Category: News

At a second sell out concert with Novadi, The Mansfield Latvian Ladies Choir, In St. Simon and St. Judes’ Church in Rainworth our accomplished accompanist Maureen Lockwood shone.

Her reliable and engaging skills at the piano are a solid foundation to our rehearsals and performances and guess what, at relatively short notice, Helmuts, the Musical Director with Novadi sought Maureen’s support for our joint concert. Maureen learned eight new accompaniments in such a short time and yet her performance was faultless. Aren’t we lucky.

The church was packed after tickets sold out three weeks before. Our audience were whooping, applauding and thoroughly enjoying, not only the energetic and sometimes melancholic performances of both choirs, but also the entertaining, light touch of the compere, our very own Paul Bennett.

A ten-year-old piano prodigy, Leo Skerbe, introduced by Helmuts, played two beautiful piano solos to be rewarded with standing ovations only halfway through the concert. The future of our musical tradition looks highly promising.

As to the singing, well, the Latvian ladies, singing in Latvian of course, performed with passion and skill. Their indigenous songs provided delicate harmonies particularly in Ja es Butu (If I were) and the Agnus Dei and Ave Maria.

M&DMVC sang well performing a wide range of songs from Rachie (in Welsh) through enduring crowd pleasers Let It Be Me, You’ll Never Walk Alone, Unchained Melody and Bring Him Home in which we were delighted to be joined by Warwick Lowe (2^nd Tenor). Warwick is the twin brother of Lynden Lowe our Concert Manager (and St. Simon and St. Judes church congregation member) and sings with our brother choir St. Edmundsbury MVC from Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.

On the theme of family, everyone was delighted to hear that Barry (Baritone) and Aileen Robinson are celebrating the 59^th anniversary of their marriage in St. Simon and St Judes Church – congratulations to you both.

Our singing family was beautifully exemplified by the joint songs at the end of each half of the concert. Amanda McBroom’s beautiful “The Rose”, arranged by Dr. Alwyn Humphreys, conducted by our fabulous and enthusiastic MD, Ian Grice closed the first half and Lord, I Need You, introduced to the male voice choir and conducted by Helmuts gave a fitting ecumenical closure to the event.

The choir family retired to a local pub where we were joined by some of the family members of the Latvian Choir, the “afterglow” making a lovely end to the evening. As Helmuts intimated when presenting flowers to Maureen at the end of the concert, the choirs did nothing when compared to Maureen’s skills, friendliness and work for inclusion. Magic!

Warwick Lowe (in blue) joins us.

Synergy – meaning that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” was abundantly evident in the concert performances at Trinity Methodist church in Mansfield Woodhouse. The Holy Trinity, the Christian doctrine which describes God as one being existing in three co-equal, co-eternal persons: God the Father (the creator), God the Son (Jesus Christ, the savior), and God the Holy Spirit (the power of God on Earth) was, together with a capacity audience, witness to a trinity of choral performances…..alright one of them was in the Greyhound pub after the concert.

Mansfield and District Male Voice Choir were on top form with an eclectic repertoire of songs for contemplation, reverence and entertainment ranging from Rachie and Gwahoddiad in Welsh and Neapolitan Trilogy (It’s Now or Never, Santa Lucia and Funiculi Funicula) to Let it Be Me, Anthem and the haunting Tell My Father, culminating in the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Medley (exclusive to the choir) which is always a crowd pleaser. Our guest Mezzo Soprano, Sarah Walster accompanied by her father David, provided a complete contrast and mesmerized everyone with the quality, sensitivity and power of her singing, particularly in the operatic arias Lascia Ch’io Pianga (Let Me Weep from Rinaldo) by G.F. Handel and O Del Mio Dolce Ardor (O Thou Beloved) by Christoph Gluck. The male voice choir standards of The Rose and You Raise Me Up were presented as joint pieces to the delight of the audience.
We were also entrained by the friendly interactions of our skilled compere Paul Bennett. His light and compelling stories and introductions guided us all through the concert which was masterfully controlled by our talented M.D. Ian Grice together with our wonderful, skilled accompanist Maureen Lockwood. Our thanks go to the team at Trinity Methodist for their preparatory work and the refreshments. Of note is Steve Cree (Baritone) and the choir Supporters’ Group members including Joyce Cree, Adele Stenton, Julie Guy and Marilyn Mansfield among others.
Reverend Stuart Ellis (Superintendent) kindly welcomed everyone to the concert, making everyone welcome and closed off the evening with a short prayer and expressed thanks to the performers.

