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Magnificent at Winchester

The Croydon choir enjoyed a magnificent evening singing in a mass-choir concert at Winchester Cathedral on Saturday (November 15). The concert, featuring five male voice choirs, was in aid of the Prostate Cancer UK charity and the key-note speaker was former England cricket captain David Gower OBE.

David Gower with our CD Those Magnificent Men

In his speech, David referred to the notorious occasion when he buzzed an England match in Australia in a Tiger Moth in 1991 and was fined £1000 by the England management. Croydon MVC presented David with a copy of our CD Those Magnificent Men and he joked about this in his final speech. David also praised “the magnificent singing of these magnificent men in this magnificent venue”.

 

Following two pieces by the 400-strong massed choir, CMVC led off the concert with three popular songs from its current repertoire: O Holy Night, My Way and The Impossible Dream, conducted by musical director Richard Hoyle and accompanied by choir pianist Guy Shepherd.

With Guy again accompanying, Richard also directed the mass-choir rendition of You’ll Never Walk Along in the final mass-choir section and an encore (they conducted and played without music). Other mass-choir songs included Speed Your Journey, Gwahoddiad, Morte Criste, Softly as I Leave You and American Trilogy.

CMVC during rehearsal at Winchester

The evening was hosted by Romsey MVC and the three other choirs were from Swindon, Pontnewydd and Odiham ­­(Hart MVC).  The concert was sold out with an audience numbering around 800.

David Gower spoke of the importance of early diagnosis of prostate cancer, which can affect one in every eight men. There is more information on the Prostate Cancer UK website – www.prostatecanceruk.org

Croydon MVC’s next performance is at St John’s, Shirley, on Sunday November 30 – 12.30pm. That is followed by the traditional Christmas concert with Croydon Welsh at Shirley Methodist church on Saturday December 13.

CMVC weighs up the opposition during rehearsal