TAUNTON Deane Male Voice Choir performed last Saturday to an appreciative and not exclusively female audience at North Curry parish church, ‘The Cathedral of the Moors’.
The programme was a lovely mixture of ballads and anthems, and guest soprano Danielle Stacey-Evans provided a delightful foil to the male voices.
Alan Hooper presented the songs with an amusing commentary. When the audience demanded an encore, the choir responded with the traditional Cossack dance tune Casatschok accompanied on accordion.
The choir was led by new musical director Nick Thomas (previously directing the West Somerset Singers), assisted by Valerie Hill.
The vicar, Rev Tricia Staple, suggested she might use their setting of “When the Saints” one Sunday soon, but Judith Hincks said we would need more men in the church choir!
Sitting in the audience was the vicar’s 91-year-old mother, Mavis Staple, who used to teach elocution and recite monologues with the choir; she was presented with a spray of flowers by one of the singers from that time.
The soloist, who has sung with the choir only once before, also received flowers.
Proceeds from the concert will go towards stabilising the wall surfaces of this ancient church, if only behind the Victorian pipe organ where fragments of blue lias and ham stone are finding their way into the mechanism.
Parkinson’s UK also benefited from the retiring collection.
CONTRIBUTED
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article