Verse And Chorus

                     The award-winning Harrogate Youth Choir     

                               

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David Paynes In BBC Young Chorister Final

Congratulations to David Paynes, who has won through to the final of this year's BBC Radio 2 Young Choristers Of The Year Final.  David is one of only four boys from across the country, who will compete for the coveted title at St. Paul's Cathedral, London on Friday 31st October.  The competition will be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Sunday 2nd November.  David sings in his local parish church choir at Pannal, just outside Harrogate, where his father is choirmaster, and becomes the fifth singer from Harrogate this decade to reach the Young Choristers final.

 

New CD Recordings

We will be recording our follow-up CD on Monday 27th October, for release later in the year or early next year. Talking about CDs, Emma Whiteley's debut CD "Believe" is now out and available to buy.  All proceeds from the sale of this CD will be donated to charity.  For details, please see Emma's website, www.emmawhiteley.co.uk or email david@verseandchorus.co.uk 

 

2008-2009 Programme Of Events

For our autumn concert in October this year we return to Pannal to join with Kevin Paynes and the St Robert's Church choir.  This concert will take place on Sunday 12th October at 7.00p.m.

Our Christmas season will begin with a charity concert at St. Wilfrid's Church on Friday 5th December, and our own ever-popular Christmas concert will take place on Friday 19th December.

Looking ahead to next year, we will be singing at a wedding at Kirby Overblow in April, and there will be a Summer concert in early July.

Further events will be added as and when available.  Verse And Chorus is always happy to accept bookings for fund-raising concerts and events.  Please email engagements@verseandchorus.co.uk for further details.

 

Mendelssohn's Elijah

Verse And Chorus was delighted to be able to join with the Harrogate Choral Society for a performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah in the newly refurbished Royal Hall on Saturday 3rd May 2008 (7.30p.m.).  The concert was conducted by Andrew Padmore.  As well as celebrating the much-heralded reopening of the Royal Hall, the concert also marked the 60th anniversary of the first Harrogate Choral Society concert after its reformation - a performance of Elijah on 28th April, 1948.  According to one review of the concert "the young group Verse And Chorus sang the famous trio "Lift Thine Eyes" commendably from memory with well-balanced harmonies and excellent diction.  Despite their numbers they later blended perfectly with the adult choir."

 

Emma Whiteley Performs For Prince Charles

Emma Whiteley was honoured to be chosen to sing at the reopening of Harrogate's Royal Hall by HRH The Prince Of Wales on Tuesday 22nd January.  She sang Philip Stopford's "An Irish Blessing" and was then joined by William Dutton to perform Cesar Franck's Panis Angelicus, in the arrangement which they had previously sung on BBC Songs Of Praise.  Emma and William also appeared on the recent Songs Of Praise broadcast from St. Wilfrid's Church, Harrogate, when they sang a special arrangement of Bob Chilcott's "The Lord's My Shepherd."

Christmas Concert Première Performance

It was a real pleasure performing to a full church at Dacre Banks for our annual concert of Christmas Music.  The programme featured the first performance of a demanding new work "A Festive Alleluia", written specially for the choir by Sarah Cleveland, one of our singers, who is studying GCSE music at Harrogate Ladies College.  Other highlights included solos from Sophie Whiteley, Laura Whiteley, Alice Bainbridge, Ravi Patel, Bethany McKenzie-Shore, David Paynes and Emma Whiteley, as well as favourite carols and arrangements by Philip Stopford, Andrew Carter, John Rutter and Bob Chilcott.  The concert raised much needed and appreciated funds for Holy Trinity Church.

 

Bill Goss on National Television and Radio with The Choirboys

We are all very proud that one of our singers, Bill Goss, who starred in Benjamin Britten's The Turn Of The Screw in Belgium earlier this year, has made a number of television and radio appearances as one of The Choirboys, whose Christmas Album was released on 3rd December.  For further details of Bill's schedule, please see www.thechoirboys.org.uk and www.thechoirboys.co.uk  

 

BBC Broadcasts

A select group of singers from Verse And Chorus led the singing live on the BBC Radio 4 Daily Service from Emmanuel Church, Didsbury on Monday 28th May.  Our repertoire comprised Philip Stopford's "Come Down, O Love Divine" and two hymns - "When God The Spirit Came" (to a tune by Edward Darling) and "O Thou Who Camest From Above" - which featured solo verses from Emma Whiteley and Alice Bainbridge.

We returned to Didsbury on Thursday 27th December for a second broadcast, which featured one of Bob Chilcott's newest pieces "The Marvellous Birth".

Verse And Chorus at Didsbury, May 2007 

If you missed Songs Of Praise on BBC1 (4th November), when Emma Whiteley was featured singing Panis Angelicus with William Dutton from St. John's Church, Knotty Ash, and Happiness along with Ken Dodd, have a look at www.Youtube.co.uk, where videos of both performances are available to watch.  You can also view Emma's broadcast from St. Wilfrid's Church, Harrogate in February at the same time!

