News
New CD out soon. Watch this Space!
A new CD recording of the Choir will be soon on sale. The album entitled The City of Chester Male Voice Choir Live in Concert at Chester Cathedral features a selection of items chosen from the live performances at recent Festival Concerts.
Choir Tribute at the National Memorial Arboretum
The Choir paid tribute to the many men and women who have lost their lives in service to this country on a recent visit to the National Memorial Arboretum at Alrewas near Lichfield in Staffordshire.
Choir to sing at Shrewsbury Flower Show on Saturday 14th August!
The Choir will be performing at the famous Shrewsbury Flower Show on Saturday 14th August this year.
Shrewsbury Flower Show is recognised and admired as Britain's best two-day summer show and as one of the finest outdoor events of its kind in the world.
The Choir will take the stage in the main show arena for a performance during the afternoon and also for a final performance in the evening before joining with the combined bands of the Royal Artillery and the Corps of Royal Engineers for the Grand Finale with a magnificent firework display
We need new singing members! Would you like to join us?
If you enjoy music and choir singing have you ever thought about joining a choir.
New members are vital to an organisation like ours. Don't be put off if you have not sung in a choir before. Choral experience is not necessary, nor is the ability to read music, as we employ learning techniques that cope with all levels of ability and experience.
All that we ask is that you have a love of, and an ear for music. If you want to know more, please give our Secretary Gerry Smith a call on 01244 316664 OR just turn up at one of our rehearsals at Hamilton Street Methodist Church, Hamilton Street, Hoole on Wednesdays at 7.30pm or Sundays 7.45pm. You will be made very welcome.
Would you like the City of Chester Male Voice Choir to sing at your wedding?
Would you like the City of Chester Male Voice Choir to sing at your wedding? We are frequently asked to sing at weddings either at the service or at the reception. During the service we will lead the congregational hymns as well as singing a short selection of your choice before the bride arrives and also during the signing of the register. We have a special repertoire of suitable music, including popular standards for these occasions. For further details please contact Gerry Smith on 01244 316664.
Also if you are planning a wedding you should check out our links page and find out how 'Handy Weddings' can help.
Tom Roberts.
It is with great sadness that the death is announced of our friend and fellow Choir member Tom Roberts. Tom passed away peacefully last Friday morning. His funeral will take place at 2pm at All Saints Church, Hoole Road, next Monday 17th May 2010 with committal at Blacon Crematorium at 3pm.
Earthquake Appeal Concert Raises £7,800
A large audience, estimated at over 800 were at Chester Cathedral on Sunday night for the Haiti Earthquake Appeal concert.
Taking part were Karamba Samba, A Handbag of Harmonies, The City of Chester Male Voice Choir, Farndon and District Brass Band, The Chester Ladies' Choir, cathedral organist Philip Rushforth, Kelsborrow Choir, and The City of Chester Band. Each group presenting their own musical programme before combining together as a choir of over 200 together with the two bands for the finale to sing Abide With Me, You'll Never Walk Alone and The World in Union. The evening was presented by Nick Fry.
Lucy Meacock (ITV Granada Reports) after making an appeal at the concert introduced the audience to the Rev. Marcus Torchon who hails from Haiti and who is now a minister from the Wirral Methodist Circuit, based at Bromborough. He told the audience how he had finaly discovered that his family in Haiti was safe and he was was able describe from first hand reports the suffering of his friends and other people on the island. He is making plans and hopes to be able to return Haiti in the very near future.
The Event raised £6835.70 and with gift aid mandates received on the night this total will rise to £7808.84, with every penny going to the DEC Haiti Earthquake Appeal.
A tremendous achievement considering the inclement weather.
Albert Hall success for Cancer Research
The Choir joined 69 other Choirs (over 1600 voices) from all over the country and joined with the Brighouse and Rastrick and Grimethorpe Colliery Band at a sell out concert at the Royal
Albert Hall. Over £100,000 was raised for Cancer Research. Try the following youtube link to see an extract taken from an unknown source http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cxAcqaWfMQ
Choir at the Tree of Lights Service at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
On Friday 4th December, In front of an enthusiastic crowd of over 400 gathered under the canopy at the entrance of the Countess of Chester Hospital, the Choir took part in the annual Tree of Lights Service at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Happy Christmas to all our members past and present and to all our supporters.
The City of Chester Male Voice Choir wish you all a very Happy Christmas.
The Choir presents cheque for £2,535 to Help for Heroes
Following the hugely popular March Festival concert the Choir has now presented the charity Help for Heroes with a cheque for £2535. The 121st Festival concert attracted a huge audience to Chester Cathedral on Saturday 28th March. The Choir sang a wide and varied programme which included, for the first time in concert, their version of the popular 'You Raise Me Up' and a setting by Roger Quilter, of Rudyard Kipling's words to 'Non Nobis Domine'. At this concert the Choir was celebrating 60 years of Festival Concerts (claimed to be the longest, continuous Festival of the many Festivals that take place in Chester each year). In the audience was Maurice Boyd the only Choir member to have been present on stage at the very first Festival concert which took place on the 16th March 1949.
