Latest News
THE FOLLOWING AWARD AT THE
BUXTON FRINGE FESTIVAL 2011
The choir are very pleased to have won this award and look forward to entering The Fringe Festival in the near future
Ailsa Hoyle and Miriam Brown, who both performed in the concert, were nominated for an award for their individual performances.
JULY 9th -2011
The Choir performed at The Buxton Fringe Fesitival for the first time on July 9th .
The concert "Summer Seranade" took place at Buxton Methodist Church. It was a great success
Many people commented on the choice of pieces we sang and said they had thoroughly enjoyed the programme.
We also had the Fringe review as follows :
SUMMER SERENADE - Ladybrook Singers with Ailsa Hoyle and Miriam Brown
Now and again one comes across a choir with a singer as Musical Director - and it shows! And how it shows with Ladybrook Singers. They have intonation sewn up, a dynamic range that delights, diction that projects the words, and a range of facial expressions that communicates every song, and lifts the voice. Alison Bletcher excelled last night with a choir that should be justly proud of itself.
Frank's 'Panis Angelicus' set the tone for evening, and Rutter "All things bright and beautiful" continued in musical vein. "Be still my soul" set to Sibelius' famous Finlandia melody was a little too slow for my liking, but it worked.
There followed the first guest artiste - Ailsa Hoyle playing the 1st movement of Mozart's G major Violin Concerto - and in spite of slight nerves this was an accomplished performance.
The choir returned with "Cantique de Jean Racine" by Faure. This evocative and poignant melody worked well because the singers did not push the tone, and just let it drift over the audience - quite lovely.
Then came Miriam Brown playing the first movement of Brahms 'Cello Sonata in E minor. It is said that you can't put an old head on young shoulders but now and again you come across a player who in spite of being only 16 plays with the interpretation of a much more experienced performer. When Brahms writes in E minor he has something special to say - and Miriam said it all.
The first half finished with the Singers giving us more Rutter, "For the beauty of the earth" which is one of his super melodies, and Britten's "Deo Gracias" - a wonderful choral war-horse but seldom sung with such control and meaning.
The second half began with the Singers giving us three folk song settings, the high point of which was "Danny Boy" arranged by Alison Bletcher. There are so many arrangements of this song but I have seldom heard a more simple arrangement that succeeded in bucket-loads. This has to be the the best tune in all music.
Miriam returned and beautifully captured the 'joke' in Frank Bridge's "Scherzo", and Ailsa gave us the moody, slightly spooky "Legend" by Wieniawski - a truly special piece.
Alison excelled again in an arrangement of "Fields of Gold" by Sting, and then came the magical moment of "Somewhere" from West Side Story by Bernstein - I nearly cried! "America" followed and was very spirited and swift, and it worked!
Then a magical trio of Violin, Recorder, and 'Cello gave us Hook's Trio No 2, followed by Gymnopodie by Satie with the addition of the piano ably played by Celia Maylor who had worked her musical socks off all evening.
The Singers rounded the evening off with "Softly as I leave you" - and they did just that. Thank you to everyone involved for a thoroughly wonderful concert.
Andrew J Hodkinson
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TOUR TO BRUGGE
May 28th - 31st 2011
The Choir have just returned from a very successful tour to Brugge where we
performed during Mass at the Catholic Church of Our Lady.
This was followed by a Concert where we sang a varied repertoire.This was a
great success and we had a very large receptive audience.
The Choir also performed at The last Post Ceremony at The Menin Gate in Ypres
which was a very moving and emotional experience.
The Church of Our Lady - Brugge
The Choir performing in The Church of Our Lady Brugge
The Choir preparing to sing at The Menin Gate Ypres
Tyne Cot Military Cemetery
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HAZEL GROVE MUSIC FESTIVAL
5th - MARCH 2011
Ladybrook Singers are very pleased to announce that we won 1st place
in the Choral Recital Class at the festival.
Five choirs competed in the class.
During the past year we have seen the choir go from strength to strength.
Alison our musical director and Celia our accompanist have worked very hard and put a
tremendous amount of work into bringing the choir to the standard it is today.
All the choir members have worked very hard and their efforts finally paid off by winning first
place against some very strong competition
1st - LADYBROOK SINGERS ( Hazel Grove Stockport )
2nd - TIDESWELL MVC ( Tideswell Derbyshire )
3rd - St.PETER`S CHURCH CHOIR( Hazel Grove Stockport )
4th - AMICI DEL CANTO (Llandudno )
5th - STOCKPORT SCHOOL CHOIR (Stockport )
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All our future concerts and performance dates can be found on the forthcoming
events page which will be updated shortly
New members are always welcome. If you are interested in joining the Choir and want to find out if this is for you then come along to a rehearsal night, or contact our
Secretary: 01663 766410 or Chairperson: 0161 487 1361.
The ability to read music is an advantage but not essential.
