Rolleston Choral Society's annual Christmas concert will take place on Wednesday 18 December, at the Methodist Chapel. As usual, the evening will feature a wide range of music and readings, including many carols and hymns that everyone can join in. Provisional starting time: 7.30 pm. See posters around the village nearer the time for admission and ticket details.

The Society is "on a roll" this year, with several new members, many of whom took part in a highly successful visit to an international choral festival in August at Burton-on-Trent's twin town of Lingen in Northern Germany. Additional members are always welcome. Rehearsals are generally every Wednesday evening, at the Methodist Chapel, from 7.45pm. 

A future date for your diaries: the society's spring concert on Saturday 29 March. 

Jubilee Concert
For this concert we had what was probably our best audience (in terms of numbers) in St Mary’s, Rolleston for some years. The strong local support given went a long way to offsetting the financial loss reported on our earlier spring concert. In addition, there was some useful audience feedback from this performance. This feedback and the level of support given to the Society were very welcome and appreciated.

Summer Social
Our summer social this year was held on 17th July. We are grateful as ever to Paul and Heather Taylor for again making their garden and home available to us for this event. In recent years the July weather has not been too kind to us but this year, we were more fortunate, although it has to be said the evening was still on the cool side. As Society members provide all the food and their own “entertainment” this is a very enjoyable and low cost event. It makes a useful financial contribution to helping the choir meet its annual operating expenses.

Other Social events
London
A coach trip to London has been arranged for the 12th October. The coach will depart Rolleston at 8.00am and leave London at approximately 6.30pm. This will leave plenty of free time in which to take in a tour of London, shop down Oxford Street, visit a Museum or Art Gallery or even take in a Matinee for one of the shows.

Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham
Provisional plans have been made for an organised trip to the Alexandria Theatre, for a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida”. If enough support were forthcoming this would take place on October 5th.

Lingen Concerts
Normally the choir rests between July and September. This year, however, things are different, as those members of the choir who are taking part in our Lingen performances are now busy rehearsing. The choir will leave for Lingen at midnight on August 28th and it will arrive back home in Rolleston at midnight on Sunday 1st September. In between these two dates the choir has a busy programme of five different performances. 

Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of the Society has been set to take place after the rehearsal on Wednesday 16th October. All Society members, including Patrons are eligible to attend and vote. Anyone interested in the activities of the Society is welcome to attend as an observer.

Christmas Concerts
Two concerts are proposed for Christmas this year. The first of these will be given in St Mary’s, Tutbury, on Saturday 30th November. The proposed programme for this concert (not necessarily in the order given) is :-

Ceremony of Carols - Britten
Fantasia on Christmas Carols - Vaughan Williams
Messe de Minuit pour Noel – Charpentier

This concert will be followed, on 18th December, by our annual Christmas Concert in the Methodist Chapel, Rolleston. It is intended that this concert will comprise well-known Christmas Carols with variety being added by the introduction of selected Christmas readings.

That’s all for now folks,
Ken Green (Publicity)

Spring Concert
The Society's Spring Concert - a performance of Vivaldi's Gloria, followed by Mozart's Flute Concerto in G Major, a programme of five Spirituals, a violin solo, the Easter Music from Handal's Messiah and finally, the Easter Hymn from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana - performed on 23rd March at St. John’s Church, Horninglow, was rated by our audience and the choir to be a big success.

There is no doubt, from the reaction of those present, that, from a performance point of view, the success rating awarded by the audience was truly deserved and, from this point of view, everyone involved, (whether performing or listening) thoroughly enjoyed their participation. However from a financial point of view the picture was not anywhere near so rosy, with the income from ticket sales not even coming near to covering the costs of production. A further thirty or so paying customers would have made all the difference between making a financial loss and breaking even on costs.

As mentioned in earlier issues of the Rollestonian - in order to make its productions affordable to all who would like to attend its musical performances - the Society is anxious to keep the price of tickets to its concerts as low as possible. You can help the Society to do this by demonstrating your support in purchasing concert tickets or, even better by becoming a 'Member', either as a 'Singer' or as a 'Patron'. Both classes of membership cost the same subscription fee. As a 'Patron' your membership entitles you to 'free reserved attendance' to concerts performed in your membership year.