Sharing the stage with the Choir was the Band of the RAF College (by permission of The Air Force Board of the Defence Council) and they performed an exciting and thrilling programme ranging from the film music of Ron Goodwin's '633 Squadron' and John Barry's 'James Bond' themes to the magnificent Interlude and Finale from Philip Sparke's suite 'The Year of the Dragon'
The Choir and Band combined to great effect in 'Speed Your Journey' from Verdi's Nabucco and also in the Pilgrim's Chorus from Wagner's Tannhauser, and the audience joined the Choir and Band in a finale of 'Jerusalem' 'Rule Brittania' and Land of Hope and Glory'.
The concert was in support of the charity Help for Heroes which supports and provides help for our wounded.
Tour to Weston Super Mare
From Thursday 28th May to Sunday 31st May the Choir visted, Gloucester, Weston Super Mare, Wells, and Lichfield.
on Thursday 28th sang in Gloucester Cathedral and the following day sang in Wells Cathedral.
On Saturday the joined their hosts Cheddar Male Voice Choir in concert at Victoria Methodist Church, Weston Super Mare.
On the return journey to Chester on Sunday 31st May the Choir sang at the Armed Forces Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum near to Lichfield.
A Night at the Opera - Blake Fischer is back in Chester on the 2nd July - 'A Night at the Opera' at the retaurant Convivio in Grosvenor Street
Blake Fischer the young Australian tenor who thrilled the audience at the Cathedral for our Festival concert in October 2007 is back in Chester on Thursday 2nd July. He appears with mezzo soprano Rebecca Currier In a 'Night at the Opera' at the
restaurant Convivio in Grosvenor Street. Tickets for this Black Tie event are £65 which includes a champagne reception, and a five course meal at this award winning restaurant. For further details ring 01244 400029 www.conviviochester.co.uk
'You'll Never Walk Alone' - CDs of our most recent recording are still available.
We still have a few copies of our CD 'You'll Never Walk Alone' available. To purchase a copy please contact us through this web site.
Blake Fischer wows Festival audience at the Cathedral with his tribute to Pavarotti
The young Australian tenor Blake Fischer wowed the audience at the 118th Festival concert with his four aria tribute to Pavarotti. For full details see the review of the concert above under the picture of Maria Friedman.
Choir sing in great concert with the Dorset Police
Last night (Saturday) the Choir joined the Dorset Police Male Voice in a great combined concert at St. Andrews United Reform Church, Richmond Hill, in Bournemouth in front of a large audience in this beautiful church. The concert raised over one thousand four hundred pounds to be shared between the RNLI and the church organ restoration fund.
The Choir return to Chester today (Sunday).
Festival Concert success for Maria.
Full page publicity with a celebrity interview and a huge colour photograph of Maria on the front page of The Guide section of the Chester Chronicle set the scene for a great 118th Festival Concert at the Cathedral last Friday. The audience was thrilled with Maria's performance. Jason Carr, her MD and accompanist, matched her presentation perfectly and not only duetted with Maria in Bosom Buddies from the show Mame (he taking the part that Bea Arthur played on Broadway) but also contributed to the concert in his own right with a masterful performance at the piano of The Warsaw Concerto.
Maria wove a narration of her life and music between stunning performances of classics from Kern, Gershwyn, Rodgers, Hammerstein, Herman, Le Grande, Bernstein and particularly Steven Sondheim who, she informed her audience, was a personal friend and godfather to her children. Her voice ranged from an extremely powerful upbeat rendition of When The Parade Passes By from Hello Dolly to the haunting, breathy sound that filled the cathedral when she performed Send In The Clowns from Sondheim's Little Night Music. Performed, rather merely sung, is the appropriate way to describe her presentation - she really lives the part with every word that she sings. "When I perform a song from a show, I have to go to the place I would be if I were in that show" is how she explained this in her celebrity interview with Michael Green of The Guide.
Maria sang two numbers with the Choir. In the first half it was 'In The Sky' a most beautiful unaccompanied song from The Vilna Ghetto written by a 12 year old boy, and dedicated to all children who suffer, or have suffered in war and strife. Her finale with the Choir was the always uplifting You'll Never Walk Alone which received a another resounding ovation from the audience.
The young Australian tenor Blake Fischer wowed the audience with four popular arias, E lucevan le stelle; La Donna e Mobile; O Sole Mio and Nessum Dorma! all chosen as a tribute to the late great Pavarotti. Blake is surely a star of the future and once again the Choir is delighted to have brought an outstanding new talent to Chester for the first time. Blake was accompanied by John Wilson who was appearing at his 58th Festival Concert with the Choir.
On its part the Choir conducted by Rodney T. Jones, accompanied by Helen Everett and presented by Lance Howie (who as deputy conducter led the choir for Stout Hearted Men) were well on song showing its versatility with a varied programme of fourteen songs, ranging from the rousing Comrades in Arms and When The Saints Go Marching In, to the lyrical Autumn Leaves, When I Fall In Love and The Rose. As befitting the theatrical background of Maria Friedman the Choir included songs from the shows Oliver, Porgy and Bess, Les Miserables, South Pacific, New Moon, and Pirates of Penzance - a programme that appealed greatly to the audience.
The City of Chester Male Voice Choir have been presenting twice yearly Festival Concerts for almost 60 years. 'The Festivals' are, perhaps, the longest established Festival of the many that take place each year in Chester. Next April the 119th Festival concert at the Cathedral will feature the Choir with the world famous Black Dyke Band. Tickets for this will be available soon.
This is John Ulotti designer of this web site.
Thanks to the professional help from John Ulotti of U Q Web Design we went live with our new web site on 12 August 2007,