Download our Summer 2017 Newsletter
Our newsletter, the first from our new editor-in-chief Andrew Mitchell (Mitch!) is now available.
Click on the picture to the right to download and read all about our fantastic trip to Snowdon.
Celebrating Aylesham’s 90th Anniversary
The choir are excited to be a part of the village’s 90th anniversary celebrations and are holding a free concert to celebrate. We hope to see you there!
Celebrating 20 Years
Saturday 3rd June’s concert was held at the local church of our MD, Michael Lewis, for a very good reason: It was a celebration of Michael’s 20th year as MD of our choir.
Although the choir was probably in a more relaxed mood than usual, we were all determined to give our best to mark the occasion. Judging from the feedback from the audience, it worked. Excellent solos from Nigel Adams and Dale Collett making his debut. Plus two terrific organ pieces by Michael himself.
Michael was presented with a custom-made waistcoat and bow-tie as a thank you, it wasn’t a surprise to see they were decorated with musical symbols.
Here’s just one of the many positive reviews:
‘June 3rd was a warm summer evening. The garden looked so inviting and it was a wrench to leave it. How glad we are that we did! What a musical feast awaited us. We have attended many Snowdown Colliery Choir evenings and always enjoyed them. This was the best yet.
The programme was varied. The execution precise and harmonious – a reflection of the close relationship between Mike and the Choir and testament to the hard work and dedication needed to produce a concert like this.
There was something for everyone. Amusing, poignant and prolific – goosebumps on the arms!
What a fitting tribute to Mike’s 20 years as the conductor. Talking of fitting, the gift of a music themed waistcoat and bow tie from the choir to Mike, fitted like a glove.
A truly special evening.’
Concert at Holy Trinity Church, Folkestone
It’s fair to say our concert on Saturday 6th May, at the beautiful Holy Trinity Church, in Folkestone, was a resounding success. ‘Spine-tingling’ was mentioned several times by the audience! We received a great review which will be included in the June edition of the church’s magazine – thank you Sid for that and the photo!
‘Snowdown Colliery Male Voice Choir is the last remaining colliery choir in Kent, and we were fortunate to be able to hear them perform in Holy Trinity Church on 6th May.
The choir’s repertoire ranged from folk songs to such traditional favourites as ‘Cwm Rhondda’ (but sung in English!) There were a number of arrangements of songs from West-End musicals, and also included some from ‘Les Miserables’.These were sung with such feeling and emotion that a number of members of the audience were seen to be close to tears.
The evening flew past; nobody wanted it to end, but fortunately the choir were persuaded to treat us to an encore, which was followed by prolonged applause.
Hopefully the choir will be able to return again, in the near future to delight us further, and for their part members of the choir expressed their appreciation for being able to perform in such a splendid venue.’
Concert at Saints Peter & Paul Church, River
Saturday night’s concert was sung to a very appreciative audience who filled the church.
The concert was to raise funds for restoration of the church organ which on occasion, while of course ably played by Gerard Ahern, let us know that it needed attention!
Terrific solos by both Barry Rampton and ‘Mitch’ (Andrew Mitchell), whose rendition of Too–Ra–Loo–Ra–Loo–Ral (That’s an Irish Lullaby) brought tears to some eyes – in a good way!
The event, extremely well organised by the church, raised £5oo for the organ restoration fund.
Concert at Hawkinge Community Centre
The concert to raise funds for the Mayors’ Charities was very well attended, including Mayors from around the district. The audience was extremely appreciative, particularly with our MD Michael Lewis’s anecdotes about the choir and its history – as well as with the choir’s performance, of course!
Excellent solos from Nigel Adams and Gerry Tighe, with the audience eventually learning what seemed a rather lengthy chorus of the Willy Nelson song ‘Damp As A Dungeon’, and joining in with Gerry and the choir.
Our accompanists Elaine Dickson and Gerald Ahern were accomplished as ever, and gave a great four-handed rendition of ‘Rock Around The Clock’. One or two members of the choir were actually seen moving to the music, while singing. 🙂
It was a real pleasure for the choir to receive such excellent feedback from the audience both during and after the concert. One to be remembered!