Summer Concert
At the time of writing this report, the Society is busy rehearsing for its next Summer Concert. As reported in the spring issue of the Rollestonian, this concert is scheduled to take place on Friday 31st May, in St. Mary's Church, Rolleston, starting at 7.30 p.m. The performance of a programme of English Music will be the Choral Society's contribution to Rolleston on Dove's celebrations of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. The chances are that the concert will take place before this issue of the Rollestonian will have been circulated, so it may 
have come and gone before you read this. However, you won't miss out, as there will be a report on the Summer Concert in the autumn issue.

Choir Festival, Lingen, Germany
Immediately after its Summer Concert the choir will commence preparations for its trip to Lingen, Germany - where it is to participate in international celebrations to mark the 50th. anniversary of Lingen's own choir the - ‘Lingener Mannerquartett’. Lingen, lies on the Dutch border of Germany, it is Burton upon Trent's twin town. This celebration festival will be held over four days, 29th Aug. to 1st Sept., and choirs from Ireland, England, Wales, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and Hungary will be participating. A party of over 50 singers and supporters from the Choral Society are to make the journey.

This will be the first time the Society will have represented Rolleston on Dove and Burton upon Trent abroad, it will therefore be a new experience for the singing and non-singing members taking apart. We look forward to this responsibility with enthusiastic if somewhat nervous anticipation.

That's all for now folks but don't forget, to paraphrase a famous historic appeal - "YOUR SOCIETY NEEDS YOU" - we welcome and are grateful for your support.

Ken Green (Publicity)

The Society had a very successful 2001 and all the signs are that we will have an extremely busy and, hopefully, even more successful year in 2002. First then, a look back at the last two events of our 2001 concert programme – these had not taken place when the winter issue of Rollestonian was “put to bed”. I will outline our 2002 programme as far as September.

2001 Autumn Concert
Not only were we singing a very challenging and ambitious choral work in the Mozart Mass sung at St Peter’s church, on 24th November, we also faced serious difficulties in that a number of our choir were suffering from the “bug” that was going around at that time. Nevertheless, the choir performed well on the night, with the soloist making a big contribution. Even though Lucy Crowe (soprano) was suffering from a very bad cold the audience warmed to her, thoroughly appreciating and enjoying her excellent performance. As ever Margaret Langford (mezzo-soprano) put on a top class performance and Tom Oldham, our bass singer (better known to us as a pianist) really was impressive – a name for the future I think. We were unlucky to lose our chosen tenor to the same “bug” that many of us were suffering from but his stand-in, at very short notice, did a good job for us. John Evanson on the organ was outstanding and the students from the Abbot Beyne High School, (who made up the flute quartet) performed well in making their contribution to this very successful concert. If you were not there, then you missed an excellent night’s entertainment – all at a very modest price too.

2001 Christmas Concert
You will have heard of the saying “packing them in the aisles” well, at our Christmas Concert this year the chapel was so full that we were “packing them in the porch”. Although we class this annual performance as a “concert” it always has a very informal, happy and friendly feeling about it and, as usual, everyone joined in the spirit of the occasion thoroughly enjoying themselves in the process. The proceeds from this concert were split equally between the chapel and choir funds.

Spring Concert 2002 
Our first concert of this year will be given on 23rd March at St John’s church, Horninglow. The programme will comprise the singing of Vivaldi’s “Gloria” a selection of “Negro Spirituals” and the Easter hymn from Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana”.

Summer Concert
On 31st May the Choral Society will make its contribution to Rolleston’s celebrations of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. This will take the form of a performance of English Music in the Parish Church, Rolleston. The concert will start at 7.30pm.

Choir Festival, Lingen, Germany
Looking still further ahead, the Society has been invited to send a choir to participate in the international celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the “Lingener Mannerquartett” (Lingen is Burton upon Trent’s twin town). This celebration festival will be held over four days, 29th August to 1st September, and choirs from Ireland, England, Wales, The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and Hungary will be participating. A party of over 50 singers and supporters from the Choral Society are intending to make the journey.

That’s all for now folks,
Ken Green (Publicity)

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Last updated: 12 December 2002