Rolleston Music Circle & Choral Society News 2014
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To round off our 50th Anniversary year, we will be mounting our usual Christmas Concert at St Mary's Church – with a few seasonal trimmings. This will take place on Wednesday 17th December at 7.00 pm (please note early starting time). Once again we will be joined by children from John of Rolleston Primary School, with their music teacher Jane Smith.
As it's a special year, we have invited those four members who have been active with the Society for the past 50 years to choose their own carol or piece of Christmas music. They are Freda Hoten, Bob Lockley, Alan Partington and June Wedd. Congratulations and thanks to all four of them – and we look forward to singing and hearing their selections.
As usual on this occasion, we will provide refreshments. Tickets will be available soon from Starbucks News, from choir members and on the door on the night.
New members are always welcome: we rehearse at 7.40 pm on Wednesday nights, at the Methodist Chapel in Chapel Lane.
More information from Nick Willmot on 01283 565992.
This would be a good opportunity to thank all of you in Rolleston on Dove and the surrounding area for your interest and support over the past 50 years. We have come a long way musically since 1964, and we could not have done it without you. Here's to the next 50!
Nick Willmot
We will be celebrating our 50th anniversary year in grand style - with a performance of Karl Jenkins's ground-breaking work, The Armed Man – A Mass for Peace. Premiered in April 2000, it is now one of the most popular pieces in the modern choral repertoire, with more than 1,000 performances worldwide. The CD is a best-seller and is a favourite with listeners to Classic FM.
As well as extracts from the Latin Mass, the text incorporates words from other religious and historical sources, including the Islamic Call to Prayer, the Bible and authors such Kipling and Tennyson.
The piece calls for more than 100 singers, and in our preparations to stage the work, we have cast our net far and wide across East Staffordshire and Derbyshire. We have around 50 of our own members, so we have mounted a major exercise to draw in singers from Burton, Derby, Uttoxeter and beyond.
We will also be joined by a group of young singers from Lichfield Cathedral School, “Cantorum”, who also took part in the hugely successful Zimbe! Come Sing the Songs of Africa! at the Town Hall in 2012.
And to provide icing on the cake, the performance will be accompanied by the prize-winning Staffordshire Band, four-times national finalists at the Royal Albert Hall, and winners of many other brass championships. They will perform a selection of their own music in the first half of the concert. It promises to be a unique and memorable musical evening.
Rolleston Choral Society's performance of The Armed Man will take place at Burton Town Hall on Sunday 19th October, at 7.30 pm. Tickets, priced at £10, will be on sale imminently at Starbuck's News, through James Taylor on 01283 516177, or on the door on the night.
Meanwhile, please make a note of the date for our traditional Christmas concert at St Mary's Church: Wednesday 17th December. Start time to be confirmed later.
Nick Willmot
As many of you know, this year sees the 50th anniversary of our first public performance (of Handel's Messiah at St Mary's Church). To celebrate this significant landmark, we will be mounting a major performance of one of the most popular works in the current repertoire: Karl Jenkins's The Armed Man - A Mass for Peace. Composed in 2000, it is still in Classic FM's Top Ten, and has received well over 500 performances worldwide. It's a highly dramatic and tuneful work.
Nearly 100 singers from all over Derbyshire and Staffordshire will gather at Burton Town Hall on Sunday 19th October for the concert, in which we will also be joined by the prize-winning Staffordshire Band. Like our sell-out performance of Zimbe! in 2012, this promises to be a memorable and uplifting musical occasion. Details of ticket prices etc will appear in the next edition of Rollestonian. Meanwhile, please put the date in your diaries!
Nick Willmot
2014 sees the 50th anniversary of our first performance, and we aim to celebrate the year in style. We seem to be attracting new members all the time, and at present we have close-on 50 singers, which is great for a "village" choir. On Saturday 24 May we'll be staging a concert at St Mary's Church, which will form one of the highlights of the three-day "Love Rolleston" weekend. We've provisionally called it "1914 And All That", and it will feature a wide range of music linked directly or closely to that year. It will include folk songs by Vaughan Williams, and excerpts from the popular Edwardian musical The Arcadians, which had more than 800 performances in London.
In October we'll be joined by a number of extra singers, plus a brass band, to perform Karl Jenkins's extremely popular and moving The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace at Burton Town Hall.
Both concerts will be great occasions. More details to come. Meanwhile we always welcome potential new members. We rehearse on Wednesday evenings, at 7.40 pm, at the Methodist Chapel in Chapel Lane.
Nick Willmot
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Last updated: 12 March 2015