Choir News
from Douglas Hamilton
The Lochranza Choir again performed in Whiting Bay Church in November, with our guests Martainn Skene on cello and Kerrie Calder on flute, both of whom also made valuable contributions to our performance of movements from Fauré’s Requiem. The choir hopes to complete the Fauré Requiem this session – we have three choral and one soprano solo
movement to do, and at a later stage we hope to do the whole work. We have also started rehearsing a medley from Bernstein’s West Side Story and hope that it will form part of an American section in our May concert. This will be the 10th year of the Lochranza Choir, so we
may also include some favourites from past repertoire.
The Rowan Singers performed a successful concert on Sunday 19th December, in the afternoon, in the High School Theatre. This was our second concert in the theatre, and it appears to be a popular venue with the audience. We wonder whether the afternoon timing for our winter concert is appropriate – audience feed-back would be welcome.
We tried to include a variety of musical styles in the concert – Stanford’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in B flat (one of his settings for Anglican Services), two recent arrangements of spirituals, a repeat of the popular Childrens’ Favourites as well as a number of Christmas
items. Unfortunately, Kerrie Calder, our guest flautist, was snowbound in East Kilbride, but we were grateful to our choir members, Isobel Thomson, John Cruikshank and the Senior Moments ladies, Kath Turner, Lillian Smith and Margaret Shaw, for stepping so ably into the breach at the last moment. This term, we hope to continue making music as well as we can, but always enjoying ourselves, and hope to include a variety of music – including some "dances" from various places, more songs from the shows, as well as some more serious music.
New members will be welcome to either or both choirs. We hope to make music in an enjoyable way, but also to aim for a high standard. The Lochranza Choir meets in Lochranza Village Hall on Monday evening, from February 7th, the Rowan Singers in Lamlash Church Hall every Tuesday evening from 18th January, both at 7.30pm.
