By Val Javin
The musical talents of two Huddersfield choirs are set to get the autumn concert season off to a rousing start with a joint concert in Brighouse.
Marsh Ladies Choir and Gledholt Male Voice Choir both rehearse at Lindley Methodist Church – though not on the same night.
Now they’ve decided to share a concert platform too and will join forces on Saturday October 5 at Brighouse Central Methodist Church for what promises to be a musical spectacular. The concert starts at 7.15pm.
Each choir has chosen a programme to reflect their wide repertoire and vocal talents. And there is a bonus – highlighting the work of the professional musicians who guide the two groups of singers.
Ian Abbott, musical director of Marsh Ladies for 15 years, will conduct Marsh Ladies Choir but will also be playing an organ solo.
And the accompanists of the two choirs, Kim Kaye (Marsh Ladies) and Jane Robertson (Gledholt Male Voice) will play a piano duet – which they do when performing elsewhere on the concert circuit as the appropriately named musical duo Roka.
Not to be left out, the skills of Gledholt’s musical director James W Morgan will be on display, not just with the baton, but as the arranger of three of the pieces on the programme.
If you are a fan of movie scores, of musicals, or tunes from the Great American Songbook, Marsh Ladies has it covered.
I’ve Got Rhythm, George and Ira Gershwin’s popular tune from the musical, Girl Crazy, Bart Howard’s classic Fly Me To The Moon, Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s song Close To You and Moon River, the song by Henry Mancini, seen as one of film’s greatest composers, used in the movie, Breakfast At Tiffanys, are guaranteed to get everyone in a relaxed mood.
And, by contrast, the choir will offer a more reflective note with Lake Isle of Innisfree, Canadian composer Eleanor Daley’s haunting musical setting of the W B Yeats pastoral poem, plus The Lord’s Prayer (African Sanctus) by David Fanshawe and Welsh composer Robat Arwyn’s Benedictus.
Gledholt Male Voice Choir gets its concert contribution off to a rousing start with one of the best known pieces in the male voice repertoire, Stout Hearted Men.
There’s a movie reference from Gledholt too with Bill Conti’s song For Your Eyes Only, the theme tune of the 1981 Bond film.
Both pieces have been arranged for the choir by James Morgan who has also created the arrangement of Billy Joel’s She’s Always A Woman.
One Moment In Time, a hit for singer Whitney Houston, gets a slightly different treatment here as does the huge Freddie Mercury anthem, Bohemian Rhapsody.
Elsewhere, the singers take a nautical theme with Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirate King, the traditional, Song Of The Jolly Roger plus Gavin Sutherland’s song Sailing made into a big hit in the Seventies by Rod Stewart.
Tickets on the door.
