A message from Judith Land,
Founder-Director of Music
Hello from Alcester, Warwickshire and welcome back to our updated website.
There is so much to share with you in this message- concerts both home and abroad, charity work, membership, working with young people and other male voice choirs and a ‘special sale’ for a set of 5 CDs.
Two inspiring experiences will stay with us for some time. One was the recent Annual Concert, when we performed in concert with our visiting choir and young talented guest artists, to a ‘full enthusiastic house’ and hailed it as ‘another triumphant success’. The second was when we accepted an invitation by Sainsbury to be filmed and photographed as part of the Perfect Christmas Competition prize. Sainsbury’s transformed the winning street -Seabank Road, Heswall, Wirral, Liverpool- into a magical winter wonderland complete with Alcester Male Voice Choir, snowfall, a huge tree decked out with lights, dazzling firework display and delicious festive food and drink. At the centre of it was Mia, a young girl who suffered a stroke and although she could only communicate with her eyes we could see the joy in her face that showed how much she appreciated the event.
For anyone visiting our website for the first time, Alcester Male Voice Choir is a well established male voice choir in the south of Warwickshire just 7 miles north of Stratford upon Avon and 7 miles south of Redditch, Worcestershire. If you are looking for a choir to join then look no further as we will give you a warm welcome and promise you an exciting musical experience with us. In October we look forward to singing in Wells, Somerset and singing in concert with Avon and Somerset Constabulary MVC. In November, we meet up with comrades in a concert in St David’s Hall, Cardiff and during the next few years we will be returning to Town Hall, Birmingham (2012), participating in a mass choir of 300 voices in Ely Cathedral (2012), participating in Cornwall International Male Choral Festival (2013) and organizing a concert in Symphony Hall, Birmingham (2014) as part of our 40th Celebrations.
Very soon though, we have a busy and interesting concert tour schedule to Brittany where we will be performing in churches, cathedrals and giving open air concerts in St Malo, Rennes, Josselin and Vannes. Renewing acquaintances and meeting people from Vallet, Alcester’s twin town is also being arranged.
Why not visit us in the Baptist Church where we rehearse and gain some insight into ‘what makes us tick?’ Our current choir membership number is 80. Just come along or give me a ring on 07886139781 for more details and to check that we are rehearsing that particular evening. There are no auditions as I am a firm believer that everyone has a voice, and this has worked well throughout the life of the choir. The only requirement is a desire to sing and the time to attend rehearsals regularly on a Wednesday between 7.30pm- 9.50pm and of course enjoy and support concerts once a month. Singing is our passion but so is raising money in aid of a variety of charities. There is no fee for engaging the choir.
Over the last 13 months we have welcomed 16 new members. These are a few comments they wrote:
‘I feel that the easy going friendly atmosphere and the helpfulness of the members has made me feel welcome.’ Tony Wilkes (Bass 2)
‘I am impressed by the professionalism and friendliness. Looking at the concert schedule, it is busy but I’m looking forward to the challenge, once I have built up my confidence.’ Rob Kingscott (Bass 1)
‘I saw the advert in the local newspaper and decided to give it a go. Everyone was very supportive and although it is serious singing it is also a lot of fun and everyone seems to sing with a smile on their face. It’s great having concerts like the Annual Concert to work towards.’ Alan Conway (Bass 1)
Our new PR officer has started collecting recent newspaper articles and a selection can be read in the press release section.
The current busy charity concert calendar can be found in the forthcoming concerts section. In addition to those already mentioned, concerts are planned in Worcester Cathedral, Alcester, Redditch, Stratford upon Avon and Kidderminster.
Our 38th Annual Concert is to be held in Town Hall, Birmingham on Saturday 31st March 2012 at 7.00pm. The booking form gives you all of the information you require including concert ticket discounts if bought through AMVC Booking Office, group discounts and arrangements for coach transport from designated areas. We do hope you will join us again as the newly refurbished hall creates a wonderful ambience for our concert programme. All we ask, to help us in the organizing of this challenging project, is that you return the booking form as soon as you can particularly if you want to travel by coach. For this we thank you most sincerely and look forward to seeing you.
We are having a special sale of CD’s this year. As we have covered the cost of making them we would like as many people as possible to simply enjoy listening to them. A set of 5 CDs can be purchased for £15.00. (please add £2.50 postage for set of 5 or £1.50 for 1 CD)
We are always eternally grateful to our Presidents and Vice Presidents, Sponsors and Friends of the Choir for their continued support. The ladies of the choir deserve a mention too, for providing us each week with refreshments, attending concerts and making wonderful meals when hosting other choirs and visitors!
On behalf of AMVC members, accompanists and committee members, I would like to thank you for visiting our website and we hope to see you and new faces at our future concerts or indeed, do feel welcome to come along to our rehearsals if you are in the area – we are well used to individuals and groups of people dropping in.
With All Good Wishes,
Judith Land