Author: DavidH

We are delighted to announce that you helped us raise £3500 at our December 2025 Concert. £3000 is going to our local Hospital’s Cancer Care and £500 to Derbyshire Air Ambulance. You can also hear how we sounded in the following tracks, including our wonderful harpist, Darcy Partington, and our guitarist, Joseph Attenborough…

• Silver Bells
• Walking in a Winter Wonderland
• Scarborough Fair
• Sound of Silence (with Guitar)
• Charles Ives’ Carol
• From a Distance
• Harpicide at Midnight (Darcy Partington)
• How can I keep from Singing
• Moon River
• Amazing Grace (with Harp)
• The Lion King – Medley
• Were you there on that Christmas Night
• Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

Click here to read our newsletter, and see how to apply to sing in the December 2025 Concert.

Here is a copy of our Spring Newsletter with the dates and details of our coming season. Look out for the Summer Newsletter which comes out in late July with more details about joining us for rehearsals.

The AGM will be held on Wednesday 23 April, 2025 at St. John’s Methodist Church, Allestree. A social with coffee & biscuits will start at 7.00, followed by the meeting at 7.30.

At our December 2024 concert you we raised an amazing £4000! This is even more than the £3500 we raised in 2023. The 2024 Beneficiaries for this money are the Same Day Urgent Care Centre and The Children’s Hospital.

The annual fundraising concert, held once again at St. Alkmund’s Church, was another great success. Attended by the Right Worshipful the Mayor of the City of Derby (Ged Potter) and with almost 300 tickets sold, the 60-strong choir sang a selection of popular Christmas and non-Christmas music accompanied by Kevin Smith on Piano and Stephen Dickinson on Percussion. Richard Moulder compered the programme with panache, and Jill Matthews told us about the selected beneficiaries. Watch this space for an announcement of how much we raised. In the meantime, you can listen to what we sang…

• Gloria – Vivaldi
• Angel’s Carol – Rutter
• A London Medley – Malone
• Thank you for the music – Abba
• The little road to Bethlehem – Head
• Carol of the bells – Leontovitch
• Jingle Bell Rock – arr. Chinn
• Hallelujah – Cohen
• Anthem – arr. Purifoy
• Mamma Mia – Abba
• Hark the Herald Angels – Descant
• Bethlehem – Schonberg
• It’s beginning to look like Christmas – arr. Hayes

Earlier this year we donated £3000 to “The Happiness Project” at The King’s Lodge neurological rehabilitation unit.  The Happiness Project uses an interactive projection system to help cognitive behavioural recovery, encouraging coordination, mental and physical exercise and social activity in a fun way – making recovery a more positive and enjoyable experience.  The photograph shows Allanah and Jen demonstrating one of the many activities – a leaf-sweeping game – to three of our members, Joy, Kath & David, watched by Jill Matthews, Chief Officer of Derby & Burton Hospitals Charity.  Jill said “The money raised by the choir  for this unit is helping both speed patient’s recovery and improve their well-being. Donations of all kinds help to make a difference to the care we can provide.”  (Photograph courtesy of Derby & Burton Hospitals Charity.)

Click here to read the newsletter in pdf form – it contains the joining instructions for the coming autumn term… or click here for Word format (easier to edit)

Click here to see our newsletter...

Following our concert in December 2023, we have been able to donate £3000 to King’s Lodge Neurological Rehabilitation Unit (in the Florence Nightingale Hospital) and £500 to Art in Hospital at the Derby and Burton Hospitals Trust. The £3000 will be used to fund The Happiness Project – providing software that facilitates customised treatments for patients at King’s Lodge.

This is a great result and the committee would like to thank everyone who supported the concert, and of course our members who put in all that singing practice!

You can listen to how we sounded by clicking on the links below:

• De Virgin Mary
• Pachelbel’s Canon
• You Raise Me Up
• The Rose
• Nature Carol
• Come Emmanuel
• Love Changes Everything
• Candlelight Carol
• Les Miserables
• All is Well
• Let it Snow