About the Choir
The Hills Singers chamber choir was formed in 1993 and has subsequently given 3 or 4 concerts every year. The choir is based in Malvern, but its 20 or so singers are drawn from a wide radius including Cheltenham and Worcester. The Musical Director is Carol Green, a music teacher and flautist, who trained as a choral conductor through the national "Sing for Pleasure" organisation, with which she is actively involved.
The choir's repertoire is extremely broad, consisting largely of unaccompanied works, but occasionally including pieces with piano, organ or orchestral accompaniment.
Our most recent concert, held in Malvern Priory on 15th November, marked the 10th Anniversary of our founding. Not only was it an excellent celebration of our anniversary, bringing back many former members of the choir, but it also raised some £500 for the Priory Organ Appeal Fund.
The programme for the evening, which was greatly appreciated by the large audience, included items that had been introduced to our repertoire in each of our 10 years of existence. (Click on the "Programme" link on the left to see the full details.) Of course, it had to start with our signature tune, "The Hills" by John Ireland. Then the rest of the first half of the programme contained mainly religious music, spanning more than 4 centuries and ranging from Russia through Germany and France to Britain.
The second half was entirely secular, but again spanned the ages from 16th century madrigals to contemporary compositions. The audience seemed particularly to enjoy the arrangement of the South African children's song "Mangwani m'pulele", and the gentlemen's bawdy rendition of Thomas Arne's 18th century drinking song "What is the Properest Day to Drink?".
We are most grateful to Ron Ward for providing a sensitive organ accompaniment to two of the items. |
