Westmill Concert, St. Mary The Virgin Church, 12th October 2024.
This was the first time the Choir had visited Westmill, and we hope it will not be the last!
The choir has doubled in size this year following a project in which we participated to form a ‘pop-up’ choir to sing in aid of Prostate Cancer UK along with four other choirs across England. This attracted large numbers of local men who formed a 65 strong choir called Men United In Song and after concerts in The University of Hertfordshire and The Albert Hall in Nottingham raised over £100,000 for the charity.
The participants clearly enjoyed the 12 weeks of rehearsals and the concerts and it encouraged 24 of them to join our choir, doubling our numbers.
An inspirational mix of traditional Male Voice Choir and contemporary music was the recipe for the concert.
Starting with the uplifting “Let All Men Sing”, the first set showed a range of contrasting songs, including a homage to the choir's Welsh roots in “Gwahoddiad”, sung in Welsh.
Following the choir's tradition of including local musicians in their concerts, Ben Willis performed 2 solo slots in each half of the concert, displaying his talent with on Baritone Horn and Trombone.
The second set from the choir was a selection from “Les Miserables” where Orla Brady performed “On My Own” and Martyn Voyle performed “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables”. Audience participation was also demanded by the “Master of the House” (Alistair Macdonald)!
Orla Brady
Martyn Voyle
Alistair MacDonald
Ben Willis
Following a very sociable interval, the choir's third set took us to Somerset, the United States, Ireland and finishing back in England with a haunting and powerful rendition of “Crossing the Bar”.
The final set of the evening started with the beautiful song “Tell My Father”, and ended with the classic “American Trilogy”, with organ accompaniment by Pete Eaglesfield, raising the roof and everyone's spirits with a rousing finale to a great evening of music and song.
Concert Programme Welwyn Garden City Male Voice Choir Let All Men Sing Keith Christopher My Lord What a Mornin' Spiritual - arr R Lee Gilliam The Rose Amanda McBroom arr Alwyn Humphreys Gwahoddiad Arr John Tudor Davies Take Me Home Edwards/Hand Ben Willis (on baritone horn) Carnival of Venice Arie and Varie Henry Round Gardens of Peace Philip Harper Welwyn Garden City Male Voice Choir Les Miserables Selection A Boublil & C-M Schoenberg Bring Him Home Empty Chairs At Empty Tables Featuring Martyn Voyle On My Own Featuring Orla Brady Master of the House Featuring Alistair Macdonald Do You Hear The People Sing Interval Welwyn Garden City Male Voice Choir Bridgwater Fair Traditional arr Matthew P Jones Shenandoah Traditional arr Kent A Newbury Danny Boy Fred Weatherley arr Matthew P Jones Crossing the Bar Alfred, Lord Tennyson/Gwyneth Walker Ben Willis (on trombone) Bone Idyll Christopher Mowat The Acrobat John Ambrose Greenwood Welwyn Garden City Male Voice Choir Tell My Father Frank Wildhorn/Jack Murphy arr Andrea Ramsey Morte Criste Isaac Watts & Emrys Jones with Pete Eaglesfield on organ You'll Never Walk Alone Rogers, Hammerstein arr Gilman American Trilogy Traditional arr M. Newbury with Pete Eaglesfield on organ
Many thanks are due to Trina McMullen and Sue Phipps and the church team for all their hard work and enthusiasm in organising this concert.
Thanks also to the Sword In Hand pub, for the “afterglow” location post-concert, and allowing us to sing some more!