Musical Chairs

This has already been a busy and successful term – even before we start the final run-up to our sell-out Mozart concert on April 1^st. We’ve had the Charity Shop, the Choir Dinner and the Singing Day - all featured elsewhere in this Newsletter. Very many thanks to their organisers – who contributed the reports - and to the veritable army of supporters who made them possible.

Have you looked at the ACS website recently? Our webmaster, Colin Skelton, keeps it (reasonably!) up to date and there’s a tremendous amount of interesting material there – Steven’s comments on our next concert (Maestro’s Musings), reviews of previous concerts from different choir members, photos of our Venice trip in 2005, music plans for the next 2 years, details of our free audience coach offer – and so on. Check it out at: www.altrincham-choral.co.uk

We recently welcomed our very first Deputy Musical Director – David Lloyd-Mostyn. The week after he was appointed he was in at the deep end, taking two full rehearsals while Steven was engaged elsewhere. We all survived! David has only recently moved to Manchester and is a composer/arranger as well as performer (oboe and viola) and conductor. Listen to excerpts from his music (and browse his gallery) at: www.davidlloydmostyn.com

Am I getting old or is the average age of the choir getting younger? Pat Arnold, our Secretary, helped me out of this dilemma by confirming: “Yes, you ARE getting old and the choir IS getting younger.” Well, I can’t do much about the former but I’m very pleased to welcome the latter!

April the First. What a great date and what a great occasion! No fooling around then. We’re all looking forward to it and working hard for it. Make sure none of your friends miss it. Dudley Harrop

ACS Charity Shop

For the third year running, we decided to rent the charity shop in Sale for 3½ days. We were somewhat apprehensive because both the rental cost and the percentage taken from turnover had increased. Nevertheless, ACS members turned up trumps again and an impressive quantity of bulging bags and heavy boxes started arriving at 10.00 a.m. on Sunday 29^th January.

Pat and Jessica Arnold and Jessica Murrills were again in charge of window-dressing (they’re really becoming quite expert at it) and the rest of us were busy putting clothes on hangers, books and CD’s on shelves, bric-a-brac on tables, sorting and stacking bedding and household goods. Where do you put a woodworking lathe and a coaching horn?

Over 40 ACS members helped out over the 4 days. Comments in the ‘guest book’ included:

“Strum along, good luck with the banjo”

“Had a lovely time freezing, but great laughs, lots of coffee and good company.”

“Bought too much”

“Enjoyed myself selling today - it was COLD but trade was BRISK”

“Had great fun sharing laughs with the customers”

“Just bought a complete winter wardrobe! Is purple my colour?”

But the best comment must be:

“Sorry can’t stop to help. Getting married on Thursday”

At the end of our activities, a lot of clothing went to ‘Steps Romania’, the books went to Christies and everything else unsold was kept by Sale Council for Voluntary Services who were taking the shop after us. Thus nothing was wasted.

I was truly delighted when we ‘cashed up’ and found that we had made a profit of £950. It was hard work but great fun. Everyone worked really well together and got to know other choir members whom they wouldn’t normally speak to. We look forward to the next time!

Mind you, I must say it was with a sigh of relief that I returned the keys! Cathy Merrell

Singing Day

As last year, we woke up to snow, but around 70 people managed to get to Altrincham Methodist Church for the annual Singing Day. There was a bit of excitement in the car park as cars slithered on the slopes, but once sand was put down, all was well.

This year we worked on Rutter’s Requiem, Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine and a few items from the book, Encores for Choirs 2. Steven was in his usual Singing Day form – that is, charismatic and ebullient – and Lydia was professional and calm as ever. We are most grateful to them for giving us their time and expertise.

All the singers appeared to enjoy the day’s music – as well as the bacon butties from the Coffee Bar – and many looked forward to coming back next year. The small – but select – audience for the final sing-through were most appreciative of our efforts.

It was good to see many new faces as well as the now-established regulars. As is usual in groups of singers throughout the land, the sopranos and altos far outweighed the tenors and basses – numerically, at least! Perhaps next time we might attract a few more men?! Liz Foy

Top Hats and Tulle

Last month was a busy one socially with the choir dinner at Ringway Golf Club and the chummy camaraderie at the Charity Shop. A number of people found nice outfits for the former at the latter and Dudley was successful for the second year running in finding a quality, casual jacket, in a slightly unusual colour. His fashion sense is a bit quirky but not to worry as he makes such an enthusiastic, jolly chairman!

The dinner was a great success: a lovely meal (no queuing this year ‘Oliver’ style); a very convivial atmosphere and a star-studded entertainment. There really is no end of talent in the choir – and such variety. What costumes! Yvette, displaying French chic and charm was a real hit in a shiny black topper and Kathy Merrell, hot-footing it from the charity shop was a wow in a blonde wig and yards of diaphanous tulle. No guesses what we’re wearing for the summer concert! Those of you who couldn’t make it certainly missed out on many magical moments – but it’s all on video and you will be forced to watch it at the compulsory rehearsal before the next concert. Jessica Murrils

From Pampas to Cheshire Plain

When in 1961 I arrived in Britain from Argentina it felt like home from home, because I was the product of a very English upbringing. Various ancestors had converged on Buenos Aires – one Irish great-grandfather, one English great-grandfather and one French great-grandmother, who all went out in the late 1800s. My Irish forbear, who I had thought to be a potato famine fugitive, was actually a horse breeder who had gone to Argentina at the invitation of the head of government. My English grandfather was an Army man, born in Kent, and my French great grandmother was from the Basque region of France.

My two grandfathers and their families were part of a large English speaking community, the biggest outside the Commonwealth and USA. My husband said “ This is like little England, really colonial ” It had for instance its St. Andrews Society, with annual Caledonian ball, pipers and all, and a Gilbert and Sullivan society in which my mother sang. There was, and still is, a Welsh community in Patagonia with many Welsh speakers and of course the annual Eisteddfodd.

We spoke English at home, our Spanish being acquired at primary school and practised with our friends in the district of Belgrano where we lived. I can still rattle off my times tables in Spanish – not so in English. Our schooling was partly in English and we read English books and watched American or English films or plays. The Argentines loved J Arthur Rank films believing that the man hitting the gong was a guarantee of quality.

My family were city people, but we had cousins living in Buenos Aires province, who administered one of the large Argentine estancias ( ranches ) which we often visited in the summer. The annual cattle round-up and branding was an awesome sight. We also had holidays on the Atlantic coast and in the Cordoba hills out west heading towards the Andes. In later years I have seen more of the country, from the sub-tropical north and the incredible Iguazu falls, to the glaciers of Southern Patagonia, nearly the bottom of the world.

You have the north of Argentina where it is too hot to work in the afternoons and the contrasting south where it can freeze up for five months of the year.

The natural thing for young Anglo-Argentines to do, if they could afford it, was at some point to travel to Britain and from there to visit Europe. I got jobs in city offices and saved up enough money to travel to England on a ship. The journey took nearly three weeks, but it was worth it as in time I was to see places I had only read about like London, Rome, Paris, Venice and Florence. I became friends with one of the young officers on the ship and we married some time later, so I never went back to Argentina to live, but settled happily here. One of the Browns had come full circle, back to the old country.

Music has always been important to me. I grew up with music around me, but mainly loved classical music. My mother, sister and I were in a choir in Buenos Aires. Later I joined a choir in Kent ( the director was Mark Deller, son of Alfred Deller ) After a gap of a few years I discovered ACS, and have lived musically happy ever since. I love coming to choir and to our concerts and it was a great thrill last November to sing a work by an Argentine composer – and in Spanish!

Viva el canto! Val Hott