On Thursday 21st June 2007, the BBC Sunday Half-hour programme came to St. Robert's Church, Pannal, where Emma Whiteley, BBC Young Chorister Of The Year, sings every Sunday, to record Emma in two solo pieces along with hymns and anthems from the combined choirs of St. Robert's Church and Verse And Chorus and an invited congregation.  The music was directed by Kevin Paynes and accompanied on the organ by David Darling.  

Emma has made the best of the fantastic opportunities open to her - two live broadcasts on Aled Jones' Radio 2 Sunday morning programme; singing Schubert's Ave Maria with Jose Carreras in the Royal Albert Hall; guest soloist at the Institute of Cancer Research's Gala Christmas Concert at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea; recordings for Radio 2's Sunday Half-Hour from Exeter Cathedral and the Tower Ballroom, Blackpool (as well as from Pannal); five live Radio 4 Daily Service broadcasts, a Radio 4 Sunday Service broadcast from Wesley's chapel in London; two Songs Of Praise recordings and solo rôles in Handel's Messiah and Vivaldi's Gloria locally.  

 

Emma Whiteley after winning the BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister Of The Year Award, October 2006, and at the Institute of Cancer Research Christmas Concert, December 2006 

 

CD "All Aboard"

New Songs Of Celebration!

We presented our CD launch concert  last year to a full church at St. Mark's, Harrogate, where we also performed the world première of Philip Stopford's latest composition New Songs Of Celebration.  

Our CD All Aboard! available for sale.  It includes twenty-two tracks of  choral and vocal favourites, including Son Of Mary, the song which won Emma Whiteley the BBC Young Chorister Of The Year title, along with solo songs from Dennis Maher, Alice Bainbridge, Bill Goss (The Choirboys 2007) and Claudia Goss, and represents excellent value for money.  Email david@verseandchorus.co.uk to obtain your copy.

"ALL ABOARD!".........Review

With successive revisions of the school curriculum resulting in the increasing marginalisation of the Arts, it is reassuring to hear the results of an initiative which is attempting, with conspicuous success, to remedy this situation.  Founded in September 2002 to meet the needs of young singers of secondary school age keen to develop their choral skills, the membership of Verse and Chorus is drawn from various schools in Harrogate and the surrounding area. Under the direction of David Darling, the choir has made rapid progress, winning a number of important awards at major competitive festivals and giving concerts in various parts of the country. They have already made an appearance in Germany.

"All Aboard!", the choir's first CD, gives some idea of the range of its repertoire and the high standards which it is capable of achieving.  The thirty-nine singers display admirable competence in both sacred and secular music and the listener is immediately impressed by their obvious enthusiasm and commitment. They convey a real sense of the joy which they experience in their collective music-making with generally clear enunciation and very good blend and quality of tone.  Despite the preponderance of sopranos (20) and altos (12), the four young tenors and basses are almost always equal to the task of providing an adequate balance in the mixed-voice items!  On the whole, pitch is well maintained and the contrasting moods are realised effectively.  Particular mention must be made of the outstanding contributions made by the soloists who are all first-rate. Among these are Emma Whiteley, who won the prestigious BBC 2 Young Chorister Of The Year Award in 2006 [and Bill Goss, one of the 2007 The Choirboys].

First Verse and Chorus, a choir for children of primary school age was founded in September 2006 to give preliminary training to junior singers in preparation for entry into the senior choir in due course. The performances of First Verse and Chorus on this CD would suggest that this flourishing choral tradition has a bright future.

Congratulations to David Darling, his colleague Sarah Paynes and the singers on a splendid recording debut. We shall eagerly look forward to further releases.

Harry Grindle

1 November, 2007

Tracks included on the CD

1. Blue Moon    2. Be Thou My Vision    3. Ave Maria    4. Maria    5. Do You Hear What I Hear?    6. All Things Bright And Beautiful    7. I Am A Small Part Of The World    8. I Could Have Danced All Night    9. Down By The Riverside    10. Can You Hear Me?    11. Gaudete    12. The Spanish Main    13. God Is In Bethlehem    14. A Child Is Born In Bethlehem    15. Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man    16. A Bunch Of Thyme    17. Like A Rainbow    18. I Will Sing With The Spirit    19. Son Of Mary    20. Streets Of London    21. The Rose    22. Chattanooga Choo Choo

To order a copy, please fill in the form at the bottom of the page.

 

Verse And Chorus At National Festival

Both Verse And Chorus and First Verse And Chorus performed at the National Festival of Music For Youth at the Birmingham Conservatoire in July.  

At the Music For Youth National Choral Festival, Birmingham, July 2007 

 

Harrogate Festival Champion Choir - again!

In March 2007, Verse And Chorus won the prize for the best choir of the Harrogate Competitive Festival for the second year in succession, at the end of an excellent day's competition, which also saw the choir achieve two other first prizes and two runner-up places against good opposition.  The day started with First Verse And Chorus retaining the Primary Choirs trophy which the choir had won last year. 

 

First Verse And Chorus at Alzheimer's Society Christmas Party

                                                                                                                                    

Verse And Chorus CD Order Form

 

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