The staff of the Medical Assessment Unit (MAU), at the Royal Derby Hospital would like to express their thanks to the Derby Hospitals Choir for choosing to make them the beneficiary of their 2013 Christmas Concert.
MAU consists of 51 acute medical beds where patients from Derby and the surrounding areas are admitted throughout the day and night from either Accident and Emergency or GP directives. These patients undergo treatment for many different medical conditions, i.e. stroke, respiratory problems, heart conditions, diabetic problems, cancers and infections to name but a few. Almost everyone within Derby and the surrounding area will have either received or know of someone who has had treatment in this extremely busy unit.
Patients generally only stay for a short time in the unit, until they are either transferred to a ward or are discharged home. Unfortunately, some patients will be terminally ill or be diagnosed with a serious medical condition. At such times a room in the unit is used by patients and their relatives as sensitive information and special needs are discussed with the doctor. Relatives may also use this room as a quiet retreat.
However, staff feel that the room currently used in these circumstances could benefit from a sympathetic makeover. They aspire to improve the room’s ambiance and provide a more relaxing place for both patients and their relatives in times of stress.
SAMSUNG DIGITAL CAMERAThis year the Derby Hospitals Choir is supporting the staff of the Derby Royal Medical Assessment Unit, raising money to make improvements to a room on the unit where both privacy and dignity can be afforded to patients and relatives at such difficult times.
Photo shows Chairman Gill O’Halloran handing over a cheque for £10,000 to Dr Gillian Lowery, Consultant Respiratory Physician Derby Royal Hospital.
Funds raised by the Derby Hospitals Choir 30th Anniversary Christmas Concert, 2012.
Below, chairman Gill O’Halloran is seen handing over a cheque for £236 to Gay Evans, Community Fundraiser for Treetops Hospice. Proceeds generated by the concert in St John’s Church, December 2012.
I am very proud to report another fantastic year for the Derby Hospitals Choir with the 2012, 30th Anniversary Christmas Concert being an amazing success, attracting a full house at the Derby Assembly Rooms. We were privileged to have Charles Hanson perform the duties of guest compere and his unique sense of fun gave a new dimension to our concert. I am delighted to report that Charles has agreed to join us again this year.
Once again, the most important thing to say in my report is a huge thank you and well done to everyone involved in this remarkable success. Due to the refurbishment of the Broadway Baptist Church, rehearsals this year had to be held in the church hall. Although this did prove rather difficult we managed to rise above adversity and succeeded in performing our best concert ever! In terms of funds raised for the Royal Derby Hospital Respiratory Unit, we should all be very proud of raising the record sum of £10,000 – the team from the RDRU was overwhelmed when they learned of the amount involved. I should at this stage say a particular thank you to Marjorie Tucker and Margaret Lane for their donations in memory of their dear late husbands, Ken and John respectively, both of whom had received marvellous care from the RDRU. This year’s concert was dedicated to their memory and so it is fitting that feedback received from those who attended the concert showed it to be the most widely enjoyed performance to date; they would have been proud of us!
The Florence Nightingale memorial service was my first formal engagement as Musical Director with the Derby Hospitals Choir – and what a splendid introduction.
We sang Mozart’s ”Ave Verum” (in English), Rutter’s setting of “All things Bright & Beautiful” and an unaccompanied arrangement of “Non Nobis Domine” (attributed to Byrd). I was delighted with how well the choir sang all three pieces, with good phrasing, light and shade in the dynamics and attention to detail – supported of course by the wonderful acoustics of the building and Peter Gould’s effortless accompaniment. Two of the three hymns had descants written specially for the occasion and these soared beautifully over the congregation, particularly when coupled with the ending choral harmonies in “Thy Hand O God has Guided”. Approximately 50 members of the choir were able to sing on the day, and all seemed to have their eyes glued on me throughout. Well done – you have set a high standard for the full choir to follow this Autumn!
Rehearsals for the Florence Nightingale Service:
Florence Nightingale and Sister
Wednesday 1st May at Broadway Baptist’s Church 7 30pm
Wednesday 8th May at Broadway Baptist’s Church 7 30pm
Wednesday 15th May at Broadway Baptist’s Church 7 30pm
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE COMMEMORATIVE SERVICE – DERBY CATHEDRAL
18th MAY 2013 11.00am
Florence Nightingale’s birthday occurs on 12th May which is also the start of International Nursing Week and the service incorporates both events. The service will be preceded by a procession starting from St. Peter’s Church, passing through the City centre and then on to the Cathedral. Nurses and health care practitioners from both the Derby Hospitals Trust and the community at large will be led by a marching band, and members of the choir will join the procession at the Cathedral entrance.
The service will be attended by Derbyshire’s dignitaries, Lord Lieutenant, High Sheriff, Mayor etc., and there will be high profile speakers from within the caring profession.
The choir will be singing three pieces and there will be three congregational hymns. The choir’s pieces are
1 Anthem – Ave Verum (Mozart) Jesu Word of God
2 Anthem – All things Bright & Beautiful (John Rutter)
3 Introit – Non Nobis Domine (Anon./Byrd)
The Service starts at 11.00 am. The Choir will wear usual attire:
GENERAL INFORMATION AND TIMINGS
9.15 Arrive at Cathedral and deposit coats, bags etc in Beddows Room
9.30 Go upstairs to the Retro Choir stalls to be allocated your seat
9.40 Practicing processing out and in to the Cathedral to ensure we are foot perfect.
10.00 Rehearsal of our three pieces with accompaniment from Peter Gould, Master of Music at the Cathedral.
10.30 Return to the Beddows Room for a comfort break
10.50 Congregate at the East door of the Cathedral. We shall not be processing through the town and will meet the procession as they arrive at the Cathedral. The choir will “fall in” behind the cross and lights and in front of the band to lead the procession into the cathedral.
The service begins at 11.00 am sharp and will last for one hour. When the service has finished, the Choir will lead out of the Cathedral and walk around back to the East Door thereby avoiding blocking the main entrance.
Congratulations to you all on a fantastic 30th 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!
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.
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 25th 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
EXTRACT FROM CHAIRMAN’S REPORT – 10th APRIL 2013
