Category Archives: Capel Choral Society

Capel Choral Society: A successful Festival!

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Capel Choral Society had a very successful day at the Leith Hill Music Festival on 14th April. The small choir, about half the size of some of its competitors in the morning competitions achieved two second places, one of them in the Full Chorus Class. Very complimentary reports were received from the adjudicators, and some resounding applause from the audience which consisted mainly of signers from the other choirs.

On the Sunday after the Festival a reception was held to bid farewell to its outgoing Festival conductor, Brian Kay. Presentations were made to Brian in presence of signers from all the choirs, and his predecessor Bill Llewellyn and successor Jonathan Wilcox.

Buoyed bu its success at the Festival, the Capel Choral society is now rehearsing for its summer concert, in Capel Memorial Hall. The concert is entitled Encore!, which reflects both the title of the book of songs from which some of the programme is taken, and the fact that some of the songs have been performed by the Choir before, but in most cases not for several years. The event is on Saturday 25th June starting at 7pm, and will take the form of Capel Choral’s popular ‘supper concert’ so the ticket price of £7.50 will include a buffet meal.

You can order tickets through Capel Choral Society’s Ticket Secretary. Yvonne Almond -contact her on 01403 269884 or email yvonneallmond@aol.com.

For more information about Capel Choral Society and how to join, contact the Secretary Ian Moir at ianmoir20@yahoo.com see also the choir’s website www.capelchoralsociety.com

Capel Choral Society Results in the Leith Hill Music Festival

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2nd in the 2nd part of the Haydn Harmoniemesse(B) Full Chorus.

3rd in ladies song Tread Softly. Alan Bullard

2nd in Part Song, Three Hungarian Folk Songs. Matyas Seiber.

2nd in Ensemble, In These Delightful Pleasant Groves. Henry Purcell

3rd in Open Class. My Spirit Sang all Day. Gerald Finzi

Capel were very pleased with their results.

This ear was the last under the inspired leadership of Brian Kay. The good news is that Jonathan Wilcox has been appointed to succeed him.

AS

Capel Choral Society – Leith Hill Festival

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Capel Choral Society is now into the last couple of rehearsals before its big day at the Leith Hill Musical Festival on 14th April. The Choir,  small in number compared with  some of its rivals in the morning Competitions, is making the most of the set music which this year suits a fairly small choir. To this end the Conductor, Peter Ford, has been working the singers hard, concentrating on dynamics, expression and diction. The Haydn Harmoniemesse (‘Wind band mass’) was written for a church

choir, while the other  full scale work,  the Serenade to music by Vaughan Williams  was written for  just

16 soloists, in honour  of Sir Henry  Wood’s 50 years as a conductor.

The other, smaller, works  on which the Choir  is working  also have to be sung in the Competitions and these also suit a smaller choir, so a similar amount of effort  is being dedicated to these pieces each of which forms one of the Classes in the Competitions: Part Song, Madrigal, Ladies’ Song, Men’s Song, Ensemble (for groups of up to  12 singers) and an own Choice piece. The Part Song is actually a group of three folk songs by the Hungarian composer  Matyas Seiber, which are about some rather  strange goings-on in a Hungarian village! The Madrigal is All creatures now, by John Bennett, and is one of

many ‘Oriana’ madrigals in praise of Queen Elizabeth I, and the Men’s Song is a setting of Newbolt’s The Old Superb by Stanford – ‘Westward Ho to Trinidad, and Eastward Ho to Spain!’.

The Choir  will be getting rather  nervous as 14th April approaches, but also looking forward  to this great occasion of music making, although with some sadness too as it bids farewell to Brain Kay, the Festival Conductor of the last 21 years.

It is not too late to book tickets for the first two  nights of the Festival, but the last night (16th April)

which includes a performance  of Verdi’s dramatic Requiem is now sold out.  You can order  tickets through Capel Choral Society’s Ticket Secretary, Yvonne Allmond- contact her on 01403 269884, or ernail yvonneallmond@aol.com .

For more information about Capel Choral Society and how to  join, contact the Secretary, lan Moir at ianmoir20@yahoo.com or phone him on 01306 889817

See also the choir’s  website, www.capelchoralsociety.com

Christmas, Cakes & Carols

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Tickets are now available for Capel Choral Society’s ‘Christmas Home’ concert on Monday 7th December in Capel Memorial hall starting at 7:30pm which includes the traditional mulled wine and mince pies. The Choir will be singing four choruses from Handel’s Messiah, including Hallelujah! interspersed with some less familiar pieces. There will also be of course be Christmas carols, some familiar, some perhaps new to you. Contact the choir Secretary to book, details below – tickets will also be available on the door.

