Mario Curtis, one of our long serving second tenors, coined this phrase from the opening song of our first concert of 2025, Christus Salvator, to describe the concert held at The Hill Methodist Church in Kirkby in Ashfield. Our choir was ready for this spring event having ensconced ourselves in learning new pieces for the first three months of the year but none of us expected the sheer heights of performance and pleasure we all experienced as we and the audience witnessed a treat – a real treat. Through Wesley Pierpoint , another second tenor, Lynden Lowe, our Concert Manager arranged for us to be joined by “Novadi” (meaning counties), the Latvian Ladies choir from Mansfield and both choirs gave their bodies, souls and spirits to the songs and the performance.
Led by Helmuts Feldmanis, Novadi’s, 15 ladies gave a mellifluous performance not only of songs in their national language but also in Latin. Whilst, of course, the Latvian language was alien to all in the male voice choir and the audience it was absolutely spellbinding to hear the wonderful close harmonies achieved by the ladies through the skilled arrangements developed and conducted by Helmuts. My favourites were “If I Were” and “Sunrise” in the first half and the “Sanctus” in the second half.
As for the Mansfield & District Male Voice Choir, well, we included, for the first time, a seven-minute-long medley of songs from the film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” which has taken some concentrated work to learn but boy, did it pay off. The audience were cheering, whooping and applauding with genuine delight as we sang the last few bars and our smiles at a job well done were a pleasure to behold. Well done to Ian Grice, MD, for selecting this piece which neatly fits into our expanding repertoire. We also performed “Anthem” and “Three Times A Lady” for the first time and the audience enjoyed these as much as the male voice standards of “Llanfair” and “Gwahoddiad.” I must mention the concert favourite “Shine” which always seems to uplift the audience, Mario and Dan Hayes (1st Tenor) performed and acted solo descant in this piece which just blew us away. Again, cheers, whoops and extended applause was heard from the audience.
The two songs that were chosen to close the first and second half were “Lord, I Need You” and “You Raise Me Up”. The blend of male and female voices was so harmonious and delicate as were skilfully directed by Helmuts and Ian respectively. Have a look at our Facebook page to hear these two haunting performances with the expert piano accompaniment by Maureen.
It is incumbent upon me to thank several people who made this concert such a delight. For arranging the concert Lynden Lowe, for directing us Helmuts and Ian, for accompanying us Maureen and Marcis, for hosting us the Team at The Hill Methodist Church, for filming and photographing us Katia, and for providing a wonderful buffet and welcome, the ladies of the Mansfield and District Male Voice Choir Supporters’ Group.
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