Year: 2011

 

Following the death of Lady Winifred Hilton, our Patron of many years, the Derby Hospitals Choir has invited John Rivers, CBE, DL to undertake this role. We are both privileged and delighted that John has accepted our invitation.

John’s connection with the Choir stems directly from his being Chair of the Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  Coincidentally, he is also the Chair of the Florence Nightingale Derbyshire Association (FNDA).  The personal links were strengthened when the Choir accepted an invitation from the Association to lead the singing in a Commemorative Service for Florence Nightingale in Derby Cathedral in August 2010.

In addition to being Chairman of the DHFT, John is both Chairman of the Derbyshire Branch of the Prince’s Trust and Chairman of the ViVA Sinfonia, a large professional orchestra based in Derbyshire.  He is also vice-chairman of the Arkwright Trust in Cromford, part of the renowned Derwent Valley World Heritage site and is Deputy Lord-Lieutenant for Derbyshire.

John’s interests include history, politics, music and sport and he was awarded a CBE in 2001 for his significant contributions to the community.

This year’s annual dinner provided John with an early opportunity to introduce himself to our choir members and he was particularly happy to be presenting long service awards to those members who have served 25 years with the choir.

 

 

This year the Hospital Choir Christmas Concert will be raising funds for the Derbyshire Branch of the MND Association.  The funds raised will help towards the continuing support of families in the local area that are directly affected by Motor Neurone Disease.  This includes people with MND, their carers, family and friends.

MND is a life-changing illness and can affect adults of any age.  The disease attacks the motor neurones, the nerve connections that carry the signals from the brain to the muscles.  The body becomes progressively paralysed leaving the sufferer increasingly unable to do the everyday things the rest of us take for granted. Walking, talking and swallowing become virtually impossible, yet the mind and senses remain intact.

Visit the Derbyshire Branch of MND at:   https://www.mndderbyshire.org.uk/Framepage.htm

 

As in previous years, the Derby Hospitals Choir Christmas Concert will be held in the Great Hall of the Derby Assembly Rooms  on the last Friday in November.

Date:  25th Nov 2011 at 7.30pm.

Currently, over half the seats for the concert have been sold.  So if ticket sales continue at this rate the event will again play to a full house.

Besides being a serious fund raising event, the Christmas Concert always endeavours to provide an enjoyable evening of musical diversion.  Yet again the evening’s entertainment will be a mixture of Christmas items and other popular well known songs and as usual there will be opportunities for the audience to join in the singing.   The hugely popular award winning Derwent Brass Band will add to the evening’s pleasure with selections from their conventional and classical repertoire and the guest compere brings the welcome return of Steven Blakeley.

Concert tickets are £11.00 and £10.00 with a £1.00 reduction for qualified concessions.

A significant part of the Derby Hospitals Choir fund raising is through the selling of the Christmas Concert prize draw tickets.

All the prizes have been donated to the Derbyshire MND Society and every penny of the money raised goes to this charity.  Tickets are 50p each, a book of 10 for £5.00.

Prizes include:
–  A weekend break for 2 to the value of £300
–  Two First Class ‘Anytime Anywhere’ return tickets on East Midlands Trains
–  Luxury Drinks Hamper to the value of £150

and many more prizes

The prize draw is registered under the Gambling Act 2005 and the draw takes place during the concert at the Assembly Rooms on 25^th November 2011.

 

For 2010 the Derby Hospitals Choir Annual Christmas Charity Concert was specially produced to raise money for the Derby Branch of Parkinson’s UK. The sizeable Hospitals Choir was conducted by John Bucknell with accompanist Andrew Storer.  An enjoyable evening of musical entertainment was ably supported by the Derwent Brass band and the guest compere was Steven Blakely, well known from ITV’s ‘Heartbeat’ series.

The Hospitals Choir, a chorale of more than 130 singers, with their clear precision and wonderful balance always give that extra dimension to their concerts.  Singing more than 15 pieces, ranging from Handel’s Zadok, the Beatles’ Let It Be and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas the choir were in superb form.  ‘Danny Boy’, recommended by soprano Kathy Grieg, was a great choice, audiences love it and the choir did not let them down.

But surely the highlight moment in the concert: The Marvellous Birth by Chilcott.  This is really not a particularly well known piece and was recommended to the choir by alto Gill Meyer.  What a find, the soprano and alto harmony was truly quite beautiful, a very moving and emotional performance

Derwent Brass under the guest direction of John Davis, as always, were in fine form playing music by Peter Graham and Darroll Barry alongside Mel Torme and Gordon Langford.  One special highlight was a solo version of ‘You Raise Me Up’ played on the baritone, (Bb horn), by Carole Crompton. Especially performed as a thank you to the Royal Hospital for treatment she had received recently.  Carole is one of the Country’s top soloists and over the years has played for most of the Country’s Top Brass Bands including Fodens and a long time with Desford Colliery Band during their hey days.

Other items in the programme included a humorous and very poignant piece, describing an everyday account of living and coping with Parkinson’s by Sheila North.  Whilst, Steven Blakeley had the audience in stitches with an amusing reading about ‘Preparation for Christmas Festivities’ by Pam Ayres