Another very successful concert was the overall verdict of the choir’s visit to St Columba’s Church in Halifax, and, lots of money was raised for a good cause.
Chordiality have been regular visitors to St Columba’s and have always received a warm welcome from an appreciative audience.
£700 was raised for the church restoration fund and the Chordiality singers delivered a performance to be proud of.
The quality of the singing was summed up by Chordiality’s Music Director Peter Sherlock. “A very good concert, very musical, good attention to detail and our singers worked well together as a choir, both collectively and as individual sections.”
“The current programme is challenging for the choir because of the variety of styles of music. Jumping from style to style whilst mastering contrasting musical demands, dynamics and textures can stretch a choir’s concentration over a long programme. We achieved it extremely well at St Columba’s.
Particular highlights for the choir’s MD where Ola Gjeilo’s The Rose “…a beautiful setting in which the choir blended so well…”, The Skye Boat Song arranged by Timothy Allen, “…was just terrific and a favourite with the audience…”, and Haydn’s Te Deum “…was the best we’ve sung it.”
The show climaxed with a superb performance of Richard Smallwood’s gospel classic Total Praise.
Talent within the ranks
Thanks on the day went to a number of choir soloists who contributed pieces to the programme. These included soprano Jane Clark who revelled in Cole Porter’s It’s All Right With Me and alto Liz Leonard’s emotional portrayal of the lamenting mother in the song Tell Me It’s Not True from Willy Russell’s musical Blood Brothers.
Stepping forward for their Chordiality solo debuts were alto Jean Krzemiński with a delightful performance of George and Ira Gershwin’s Someone To Watch Over Me and soprano Alexander Stevens who with beautiful voice sang My Heart Will Go On, the love theme from The Titanic (in Italian!) as a duet alongside bass John Ramsdin.
A welcome addition to Matthew Coleridge’s Agnus Dei was tenor Patrick Dylak who combined, on clarinet, with the concert’s accompanist, Helen Orme.