All posts by Hilary

Midsummer Concert

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Sunday 25 June at 7:30 pm in The Joy Abbot Hall in School Street, Sudbury – also known as the URC:

On what was to date the hottest day of the year so far we had a lovely songfest in the rather too warm Joy Abbott Hall which included John Rutter’s Sprig of Time and a medley of songs ranging from the Armadillo Song by Flanders and Swann to the Lion King with a children’s choir from Acton Primary School. The children’s choir were an absolute delight and more than held their own in the Lion King Medley. In the first half Mark Saberton sang the Policeman’s Song from Pirates of Penzance with the bass section as his backing group and in the second half he sang the Hippotamus Song by Flanders and Swann this time with choir and audience as his backing group. He really does have a great comic touch plus a wonderful voice which filled the hall to the rafters.

If you want to come and join our choir and enjoy even more fun songs, do get in touch.

April 2023 Concert – a beautiful concert

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Our Spring concert on Sunday 2nd April was a real success, beautiful and ethereal singing of the Mozart Ave Verum Corpus, beautiful and sensitive singing of the Brahms’ A German Requiem.

PLUS – we had some very dramatic arias sung by our two soloists before we started on the Brahms. I don’t think the Joy Abbot Hall had heard such full throated and dramatic vocal acrobatics from just one human being ever. In the choir we knew the audience was blown away by the soloists, we just hoped the first row was not literally blown away.

We did have an incident in the second half when one of our basses became unwell, we are pleased to say that after medical attention and a couple of days rest he made a full recovery and will be singing again with us next term. All I would say is that dehydration combined with other factors is serious, so for everyone the message is always, always drink enough water. There are some easy ways of checking you are drinking enough, just google them and see which works for you.

Christmas concert for 2022

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Our Christmas concert was on Sunday 11 December at 3 pm in the Joy Abbot Hall, School Street, Sudbury (the old URC). Featuring fun readings, carols old and new and mince pies plus you will all be invited to join in the singing. Its FUN its CHRISTMAS – they came, they sang, they enjoyed. And then all ate mince pies and drank mulled wine.

Tickets are £12 for adults and £2 for children and students and are available from Sudbury Tourist Office in the Town Hall, Juniper Flowers and online at TicketSource. They can also be bought on the door.

Autumn 2022 concert

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Our autumn 2022 concert was on Sunday 20th November at 7:30 when we performed Ola Gjeilo Sunrise Mass and Karl Jenkins The Armed Man at St Gregory’s Church in Sudbury. This was the first time we had performed there and its not the easiest of spaces for a moderate sized choir plus small orchestra to fit into. But we certainly enjoyed it as did the nearly capacity audience.

We last performed the Sunrise Mass in 2016 and everyone was blown away by it. It is stunningly beautiful and we really enjoyed singing it. Karl Jenkins, a Welsh composer attached to a very fine moustache, is one of the most performed living composers. And we are happy to add to this number.

Our concert on Sunday 19th June

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A concert that celebrated 70 years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The first British monarch to reach this historic milestone and the Choral Society really enjoyed this concert – particularly as our last celebration concert in April was cancelled due to COVID. The concert took in Handel’s Coronation Anthems and music throughout the seven decades of the Queen’s reign.

Complete with a small but perfectly formed orchestra this was a lovely concert which everyone that came really enjoyed.

COVID strikes again….April 10 concert postponed

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Really sorry but we have had to postpone our April 10 concert – we are all getting covid and falling like flies. Most of us are not too poorly but there just aren’t enough of us left standing to make it an event. So with great regret we have had to postpone the concert until June 19th. Tickets for our April 10 concert will be valid for the June 19th concert in St Gregory’s, alternatively you can ask for a ticket refund.

For ticket refunds: If you bought tickets from the Sudbury Tourist Office please go back there with your ticket and they will refund you the ticket money. If you bought tickets from anywhere else, please contact Christa or phone her on 01787 466046 so a refund can be arranged.

Fantastic concert in Sudbury’s new venue

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Our concert on 12th December in the Joy Abbot Hall was a real success. Great new bijou concert venue for the town, the performing space is not huge but imaginative use of the galleries above it really expands the possibilities. Britten’s St Nicholas Cantata with its multiple choirs fits very well into the space and the audience enjoyed a real treat with the superb tenor Magnus Walker. The Cantata has, to quote one of the audience, “a surprising amount of good tunes” and Britten uses the voices and the music to paint the story of St Nicholas in a very approachable way. The choral society acquitted itself really well in what is not the easiest piece to sing, but we did make our conductor John Chillingworth work very very hard on the night to bring it off. Many thanks to the three choristers from St Mary le Tower in Ipswich who were the three pickled boys. And hats off to the small but perfectly formed Kingfisher Ensemble who accompanied the choir for the Britten.

After St Nicholas we had the traditional carol concert with new carols, Alan Bullard’s “Glory to the Christ Child” being a highlight, comic readings and traditional carols with the audience joining in.

More on our tenor soloist, Magnus Walker, who sang with a beautiful full rich and confident tone and with huge attention to the underlying emotion of the songs. It was an absolute treat to hear such a quality performance in this new venue. Magnus is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and is now studying for his masters. He recently won the Joan Chissell/Rex Stephens aware for Schumann Lieder. He has sung in many of the UK’s top concert venues and takes a particular interest in Art Song performance. For more detail on Magnus, click here.

Overall, it was a lovely evening which the audience thoroughly enjoyed.

Concert on 12 December 2021: Britten’s St Nicholas and Carols for Christmas

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Our concert on Sunday 12th December 2021 was in the Joy Abott Hall, which used to be the URC in School Street.

Tickets at £12 each (£2 for students and children) were available from Sudbury Tourist Office (in the Town Hall) and from Juniper Flowers in North Street, Sudbury. They could also be bought on the door. Ticket enquiries – please contact Christa by email or call her on 01787 466046.

Britten’s St Nicholas cantata is a very interesting mix of completely over the top drama, almost Monty Pythonesque tall tales and wonderful music which combines medieval themes with Britten’s mastery of 20th century music techniques. And any work that includes pickled boys just should not be missed. We follow this cantata with a selection of carols for Christmas, some new and some of our favourites.

We had planned to hold the concert in St Gregory’s Church Sudbury but changed our mind once we knew the old URC was available. We are delighted that this much loved building, sometimes referred to as the Shard of Sudbury, is coming back into use.

Concert: Faure and Vivaldi, 5th September

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Our concert on Sunday 5th September 2021 was the last one in St Peter’s, Sudbury until 2023.

The programme was a surefire winner, Faure’s Requiem and Vivaldi’s Glora, and was the first under our new musical director John Chillingworth.

We had Gill Wilson (soprano), Elaine Henson (mezzo soprano), Mark Saberton (baritone) as soloists, all accompanied by the Kingfisher Ensemble.