Category: News

Our guest blogger is Stewart Rickersey, Chairman of the Mansfield Sister Cities Association.

Wow- what a great concert! It seems to me that each one gets better and better and this time not one choir, not two choirs( as we have come to expect) but  THREE including The GentleMen. A trio of delights; I think I have read that somewhere before?

The choral choices were fabulous from all three groups. The quality of the harmonies were exceptional and the soloists outstanding. I found many pieces quite emotional in their delivery. It was great to see the two young ladies who conducted pieces and the increasing number of young men joining the choir.

This is a concert that our small band of followers really enjoy. The Sister Cities Association team is a committed group who maintain their enthusiasm for developing contacts with other Mansfields around the world with almost monthly meetings simply discussing forthcoming events, updating our unique website and enjoying contacts with the friends we have made across the world; all bound by the simple fact that we live in a place called “Mansfield”. Of course we even have contacts with the surname Mansfield, Geoff here in our Mansfield and Larry in Mansfield PA who organised the recent worldwide gathering last month.

The support of the Mansfield &District Male Voice Choir since 2000 and subsequently The Singers more recently has been fundamental to our being able to support one young person going to Mansfield Ohio each year. Now we have The GentleMen to thank also for adding to our enjoyment and ability to do so.

Several members of the choir thanked us (Sister Cities Association) for having you come to the Concert. This is the wrong way round. IT’S US THAT THANK YOU for being so generous with your time and, vitally the massive input you have in selling tickets. We are such a small group that 50/60/70 tickets is our upper limit whenever we try and stage an event. To have you put on the concert and sell the vast majority of the tickets is awesome.

Once again our sincere thanks for an outstanding concert and your continuing support of our objectives. Please pass on our gratitude to each choir member.

Our Mansfield is blessed with such an abundance of choral talent. Interestingly OH & PA also have great choral participation. I have shared with their Choral Director the CDs that Geoff gave me prior to our departure. I have no doubt that Dr. Peggy Dettwiler will share them with her students. More at this link –  http://www.peggydettwiler.com

Regards,

Stewart

The programme for the Sister Cities concert is now in place. On offer are some  elevating spirituals, some musical theatre favourites and some modern classics. Something for everyone all performed by a Male Voice Choir, a wonderful local girls’ choir, a sophisticated nonet (look it up!) and an ensemble of all the singers. It promises to be a good one!

Make You feel My Love is a song, perhaps not part of the traditional MVC repertoire, but which has become established in the Mansfield & District Male Voice Choir programme. It’s a song that can really grab you and we will be performing this piece on the evening.

For the song’s place in the mainstream we acclaim the popularity of Adele and for the 4 part male voice choir arrangement we credit the very talented Jetse Bremer. For the poetry, however, we recognize the genius of the Minnesota bard himself, Bob Dylan.

The opening verse goes,

When the rain is blowing in your face

And the whole world is on your case

I could offer a warm embrace

To make you feel my love

Another line in the song talks about “the storms raging on the rolling sea” and nobody really needs to explain the metaphor. Storms and dangerous waters have long been compared to how our lives are sometimes. Fact is that life itself can get us down and the storms can be too much for us sometimes.

The song seems like a picture of our show. We will offer a warm embrace to our audience and guests, just like the songwriter does to his loved one and some shelter, for the evening, in a stormy world.

At the end of the concert, you may find that some faith in humanity may have been revived by sharing with us in a celebration of music and of what is good in the human heart. We look forward to seeing you!

Nick Shelley

Arrows of Desire

This was our first concert after the holidays. As usual the programme was very varied including some sacred and some popular numbers together with a piano solo ( Margaret Ball) and a piano duet ( Margaret Ball/Meryl Chambers). The Gentlemen performed 2 sets of 2 songs including Auf Fond du Temple Saint. John Wakeland and Phil Robinson sang The Bold Gendarmes as a duet. Ian Grice was the soloist on selected choral pieces. Eric Curtis was compere.

The concert was attended by 70 people and raised £1100 ( including previously sold raffle tickets) in aid of the on-going restoration of the church building. Many thanks, once again, go to Geoff Mansfield for his tireless work in terms of organisation and to Peter Ravencroft who, on behalf of the church had offered the original invitation for us to sing and had worked with Geoff to ensure everything ran as smoothly as possible. Thanks also, as always, to the Mansfield & District Male Voice Choir music team of Meryl, Margaret and Ian for putting the programme together.

Special congratulations to Gerald and Al who made it an especially fruitful evening by winning first and third prizes respectively in the raffle ( you’ve got to be in it to win it and all that!)

The Church of St George the Martyr, North and South Clifton dates from the 13th Century. We are back in history to the Plantagenet era: to the pious Henry III ( 1216-1272 ) and Edward I ( 1272-1307), the “Hammer of the Scots”. Visitors to the church will notice that much work has been carried out recently to restore this wonderful building with funding from English Heritage and generous contributions from members of the church and the local community. It was an honour and a privilege for the Choir to sing in such a beautiful building and to be part, for the evening, of a community who care so much for its heritage and all that it stands for. 

I always stress, when writing these blog articles, that I can only ever give an impression of my personal thoughts. Others will have their own feelings about particular concerts and their will be opportunities for these voices to be heard on this website in the future.

The special memories I will take from this concert will be to have heard “Divine Mozart” – Allegro ( Sonatina in A) played so beautifully by our very own Margaret Ball. Such an appropriate choice of music. I know we have to have the right type of evening but I really would like to hear more of this. I will cherish also the memory of The Gentlemen performing Auf Fond du Temple Saint, a song which is, I understand, about loyalty and friendship between men. I appreciated just the right amount of theatrical flair so as to make the singing so very affecting.

I enjoyed that A Cole Porter Medley seems to be coming along and that we gave a better performance than last time. Going in the right direction should be cause for encouragement. My favourite part of the singing, on this occasion, though, was for the sacred pieces especially With a Voice of Singing and for the traditional hymns Morte Christe and Gwahoddiad.

But my favourite part of the whole evening was the congregational singing of Jerusalem, one of my favourite hymns and especially, on this occasion,  to see a 100 year old lady on the front row of the audience, determined, as she was, to rise from her wheelchair ( and she did, with the aid of her companion and Eric’s arm) to join in the singing.  William Blake himself would have been proud to have heard his immortal words resonating from that congregation. The old Plantagenets – “the kings who made England” – would also have been proud and this one humble chorister, he was proud too. It was a wonderful evening!

Nick Shelley