Following the tragic death of Alison Lumsden in March, the choir were asked to sing at her Memorial Service last month

Choosin= g a programme is no easy task, but even harder is choosing one that will travel from Manchester, to the Lakes and finally = to Venice.

So, how= did my choices come about? The easy part was to think Italian; it would be very remiss not to perform music from the wealth of repertoire left by the pleth= ora of Italian composers.

I wante= d a work to open each of the concerts that would grab the attention of the audience, and would be representative of the kind of concert on offer. It didn’t take me long to settle on the surprisingly still fresh and energetic setting of the Gloria by Vivaldi.

Both at= Cartmel Priory and in the splendour of our Venetian v= enues, I wanted to have some a cappella music which would undoubtedly be enhanced by a naturally rich acoustic.

Music a= gain by Italian composers Ludovico Viadana and Giovanni Pierluigi di<= /span> Palestrina

provided settings of P= salm 33 Exsultate justi = and Psalm 81 Exsultate Deo, both energetic and vibrant in style.

In cont= rast I wanted something slower and more reflective, the Adora= mus te, Christe provided exactly the contrast I was looking for, alongside the short, but moving Locus Iste by Bruck= ner.

Equally contrasting was the choice of music from a variety of well known composers = and equally well known works. None of which need introduction, but each in their own way are timeless and representative of each = composer.

Piano m= usic by Bach and Liszt provide an opportunity to hear solo performances from our accompanist Lydia Bryan who has an innate ability to capture every nuance required of each piece.

Brian, a steadfast second= bass for many years, would disclaim even a moderately exotic persona. However, h= e is not only a southerner, but a man of Kent ( for you uninformed Mankies that means he comes from west of the Medway, which is a river ) His= place of birth was Aylesford and his school Maidstone Grammar School. When he started th= ere, every day featured an air display, later to be styled the Battle of Britain= . Maidstone was full of London evacuees, with only 150 boys allowed in the school at any one time, and for= a time Brian and his peers went to school in an air raid shelter half a day a fortnight. Some people have all the luck!

National Service in the R= AF took him well north of the Medway viz. to Padgate , Warrin= gton where recruits were taught how to = bash squares. He obviously learned more than this, because service took him to <= st1:City w:st=3D"on">Tripoli, North Africa where he was technician in charge of a Forces Broadcasting Station. Yes - he was t= he Uncle Brian you listened to in Children<= span style=3D'font-size:9.5pt'>’s Hour on Sunday afternoons, if = you were a youngster in Tripoli in 1949.

After demob there was Bristol University , a degree in Biological Chemistry and a PhD for a thesis on an enzyme. Bri= an sang in the university choir which numbered about 500! The Professor of Music obviously had a Mahlerian yen to hear the whole world singing.

On graduation Brian went = into the chemical industry&= nbsp; in Birmingham where he met Helen, equally known and popular in ACS where she graces the f= irst sops. Moves to London, Liverpool and Barry followed. By 1963 t= here were four children , named Stephen, Richard, Martin and Gilli= an ( now augmented by two grandchildren ). At this point the famille Whitehouse felt the call of the = north west again for Brian to live in Bowdon and work in Trafford Park. In 1969 Brian had earned a p= eriod of residence in decorous Guildford where he and Helen join= ed the Guildford Singers, a choir about 50 strong.

They came back to Bowdon = in 1975 - a toe in the water with ACS, but didn’t enjoy getting frozen in St.= John’s church on an infamous occasion whe= n we sang the Dvorak Stabat Mater and<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Haydn Pauk= enmesse! They decided to join the Manchester Cathedral Cantata choir as much for= the singing standards as the central heating. Subsequently, Brian took himself = off to Brussels for ten years where he and Helen were in the Brussels Choral Society, ab= out ACS size but with 17 different nationalities.

Brian came back to Bowdon= and to ACS in 1994. He became chairman in 1995 and served with distinction for 4 years. An important move in his term of office - and one that has not been regretted - was from St. Peter’= ;s Hale to RN= CM for our main concerts. We hope he is cured of the wanderlust.=

Few in the choir will know about the MBE, conferred in 2000 for serv= ices to food safety. The man of Kent is surely concealing his deep love for the North West and for Altrincham Choral Society when he says that he has spent 42 years in these parts with a reprieve of 15 years for good conduct