique way. This reviewer has never heard better – in my experience, he is Simply the Best! – Anon
Tideswell Sings!
There can be few villages of comparable size where music is so much a part of the fabric of the life of the community. Tideswell is not large, yet it boasts a renowned male voice choir, a flourishing mixed voice choir, the Tideswell Singers, the long established Tideswell Band and a small but loyal church choir. Mention must also be made of the informal but very high standard folk sessions which take place each Thursday evening at The Horse & Jockey.
The first two of these ensembles joined forces to deliver a concert – The TMVC Annual Concert at St John’s Church (the “Cathedral of the Peak”) on the balmy Summer evening of Saturday 30th July – the first time they had performed together.
There were very few empty seats in this big church as both choirs opened the evening’s entertainment with a spirited performance of Rhythm of Life, setting the high standard for what was to follow.
The programme from Tideswell singers, which included Bohemian Rhapsody and motets by Victoria and Rachmaninov, was perhaps the more adventurous. The traditional Macedonian song Shto mi e milo in particular was performed with assurance and panache. But Tideswell Male Voice Choir – not to be outdone – performed their hallmark pieces Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) and Anthem (from Chess by Andersson and Ulvaeus) with characteristic flair and authority, filling the farthest recesses of this beautiful gothic temple with the electrifying sound of fifty men’s voices in harmony.
The evening was the first occasion when patrons of TMVC were invited to enjoy a glass of wine or other refreshment at the newly restored grammar school, immediately behind St John’s church, which is now the permanent base and home of the choir.
The first half of the concert ended with participation from the audience led by Carol Bowns (musical director of Tideswell Singers), in a highly compressed rehearsal and performance of a Gospel Medley.
The concert ended with TMVC in a medley from Les Miserables. Two soloists stepped forward: Maurice Hargreaves with Bring Him Home, sung with his usual flawlessly confident technique, and Phil Rigley with an inspiring and energetic interpretation of Javert’s song Stars.
The concert brought together residents from Tideswell and further afield in the beautiful ambience of The Cathedral of The Peak, on a memorable and magical Summer evening in the enjoyment and appreciation of the universal language of music.
Last Night of the Fringe
We’re extraordinarily lucky to have the services of our accompanist, Christopher Ellis. He and Nicholas Bennett gave their audience a real treat in St John’s, Buxton, this evening (Sunday 24 July). They presented a wonderfully varied programme of pieces devised, it almost seemed, to show off their considerable talents.
We were treated to several old favourites such as The Stars from Les Miserables, but we also had several pieces we hadn’t heard before. (Well, I hadn’t – Ed.)
The acoustic in St John’s is not easy: sibilants disappear into the background, so that the ultimate in enunciation is required. Nevertheless, Nick entertained us right royally with several of his favourite pieces from the shows, together with some more serious airs. His voice ranged from the demure to the powerful, and his portrayal of a number of comic characters had us captivated.
But the star of the show was Christopher Ellis (sorry Nick; I hope you won’t mind my saying so). His command of the keyboard was rigorous, and absolute. He filled the church with sound; his piano, which I hear he’d had transported to the church for the occasion, was magnificent in its attack and sonority: it just sang. Lyrical, demure and overpowering by turns, the piano and its master soared over the musical landscape. At the end of the Rachmaninov half the audience sprang to its feet, with roars of “Bravo!” Surely, even the organ couldn’t have delivered more power or expression than this.
This young man will go far. His place in the pantheon of pianists is already assured. Yet, notwithstanding his several tours-de-force this evening, he showed us that he can be delicate and sensitive when the occasion demands, and he was always attentive to Nicholas’s pace and mood. I’m reminded of that sublime accompanist the late Gerald Moore, who had world-famous soloists queuing up for his services. A world-beating combination of supremacy and humility.
But alongside all of this, Christopher’s happy to be the accompanist of the Tideswell Male Voice Choir. What an amazing breadth of scope! Rachmaninov’s second piano sonata one minute, Alexander’s Rag-time Band with us the next. All in a day’s work for this prodigious achiever.
So the Fringe is over for this year. We can only look forward to the achievements of the team next year. Thank you, Buxton!
Melodious Comparisons
Comparisons they say are odious, but in this case, they were nothing if not melodious as Chapel-en-le-Frith Male Voice Choir joined forces with Tideswell MVC in a joint concert in the neo-classical splendour of St John’s Church Buxton.
