Summer Serenade 2024

Clitheroe Parish Church AODS Show Choir of 45 singers perform in a beautiful setting St Mary Magdalene Church with back drop of a glorious stained-glass window framing the choir from behind.  

Director David Hulme puts the choir through their paces with an eclectic section of songs from the shows to entertain I’m happy to say to a mixed age group audience. Accompanist was the talanted Trevor Lord. The men were dressed smartly in black trousers with white shirts and the ladies in black with a style of their choosing but all tied in with coloured chiffon scarves - again the placement of the scarf was the individual’s choosing, giving a simple but striking effect of cohesion.

With some 22 numbers in the programme, I will only select a few to mention.

The full Choir opened with an Oklahoma Medley which was a delight and shows the full strength of the choir.

Daryl Dewhurst if a little nervous to start soon found his flow and gave a heartfelt Mr Cellophane from Chicago. The ladies singing May It Be from The Lord of The Rings was hauntingly beautiful with divine harmonies. 

Somewhere That’s Green from Little Shop of Horror sung by Cate Longhi whose voice was perfect for the song. Marry the Man Today had great energy by Sam Smith and Kate Walker. Lesley Howarth sang The Colours Of My Life just beautifully and the emotion really came through the song. The first half finished with the full choir doing a My Fair Lady Medley

The opening to the second act was powerful with the full choir doing Steal Your Rock ‘n’ Roll from Memphis. Rose Hurley, Milly Wardle and Katie Cowburn-Green sang the very difficult Any Way The Wind Blows from Hadestown which was amazing and they worked well together. What was evident was the support they gave to each other with encouraging looks.  Director David Hulme gave us You’ll Be Back from Hamilton and he certainly had fun with it and we did watching it. I don’t know the musical Shucked so great to hear something new brought to us by Milly Wardle singing Woman of The World (I will look out for that musical now). If I may be permitted a favourite Sophie Zak singing On My Own from Les Misérables was an absolute delight. No gimmicks - just sung pure – beautiful, Sophie. The choir finished with Leap of Faith which allowed some solos and was the perfect ending giving one and all faith in this hobby that we love going from strength to strength.

Thank you so much for the hospitality and lovely welcome from your committee members and a mention to all the hard-working front of house and the people doing refreshments.

From guest Kathryn and I.

 

Liz Hume-Dawson

D5 Rep

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