From 2:30pm the following Sunday, 13th December, the Choir will be in the church of St John the Baptist, Cpale when it will be leading the singing in Cakes & Carols, an informal afternoon of Carol singing, when you will be able to choose your favourite carol to sing – anything from ‘Little Donkey’ to ‘Hark the Herald’!

Entrance is free, but for 50p there will be drinks and a selection of cakes, and there will be a raffle. The Festive Season will be no doubt be over far too soon, and in the New year the Choir will be turning its attention back to the music for the Leith Hill Music Festival in which it will be singing on Thursday 14th April 2015. New singers are warmly invited to join the Choir and sing with us in the Festival; men as always will be particularly welcome!

Please contact the Secretary if you would like to discover the very enjoyable experience of choral singing.

See information about, and pictures of the choir on our website www.capelchoralsociety.com or contact our Secretary at ianmoir20@yahoo.com or phone 01306 889817.

Capel Choral Society: Christmas at home!

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‘Home’ for Capel Choral Society is the Memorial Hall in Capel village, and that is where the choir will be holding its Christmas Concert on Monday 7th December. The programme will include the ‘Christmas’ choruses from Handel’s messiah (including Hallelujah!) interspersed with some less familiar pieces by Rossini, Saint Saens and Mendelssohn. There will also be some favourite Christmas Carols for the audience to join in.

The concert will start at 7:30pm and ticket prices is £7.50 which includes seasonal refreshments.

In addition to the concert, the Choir will be hosting Cakes & Carols in Capel Parish church on Sunday 13th December, which will be an opportunity to joint he Choir in an informal afternoon of carol singing, including all the most popular Carols.

The Choir is now well into its 2015/16 season and is already looking forwards to the 2016 Leith Hill Music Festival and have started learning Haydn’s Harmoniemesse and some of the smaller pieces which it will be performing in the Competitions on the morning of its Festival day next April. The Choir will only start serious rehearsal of this music in the New Year however and has only scratched the surface of these pieces so far, so there is still plenty of time for new singers to join Capel Choral and be able to ‘cats up’ easily, sopranos, altos. tenors and basses will all be very welcome – but particularly Men!

See information and pictures of the choir on our website www.capelchoralsociety.com or contact our Secretary at ianmoir20@yahoo.com or phone 01306 889817

Capel Choral Society – New Year Choral prospects

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Our thanks to all those who came to our Christmas concert, or to hear us sing carols at Polesden Lacey the day before and we hope you enjoyed the seasonal music as much as we did singing it.

With Christmas behind us Capel Choral Society is eagerly looking forward to 2015 and the forthcoming Leith Hill Musical Festival. We shall be singing on the second day, 10th April, of the Festival in Oorking Halls when in the morning we will be competing against the other three choirs in our Division, Buckland & Betchworth, Holmbury St Mary. and Oxshott. The set works are Mendelssohn’s joyful Hymn of praise, and a new piece by Bob Chilcott, Dances of time, which was commissioned by the Festival. The latter is a very enjoyable and singable work.

In the afternoon of the Festival all the choirs join together to rehearse the music with full orchestra and soloists and the Festival conductor. Brian Kay, for the concert in the evening. The new Bob Chilcott work has been written in honour of Brian’s 20th year with the Festival -sadly Brian has announced his intention to retire after the 2016 Festival. which will be a great loss and a very hard act to follow.

January is a very good time for anyone who would like to experience the enjoyment and challenges of choral singing to come and give it a go ~ we shall be very pleased to welcome new singers, particularly men! So if you like singing, please give us a call.

See information about, and pictures of, the choir on our web site, www.capekhoralsociety.com . -or contact our Secretary at secretary@capelchoralsociety.com

or phone 0 I 306 712365

A birthday and Christmas

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Capel Choral Society on TV – whatever next?

After their appearance on BBC’s Countryfile on 12th October, the choir were surprised and delighted by the messages received from former signers and long-ost friends, and would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for their good wishes.

And what is next? Well, it was a birthday – the Choir was founded on 22nd October 1904, so we celebrated the 110th anniversary of the meeting that agreed that ‘there was sufficient musical talent in the village to form the society’.  The Choir took part in the inaugural Leith Hill Musical Festival in 1905, and has participated in every Festival since; it is the only Festival choir with this record. At our usual Monday rehearsal nearest the date there was a ceremonial cutting of a cake and a drinking of toasts, while remembering all the singers, music and conductors in the Choir’s long history.

