Author: DavidH

Congratulations to you all on a fantastic 30^th Anniversary Christmas Concert at the Assembly Rooms.  It was a marvellous night which was enjoyed by nearly 1200 people and, although it is too early to be precise about the amount of money raised for the Royal Derby Respiratory Unit, we can say that it is looking like another record sum – we can certainly all be proud of a really brilliant performance.

This year the choir celebrates 30 years of singing and fund raising and will be holding a special Anniversary Christmas Concert at the Assembly Rooms on 23rd November 2012. We are delighted to announce that we shall be joined by a very special guest, local star of TV and proprietor of Hanson’s Salerooms in Etwall, Charles Hanson. Charles will be our compere for the evening, bringing his own style of humour and great personality to complement a wonderful programme of singing and music by the Choir and Derwent Brass.

The beneficiary of this special Celebratory Concert is the Royal Derby Respiratory Unit (RDRU) and we shall all be working extremely hard to raise enough funds to provide them with some much needed equipment to benefit all their patients, including a number of our own Choir members!

Ticket prices: £12 & £11 Concessions £11 & £10

 

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

Please accept our many thanks to our patrons and friends for making the 2010 fund raising activity our best ever achievement so far.  In this respect, the Christmas Concert was a great success with 1158 tickets sold.

The Assembly Room capacity is 1236, so we almost had a full house.  Nevertheless, this was the largest number seats we have ever sold for any of our annual concerts.

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Also, we are most grateful to all the choir members and friends that where involved with the many aspects of running the prize draw.  The actual ticket sales reached an all time high with more than 3000 tickets sold.  In addition, there is a special thank you to the Derby Branch Of Parkinsons for all their hard work in acquiring all the prizes and then running the prize draw stand on the night of the concert.  The Choir and the Derby Branch of Parkinsons would particularly like to thank all those persons and companies that kindly donated the many prizes.

Our advertisers have also helped us to increase the funds raised for this year’s charity.  In this respect we are very much obliged to:

Barclays Bank

Flint Bishop Solicitors

Wilsons Pharmacies

Accrofab Engineering

Blythe Squires Wilson Chartered Accountants

Prime Care At Home

Scargill Mann & Co

Keith Stringer Electricals

Findern Garden Centre

Brookfields Nursing Homes

East Midlands Business Services

Clark & Partners Mobility Centres

Strutt’s of Allestree

People Transfer Service

Denby Pottery Visitor Centre

East Midlands Airport

B&M Smith Photographers

Special Guests included:

Sheila North Chairman of the Derby Branch of Parkinson’s UK

Jessica Storer for East Midlands Parkinson’s UK

Mr & Mrs John Rivers – Chairman, Derby Hospitals Foundation Trust (DHFT)

Julie Acred – Chief Executive, Derby Hospitals Foundation Trust (DHFT)

Diane Prescott – Director, Derby Hospitals Foundation Trust (DHFT)

Dr Kieran Breen, Director of Research and Development, Parkinson’s UK

Mr & Mrs Andrew Hilton (son of the late Lady Winifred)

Mr Barry North (husband of Sheila North)

Mayor and Mayoress of Derby

The Mayor is particularly pleased to be associated with the Derby Hospitals Choir fund raising activities.  Traditionally, each year the Derby Mayor supports a number of health related charities.  By coincidence the St John Ambulance will be one of the Mayor’s beneficiaries, an organisation the choir has supported in the past.