Goodbye to 2024

Gentlemen 
Our Christmas gig in the Sanderson Arcade on Saturday afternoon brought our singing year to a very successful conclusion! 

I thought I’d reflect a bit on what we have collectively achieved this year.

• We currently have 29 active members.
• We had 11 gigs this year (6 in 2022) - almost reaching our target of a gig a month
• We had around 40 Wednesday night practice sessions in the Church (and the T&S!!)
• We raised thousands of £’s for various charities 
• We sang in aid of suicide prevention 
• We entertained a lot of people and brought a smile to their faces
• We sang in the debut performance of the Dark Sky Chorale in Kielder. 
• We supported the Aln Valley Railway and the Harbottle Show 
• We had a number of joint concerts with Wercas Folk including sold out gigs at the Morpeth Gathering and Warkworth
• We welcomed a number of new members who seamlessly fitted in to the choir
• We enjoyed ourselves and collectively sang from the same hymn sheet all year. We have all made new friends through the choir. 

Brilliant!!!
On behalf of the choir I’d like to thank Jon for his inspirational leadership, encouragement and enthusiasm  (and for halving the average age of the choir!!!) and both Sandra and Janice who have kindly stepped in at various times when Jon has been pursuing his day job as a professional musician .

I’d like to thank all those who have arranged gigs on our behalf this year. Concerts are the life blood and raison d’etre of the choir - to me there is no point in practicing if we don’t have gigs to perform in. I’d like to thank the committee for their quietly diligent work and to all members who, to a man, have provided such a positive feeling within the choir - it’s been such a pleasure coming to our Wednesday night sessions - we really do have a special camaraderie!!! 

Please pass my sincere thanks to all your families who have supported us through out the year and have let us go out to enjoy ourselves on Wednesday nights. 

And finally I’d like to thank all members - but most especially the newer members for their considerable efforts to learn our repertoire (including the Christmas repertoire!!). We’ve all been through that learning curve in our time and it isn’t always a comfortable feeling. With everything else going on in our lives it’s not easy and we really do appreciate your time and dedication. 

So last Saturday our singing succeeded in bringing two ladies to tears and David M swore he saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in the audience - what was in that mulled cider David??? What a way to finish the year!!! 

Thank you friends - love and best wishes to you and your families. Wishing you all the best for Christmas and 2024

Onwards and upwards brilliant VoiceMale - see you all on the 17th January. 

Chris