Rehearsal for Royal Albert Hall performance in 2018
Our Monday night rehearsal was taken by Dr Alwyn Humphreys in preparation for our massed choir concert at the Royal Albert Hall next year. A thoroughly enjoyable evening. The choir made some wonderful sounds under Alwyn’s direction. We look forward to him returning to rehearse again with us soon.
Also very nice feedback from someone who had just come along to listen to the rehearsal:
‘We enjoyed listening to last night’s rehearsal and were impressed with the choir.
Thank you for allowing us to hear you and we look forward to coming to one of your future concerts.’
Concert at St. Mary’s Church, Chilham
The choir were really on form for their concert on 4th March, and performed magnificently to a full audience. Choir soloists were Brian Chambers, Nigel Adams, and Gerry Tighe, all entertained the audience marvellously.
Our very able accompanists Aileen Dickson, and Gerard Ahern joined forces to accompany the choir on piano and organ in several pieces, to great effect.
Over £700 was raised for the church funds.
Great concert, well done all.
7 Welsh words that are well worth knowing…
And no, ‘popty-ping’ is not Welsh for microwave!
Fun article on the BBC Radio 4 website. Click here to check it out
Joint Concert with Snowdown Colliery Welfare Band at St. Finbarr’s Church, Aylesham
A very appreciative audience were present at the Annual Christmas Concert featuring the Snowdown Colliery Welfare Male Voice Choir and the Snowdown Colliery Welfare Band.
This was the 30th year of this joint musical venture and the responsive audience were treated to a very wide range of Christmas music ranging from ‘ Gaudete’ to Maria Carey!
One of the highlights of the evening was a combined performance by choir and band of a piece of music entitled ‘A Christmas Fantasy’ . This piece was performed very well indeed, especially considering the choir and band did not have the opportunity to rehearse this piece together before this year’s performance.
Nigel Adams’ solo ‘Sweet Chiming Christmas Bells’ was also very well received.
Well done to Choir, Band , and audience for a very enjoyable evening.
Concert at Barham Village Hall 12th November, 2016
The choir performed in the lovely village of Barham, for a small but appreciative audience, to raise funds for the Barham Bowls Club. It’s good to see the effort spent on Welsh pronunciation, ably coached by Bryan Marsh, is appreciated!
“I must write to say how much we enjoyed the concert yesterday evening in Barham. The varied nature of the programme and the professional performance of the choir made for an excellent evening’s entertainment so please do pass on our thanks to your members. I was particularly impressed by the Welsh contribution. As a language short on the use of vowels, it is difficult to get your tongue round some of the longest words but you did a magnificent job – and impressed the Welsh speakers in the audience! Thank you all so much!”
Concert at the Tower Theatre, Folkestone on 15th October 2016
We held a joint concert with our fellow choristers from Huntingdon Male Voice Choir, held to raise funds for FHODS and the choir.
An excellent turnout was well rewarded, with great performances by both choirs, separately and jointly. Huntingdon Choir’s African chanting and foot-stamping gave some real energy to the performance.
A special mention to a brilliant solo by Brian Chambers, performing ‘Empty Chairs At Empty Tables’ from Les Miserables.
And kudos to our accompanists Gerard Aherne and Aileen Dickson – when the lights were dimmed for Brian’s solo, the piano was also plunged into darkness! Gerard soldiered on playing by memory, while quick-thinking from Aileen resulted in using a phone’s torch to shed some light.
A memorable evening, with some great feedback from the Huntingdon Choir too:
“ Thank you to Snowdown for hosting what was, for us, a fantastic evening on Saturday. The whole Choir enjoyed it enormously and I thought the choirs gave great performances, both individually and together. Please pass on my personal thanks to the committee, for agreeing to stage the concert, and to everyone involved in bringing it to fruition. Your welcome could not have been bettered and it was great that your members were able to stay on for the afterglow, which brought the event to a great conclusion. (The buffet was very much appreciated too!)”
