At a second sell out concert with Novadi, The Mansfield Latvian Ladies Choir, In St. Simon and St. Judes’ Church in Rainworth our accomplished accompanist Maureen Lockwood shone.
Her reliable and engaging skills at the piano are a solid foundation to our rehearsals and performances and guess what, at relatively short notice, Helmuts, the Musical Director with Novadi sought Maureen’s support for our joint concert. Maureen learned eight new accompaniments in such a short time and yet her performance was faultless. Aren’t we lucky.
The church was packed after tickets sold out three weeks before. Our audience were whooping, applauding and thoroughly enjoying, not only the energetic and sometimes melancholic performances of both choirs, but also the entertaining, light touch of the compere, our very own Paul Bennett.
A ten-year-old piano prodigy, Leo Skerbe, introduced by Helmuts, played two beautiful piano solos to be rewarded with standing ovations only halfway through the concert. The future of our musical tradition looks highly promising.
As to the singing, well, the Latvian ladies, singing in Latvian of course, performed with passion and skill. Their indigenous songs provided delicate harmonies particularly in Ja es Butu (If I were) and the Agnus Dei and Ave Maria.
M&DMVC sang well performing a wide range of songs from Rachie (in Welsh) through enduring crowd pleasers Let It Be Me, You’ll Never Walk Alone, Unchained Melody and Bring Him Home in which we were delighted to be joined by Warwick Lowe (2nd Tenor). Warwick is the twin brother of Lynden Lowe our Concert Manager (and St. Simon and St. Judes church congregation member) and sings with our brother choir St. Edmundsbury MVC from Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.
On the theme of family, everyone was delighted to hear that Barry (Baritone) and Aileen Robinson are celebrating the 59th anniversary of their marriage in St. Simon and St Judes Church – congratulations to you both.
Our singing family was beautifully exemplified by the joint songs at the end of each half of the concert. Amanda McBroom’s beautiful “The Rose”, arranged by Dr. Alwyn Humphreys, conducted by our fabulous and enthusiastic MD, Ian Grice closed the first half and Lord, I Need You, introduced to the male voice choir and conducted by Helmuts gave a fitting ecumenical closure to the event.
The choir family retired to a local pub where we were joined by some of the family members of the Latvian Choir, the “afterglow” making a lovely end to the evening. As Helmuts intimated when presenting flowers to Maureen at the end of the concert, the choirs did nothing when compared to Maureen’s skills, friendliness and work for inclusion. Magic!
Warwick Lowe (in blue) joins us.
Looking back over the past few concerts you can see and hear consistency and enjoyment. That is due to three key factors, Ian’s careful preparation, Maureen’s accompaniments, and the choir members’ flexibility and commitment to providing a quality sound. We look and sound good on stage (and quite attractive in a certain light). Well done us!
Brilliant just Brilliant. We travelled 120 miles to see these two choirs in concert. Worth every one of them. Definitely a concert to be remembered the standard from both choirs being outstanding. If you missed this one make sure you don’t miss the next.
The people at church this morning and also at the concert last night were full of praise for both choirs. They thought the ladies “were marvellous” as they sang with such ease. One comment about the MVC was “I knew you were good but didn’t think you were that good, great, what a great night” etc. . Visitors did say that travelling 120 miles to see the choir “had been well worth the effort” . The general feeling was that both choirs were welcoming and made the audience feel part of the choirs with their friendly and easy manner. Our compère Paul Bennett was on form as usual including the audience in his banter, our MD Ian Grice with his enthusiasm shining through controlled the choir admirably with the aid of Maureen Lockwood our accompanist who according to the audience “was brilliant” all in all a great concert enjoyed by all who attended.
Another super concert. Such a pleasure singing with and listening to Novadi. They have such enthusiasm it’s contagious.
I particularly enjoyed listening to our accompanist, Maureen, who played some difficult scores for both Novadi and ourselves.
And of course the afterglow at The Sherwood was a memorable occasion where some of the ladies joined us in song.
A super concert with Novadi. It was a lovely moment when, in the last verse of ‘The Rose’, their sopranos soared above us to create a bit of magic. They ooze enjoyment of singing. It was a concert which proved once again that it is what the audience sees that makes a concert memorable and we were part of that. That’s the essence of a live performance and it was shown on Saturday.
Maureen’s playing was first class, especially in the Ave Maria and, as Helmut remarked, in Chitty,Chitty,Bang Bang. Well done, as ever, to Ian and to Lynden and Paul.