I did mention a trinity of performances, one of which was in the Greyhound pub. Our choir usually repairs to a comfortable pub to hold an “afterglow”. The one yesterday evening was remarkable. By the end of the evening everyone in the pub had enjoyed singing along with the choir members that attended, and it made for a great closure to another event in the history of this great choir. Thanks to everyone who made the arrangements, particularly Lynden Lowe our Concert Manager who, along with the other members of our committee and all choristers made “Synergy at Trinity” a reality.

Ian Grice joined Mansfield and District Male Voice Choir in September 1985. He has always had choral music in his blood growing up in a strongly Methodist family where parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins were actively involved in The Hill Methodist Church in Kirkby in Ashfield for many years. If you visit the church, you will see several plaques and boards of honour bearing family names; Ian’s mum, brother and sister-in-law still worship there.
His Christian beliefs brought him to the choir as, at that time, many male voice choirs had their roots in churches and in this area the mining industry. Mansfield and District Male Voice Choir can trace its formation back to Rainworth Methodist church where, the choir was inaugurated in 1926 before combining with Mansfield Orpheus in 1944. In 2024 our choir celebrated its 80th anniversary and a moment’s reflection reveals that Ian has been involved for half the life of the choir and 2/3rd of his life…………that is belief and commitment personified.
He began as a 1st tenor, progressed to principal tenor soloist, became Deputy Musical Director in 2007 which he held for 10 years and upon the retirement of Mrs Meryl Chambers in 2017 took up the baton and leadership of the choir. He is highly respected in the Mansfield area, particularly in many of the local churches and the wider male voice choir community, not only in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire and with many UK based choirs, but also with the major choirs of Wales and the Welsh Association of Male Choirs (W.A.M.C.). His network has afforded our choir access to participate in the W.A.M.C. festival concerts at The Royal Albert Hall, London, on no less than three occasions and we are well placed to continue in these performances in the future. He has a wonderful ear for music and can pick out an error in a section, or even individual choristers and works with us until it is right. This quality is reflected in our sound. Each chorister can absolutely rely on his conducting skills and feels confident in delivering what he requires to get the best of out of the music in the way the composer and/or arranger conceived the piece. Consequently, our reputation goes before us, and we are welcomed when we seek partner choirs for our annual “away matches” with fellow male voice choirs across the country.
Ian has an enduring, boundless enthusiasm not only for choral music, but also for people; he just likes meeting and getting to know folks. It is his overtly friendly and encouraging nature which sustains the core values of camaraderie, respect and mutual support of which our choir is justly proud. His contributions to the life of our choir are highly valuable to us all and long may it continue. We know that many other choirs would be delighted to have you as their leader.
In the photographs below Ian is presented with a certificate (frame to follow) and a trophy conductor’s baton by David Marriott, President (left) and Geoff Hursthouse (Chairman), right. The dress is informal as it was a relaxed social evening attended by choir members, the choir Supporters’ Group and families and friends. A more formal presentation of engraved glassware was presented to Ian at our 80th Anniversary concert in Southwell Minster on 5th October 2024. Here we were joined by Bestwood, Eastwood Collieries and St. Edmundsbury male voice choirs and the Ravenshead Swing Band and an audience of over 450. That is testament to our performance capability, social networks and a love of choral music which Ian consistently perpetuates. Thanks Ian and sincere congratulations.