We’d had the Christmas Concert in Hadleigh, hopefully drawing attention to ourselves and our Recruitment Campaign. A concert in nearby Rayleigh could also be beneficial. After many months of false-starts for the arranging of this concert in conjunction with others we eventually took the arrangements in-house and organised it ourselves. Unusually we had two good venues that we could use on our chosen date. We chose Holy Trinity Church in Rayleigh. To the great relief of our Concert Manager the folk at Holy Trinity were pleasant and supportive – a joy to work with.
In the depths of winter, on a potentially cold and damp January evening, what better title for a Leigh Orpheus Concert than ‘Beat the January Blues’; an evening of music to warm the soul’?!
As usual posters and flyers were produced for distribution by members. Some members are very successful in the numbers of flyers they distributed and where they manage to get them. A team of four members nabbed passers-by in Rayleigh High Street. And of course we put it out on social media with several members successfully getting our virtual flyers seen in many community groups. Alan did his bit selling tickets on the desk at rehearsals, taking cash as well as keeping our credit/debit card machine working well (who uses cash these days?) (oh, alright, some still do!). On-line tickets sold well too.
Not a lot of time for rehearsing the pieces for this concert with only three rehearsals after our Christmas and New Year break. Nevertheless, Jan put together a varied programme which would hopefully provide an evening of music that souls would warm to.
First half
LOMVC African Prayer
Siyahambe
Softly as I Leave You
Every Time I Feel the Spirit
Solo Jim Ryan
LOMVC Speed Your Journey
Unchained Melody
You Raise Me Up
Gwahoddiad
Solo Ron Circus
LOMVC With Cat-Like Tread
Calm is the Sea
Song of the Jolly Roger
Second half
LOMVC Back to the 60s (All of it!)
Solo Harry Rowson
LOMVC American Trilogy
Rhythm of Life
We are the Champions
(yes, ‘We are the Champions’ is still there!).
We all pitched up at Holy Trinity, found that our Green Room, the Cloisters, wasn’t at all bad compared with other facilities we’ve used elsewhere and got on with our sound check/rehearsal.
Then we were on!
Not a bad acoustic in the church and, as has become necessary nowadays, adequate seating for choir members when not performing. One day we are going to get a nice, smart, orderly entrance and exit onto and off the performance area. But the question is, will it be in 2023? (answers on a postcard).
The audience appreciated our fine performances with Dave conducting ‘Unchained Melody’ and, predictably, ‘Rhythm of Life’. Who doesn’t like the four-handed piano accompaniment?!
We all appreciated our three skilled soloists.
There was a bit of a battle between the volume Kay wanted set for her accompaniment on the church’s electric piano and the volume the helpful chap on the sound desk at the back thought was appropriate! Nevertheless we rolled out ‘Song of the Jolly Roger’ with great gusto.
Of course, Sam told the audience about our Recruitment Campaign and the fact that it was on the following Friday that we had our first ‘Try us Out’ session.
It had been another good concert and, as a result of both the tickets booked beforehand, and the number of walk-ins, we more than covered our costs and made a tidy profit. That will help our funds!