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A weekend away
Two enthusiastic, full to capacity Home Counties audiences enjoyed the Stuart Singers "experience" at concerts in Totteridge and Hemel Hempstead. Several people in the choir, including our Musical Director Gerry Palmer and his wife Sheila have connections in the area, so it was a pleasure to make the trip from Gloucestershire to help raise money for some very worthwhile local causes, see family and old friends and discover an area new to others of us.

The concerts featured our established mix of repertoire, this time sung completely from memory, and a bit hit on both evenings was The Bottle Lament, penned by our accompanist Barrie Cooper who managed to play both nights with only nine usable fingers after an accident. We were delighted to be presented with a commemorative plate by our Totteridge hosts and to raise so much money for The Children's Society, Herts Air Ambulance, The Hospice of St Francis and St John's Church organ fund in Hemel Hempstead.

Farewell concerts a sad hit!
Our Summer concerts provoked mixed feelings. On the plus side the varied programme went down as well as ever with our audiences. Old favourites like the Cantique de Jean Racine and Kumbaya rubbed shoulders with new pieces such as the Welsh Cadwyn cycle and the Tale of the Oyster. Cheques for £3,100 were given to local charities BEAT, CRUSE and CRY and to Jeff Meneor's Cycle Challenge to India, raising money for several cancer charities.

The event was tinged with some sadness because we were saying farewell to Canon Michael Irving, who was retiring from the parish having been a great supporter of the Stuart Singers over many years. To mark the event the choir sang a specially composed extra verse to his favourite Bottle Lament and a trio from the Sims and Palmer families sang an arrangement of You raise Me up. Michael was given lifetime membership of the choir and to round things off he enthusiastically took up MD Gerry Palmer's invitation to conduct choir and audience in a final chorus of We'll Meet Again!

Thanks... Thanks... Thanks...
"We would like to thank you all for a wonderful evening. The range of items was enjoyed by everyone who came to the concert. Every member of the choir has so much enthusiasm which is shown in your singing ".

"Thank you all for a really fabulous concert at the Bacon Theatre. The music was so enjoyable. The Bottle Lament very, very clever and the sound when you joined with the Dursley male Voice Choir hugely pleasing".

"Your donation will ease our problems a little and will mean that expenditure on music, the teaching of music and musical resources will not be cut back".

"Thank you so much for a superb evening of music and song".

"On behalf of the children at Minchinhampton school, thank you so very much for your most generous cheque towards our new piano. We are all very grateful indeed."
Frances Billington & Gerry Palmer
St. Rose's Frances Billington
and MD Gerry Palmer
Sold out again!
Our December concerts are always popular and once again the Friday performance was a sell out; the Saturday also saw very few spare seats. Despite a church still a third full of scaffolding, our audiences clearly enjoyed the usual varied programme, topped up with ample seasonal fare such as Let it Snow!, two carols by John Rutter and a lively arrangement of the traditional spiritual De Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy. The audience carol Little Donkey saw them in fine voice too!

There were lots of new numbers too, such as Leonard Cohen's popular Hallelujah and the inspiring As Long as I have Music together with Enya's Only Time, beautifully sung by a sextet of our ladies. Revivals of old favourites from the choir's early days included The Lost Chord and A Handful of Songs, whilst the men's repeat of their exasperated Women! Women! Women! provoked an equally dismissive rendition of Men! Men! from the ladies.

As ever, our aim is to raise as much as we can for local good causes and these concerts saw representatives of local charities St Rose's School's Smile Appeal and the Stroud Beresford Group receive cheques. Donations were also made to two very local projects in Minchinhampton itself: to our venue of so many years, Holy Trinity Church, and to the town's historic Market House.

Tracy Lodge & MD Gerry Palmer
Hope for Tomorrow's Tracy Lodge
and MD Gerry Palmer
Music of the Night a hit!
Our early June concerts have become a tradition in Minchinhampton, eagerly supported by enthusiastic audiences and 2009's pair of Music of the Night shows proved no exception. MD Gerry Palmer showed his usual skill at picking diverse numbers, which ranged from the Eric Clapton's moving Tears In Heaven and the spoof The Song That Goes Like This from the musical Spamalot! to Bruckner's glorious a cappella Locus Iste. There was also room in the programme for old favourites like Deep Purple and I Believe.

The men's rendition of Women! Women! Women! was treated with appropriate disdain by the choir's ladies, who responded with a beautiful interpretation of the classic Misty. As always, our aim is to raise as much as we can for local good causes and these concerts saw local charities Hope for Tomorrow and LINC receive cheques and retiring Minchinhampton School head teacher Rod Harris, a long time friend of the choir, receive a cheque for their piano project.

Celia Carter
Celia Carter receivs the cheque
on behalf of Hop, Skip & Jump
Sell Out sees £150,000 reached!
Sold out Friday and near-sell out Saturday concerts in December saw MD Gerry Palmer confirm that we had just exceeded the grand total of £150,000 raised for local good causes since he and Sheila founded the Stuart Singers in 1992. These concerts saw another four local organisations benefit: Hop, Skip & Jump Cotswold, Gloucestershire Chest Fund, Minchinhampton Centre for the Elderly and Minchinhampton Cricket Club. Once again the programme was highly varied but still featured several festive numbers.

Perhaps the hit of the night was The making of a Choir, penned by our accompanist Barrie Cooper, in which we attempted to explain how a choir works, involving plenty of vocal mayhem! As a foretaste of the community singing event in Minchinhampton on 1 February, we also sang two numbers from another of Barrie's compositions, the Cantata The Fisherman of Galilee, whilst well established favourites like Kumbaya and Battle Hymn of the Republic vied with many new numbers including competing versions of Santa Baby from different groups of ladies! A great pair of concerts.

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If you need to find out more about the Stuart Singers, email Bill Evans.

  
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