Update 26 July
MESSAGE FROM MARY: CHOIR MEMBERS SING AT ST THOMAS-AT-CLIFFE
On Sunday 21 July 19 choir members sang at St Thomas Church. The Revd Herbert Bennett sent this message to Mary:
The special service last Sunday with Bishop Will dedicating the plaque in honour of Brother George was a most marvellous occasion. However, it would not have been so marvellous for everyone without your huge contribution along with the East Sussex Community Choir. The two Anthems they sang were so generously given and I felt were most right for the celebration.
Mary, do please forward my sincere thanks, on behalf of St Thomas', to all your choir colleagues for their generous singing. It was wonderful to hear a choir in the church as part of our worship and I wonder if they might kindly be willing to consider visiting again in the future please?
Revd Herbert Bennett
Update 4 June
Hi everyone.
Thank you all for an excellent rehearsal last night in St Thomas Church. I think we all enjoyed returning there to sing again having not been there for a long time. It was lovely to see 22 of us meet at the Dorset Arms afterwards for a drink - enjoying the late evening light.
We sang nearly all the choruses, and will continue next week back in our regular venue, St John sub Castro. See you then.
Nick
CHOIR VISIT TO RYE
The choir visited Rye to give a concert in St Mary’s Church on Saturday 4 May 2024. It was a brilliant day in many ways. Rye is a very comfortable hour-long train ride away and because this was a Bank Holiday weekend, the town was absolutely buzzing with tourists. The weather was lovely and sunny (unlike today: Bank Holiday Monday - when it’s raining persistently and due to continue ALL day). Several of us visited Lamb House, the house of Henry James and E.F.Benson (who wrote the Mapp and Lucia stories set in Rye). Then I and Robin had lunch in a Turkish restaurant before heading to the church for rehearsal and concert.
The concert seemed well advertised and we had an audience of over 60 people. It’s a lovely church with a good organ and decent piano. Andrew Wilson accompanied us and also played an organ solo by Widor. The choir sang really well and confidently with good diction and projection. Angela Wilkes also sang a ‘My mother bids me bind my hair’ by Haydn - a very attractive song which she sang beautifully. Well done everyone!
It was a lovely day in many ways, not least because it’s nice to socialise with the choir. I think we all felt we had made a few new friends, or at least talked to people we’d previously only seen at rehearsals.
Nick
6 May 2024
Photo - Jose MartinezPardo
RYE CONCERT PROGRAMME
East Sussex Community Choir: Rye Concert - Saturday 4 May
Rehearsal in the church at 3pm
Concert at 5pm (ends 5.50pm)
Concert dress: Smart Summer clothes (see the photo of our performance in Rye in the ‘Gallery’ on our new website).
Programme order
Pitoni: Cantate Domino (sung twice) – from memory if you can please.
Farrant: Lord, for thy tender mercy’s sake
Haydn: The heavens are telling (with choir soloists: Angela Wilkes; Peter Hanson; Michael Bloom)
Soprano solo: Angela Wilkes: Haydn: My mother bids me bind my hair
Bruckner: Locus iste – again from memory if you can please.
Faure: Cantique de Jean Racine
Organ solo: (Andrew Wilson)
Bullard: Calm and deep peace
Bullard: 3 Shakespeare songs
Haydn: Achieved is the glorious work (longer version on p.99)
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