The choirs took to the platform in turn to entertain a capacity audience with an eclectic programme – C-en-le-F being perhaps the more traditional of the two, but affirming their cosmopolitan credentials by singing one song in French and another in Welsh – the former, Cantique de Jean Racine, sensitively rendered. Tideswell experimented with a more theatrical approach in their interpretation of You’ll Never Walk Alone and their performance of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah brought not a few of the audience to their feet in appreciation.
There were four joint items, all well-known war-horses from the male voice choir repertoire, including Gwahoddiad and Morte Criste, demonstrating the power and sonority of an all-men ensemble as nearly “One Hundred Voices” thronged the platform.
The programme was punctuated by performances from three soloists: A highly charged and passionate rendering of a piece from Jesus Christ Superstar by Nicholas D Bennett, a performance of three contrasting Gershwin Preludes by Christopher D Ellis at the Grand Piano delivered with almost supernatural facility, and an impassioned solo from our own Phil Rigley struggling with and mastering the difficult acoustic of this venue.
The concert at St John’s in Festival Week has become a regular and eagerly anticipated part of our annual programme. It just gets better every time!
Spitfires over Staveley
The afternoon was sultry, hot even, and there was a fine assortment of Panama hats among the ensemble, looking more like the “Men from Delmonte” than the Tideswell Male Voice Choir. But here we were again at Poolsbrook Country Park, the site of the old Ireland Colliery, to sing at the request of The Staveley Armed Forces Veterans’ Association.
The concert began after much ingenious arboreal adjustment to extension leads for the electronic keyboard and we finally got under way, only to be interrupted in our first piece by the roar of Rolls Royce engines from a Mk 2 Supermarine Spitfire of 1940’s vintage in its dramatic flypast. As one man, the choir took up the spontaneous theme of Carlene Mair‘s lyrics: “Proudly with high endeavour, we who are young for ever, won the freedom of the skies, we shall never die” – well, those of us who remembered the words – the rest la-la-laa’d.
The performance continued to an increasingly numerous and appreciative audience with a selection from our repertoire including a spirited rendering of You’ll Never walk Alone, and My Heart Will Go On from the film Titanic (which as our MD remarked, “Always goes down well”).
By the second session, we had attracted more audience and the choirmen were beginning to envy the Newfoundland dogs swimming in their competitions in the cooling waters of the nearby lake.
And so, amid the seductive smells of fried onions and burgers wafting on the Poolsbrook breeze, the choir entertained an audience of hundreds in this one of the first of their Summer engagements. The panamas will no doubt be in evidence again at our next outdoor engagement in Buxton Pavilion Gardens (Fringe Festival Week), Sunday 10th July.
Boost for School Library
Ysgol Croesgoch Choir with Elspeth Cotton and Edward Holdaway of Cor Abergwaun, Dennis & Helen Kay of Tideswell Male Voice Choir, and Deputy Headteacher Caryl Davies.
Ysgol Croesgoch has been given £600 towards the refurbishment of the school library. Representatives of Cor Abergwaun and Tideswell Male Voice Choir from Derbyshire were at the school on 22 June to present the cheque. The money had been raised at a concert in St Davids Cathedral in March, when the two choirs were joined by a group from the school. The Headteacher, Mrs Jayne Evans, said: “Our choir was privileged to sing in the Cathedral and the school is most appreciative of the generous gift towards the refurbishment of the library.”
Dennis Kay, Musical Director of the Tideswell Choir, said: “The highlight of our wonderful weekend in St Davids was singing in the Cathedral.” He went on to say: “Tthe Tideswell Choir are very glad to be able to help the School, whose choir sang so well in the concert.”
Edward Holdaway, Treasurer of Cor Abergwaun, said: “The donation to the school was only made possible by the generosity of all those who attended the concert and the sponsors – Cotton Projects, St Davids Assemblies, and Matthew Blakiston of the Farmers Arms, St Davids, and the Sloop Inn, Porthgain”. He added: “Cor Abergwaun is delighted to have been invited to sing in the Tideswell Male Voice Choir’s annual concert next summer.”
The choir at the Buxton Opera House on 24th October 2010. See many more pictures here.
Updated 01 Februaary 2012