Then it was back to work – we have now started rehearsing for the Christmas Season during which we will be singing carols at Polesden Lacey on 14th December, at the invitation of the National Trust, closely followed by our Christmas Concert on Monday the 15th.

At the Christmas Concert the choir will be performing the delightful Messe de Minuit by Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704); the work is based on dance tunes of the period. We will also be singing two settings of O Magnum Mysterium by two composers born 400 ears apart, William Bryd and Mortem Lauridsen.

The concert will be in the church of St John the Baptist, Capel starting at 7:30pm, and tickets are £7.50 which includes our traditional mulled wine and mince pied afterwards. For advance bookings, please contact our Secretary, details below.

We shall be very pleased to welcome you at the concert or at Polesden, or at rehearsals in the New Year when we will be preparing for the 2015 Leith Hill Festival in the Spring – with the prospect of singing the new piece Dances of Time especially written for the Festival by the world famous composer Bob Chilcott.

See information about, and pictures of, the choir on our website, www.capelchoralsociety.com or contact our Secretary at secretary@capelchoralsociety.com or phone 01306 712365

Support Our Singers

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Thank you to all of you who came to our concert on 7th June, and i hope you enjoyed the music – and the food! You may have seen a photo in the Dorking Advertiser.

The concert was given by a little more than half our current singers, which means we are at present a rather small choir – at the Leith Hill Music Festival we were the smallest choir taking part by quite a large margin.

Capel Choral Society has a very long history –  it is now approaching its 110th anniversary, having been founded in October 1904, in order to take part in the first Leith Hill music Festival the following year. Since then the Choir has had its ups, winning its Division in the Festival Competitions on many occasions, and downs, when members of singers have shrunk – on one occasion, in the 1920’s, this prompted the conductor Mr Gore (the local schoolmaster) to pronounce that unless more tenors were recruited he would recommend that the choir should be disbanded!

In recent years due to a number of factors, (singers leaving the area, illness, work commitments, or just anon domino) Capel’s numbers have once again shrunk and we are beginning to feel rather small in the company of other choirs. Various initiatives have been taken to increase numbers, but while we have been happy to welcome a few new singers, the departure of others has resulted in a net fall in numbers. The situation has reached a point where the low number of singers (particularly tenors!) is also having an adverse effect on the Choir’s finances – without an unpopular increase in subscriptions the financial reserves will gradually decrease. This will threaten the feature of Capel Choral Society and its participation in the Leith Hill Music Festival, of which Capel is one of the two remaining founding members.

We therefore ask you to seriously consider if YOU would like to sing with us – we are a friendly enthusiastic group who really enjoy meeting on Monday evenings to make music together. We maintain that most people can sing, and all Festival choirs encourage people to take part by not imposing an audition or requiring you be able to read music. Singing in a  choir is a most enjoyable experience – which also has known health benefits!

We urge you to at least give us a try, and guarantee the future of the society which has been part of the village life for over 100 years.

See information about, and pictures of, the choir on our website, www.capelchoralsociety.com or contact our Secretary at secretary@capelchoralsociety.com or phone 01306 712365

‘Thank You Capel Choral Society’

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‘Thank You Capel Choral Society’ for your Teas and Tunes Concert on the afternoon of the 7th June! The singing was up to your high standard – a good mixture for all tastes! The excellent, bountiful Teas, were equally appreciated by all tastes! It really was a wonderful blending of sound and substance. Congratulations to you all for making is such an enjoyable afternoon. We look forward to a repeat performance!

Mary and Harry Collis

Capel Choral Society – Teas and Tunes

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Did you see our picture in the patter? A full page report in the Dorking Advertiser was great for the Leith Hill Festival, in which the Capel Choral Society has taken place for over 100 years. The Festival was a marvellous opportunity for us to take part in the evening concert, with professional orchestra and soloists, and to make really great music. We were applauded by the enthusiastic audience, together with the composer of one of the works who was present to receive our plaudits.

You will be very welcome at our next confer – one on a slightly smaller scale. In face we’re inviting you to join us for Teas and Tunes – an informal afternoon of music on Saturday 7th June, in the Memorial Hall, starting at 3:30pm, combining a scrumptious tea with a variety of short songs and arrangements, from a jokey setting of ‘Old Mother Hubbard’s in the style of Handel to Eric Whitacres beautiful Seal Lullaby, words by Kipling.

The ticket price, including tea and cakes is £7.

For more information and tickets, please contact Ian Moir on 01306 889817, email ian.moir@csmaclub.org see you on the 7th June!

Ian Moir