News

Guy’s heroic endeavour to walk from Land’s End to John ‘O Groats was followed eagerly by members of the choir in the summer. We are now able to announce that, as one of Guy’s four charities selected to benefit from the funds raised by his walk,  Bingham and District Choral Society will receive £3,121.60 . This is a splendid boost to the choir’s finances at a time when extra resources are badly needed. We are  hugely grateful to Guy and wish him every success in completing the walk in shorter stages over the next year or two.

LAND’S END TO …. ER …. ELLESMERE

Despite a great start, local musician Guy Turner’s solo attempt to walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats was cut short at Ellesmere. He woke up with a very painful foot, which was diagnosed as Plantar Fasciitis, brought on by constant heavy duty walking, and was forced to call a halt to the walk.

Guy has now returned to Nottinghamshire and his work as a singer in Southwell Minster Choir, and conducting Bingham Choral Society.

Despite the great disappointment, Guy prefers to emphasise the positive! He walked 468 miles in 28 walking days, which averages nearly 17 miles per day. He survived long walks and high hills during the heat wave. He has raised over £18,000 for his four charities. He met lots of interesting people and saw some amazing scenery. Even though shorter than planned it is an adventure he will never forget.

He plans to complete the journey over the next couple of years, but in short sections.

If you would like to read about his walk, all the daily blogs can still be found on his website, as can details of the charities and how to donate.

https://guyscottturner.wixsite.com/guygoesnorth

Here are some images  of our lunchtime concert with Scunthorpe Choral Society  at St Mary’s Church Newark on Saturday 18th June 2022, followed by a celebration lunch and a presentation of a set of Jubilee mugs to our founder and first Musical Director, Neville Ward. Our special thanks go to James Turner, the photographer.

Our splendid 50th anniversary mug is now on sale. It will be a lovely memento of this special year. Sincere thanks to choir member Linda Hunter for her brilliant artwork.

The results of our Composing Competition are now known and the winner is George Parris, from Kinoulton (and at Manchester University) for his piece called ‘A Psalmic Fantasia’ a setting, in Latin, of verses from Psalm 7. It last just over 8 minutes and will open our concert (initially scheduled for April 24^th 2021, but we must wait and see when), when we will also sing Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and the Rutter Requiem.

The standard of entries was high, and the judges enjoyed looking at and listening to them.

The identities of the composers were only told to the judges after the winner had been selected.

Judges were the choir’s Musical Director, Guy Turner, Ellie Martin, conductor of Mansfield Choral Society and David Machell, Lowdham based composer and concert promoter.

George’s piece is in a modern, but approachable, idiom, well written for an amateur choir, and although the choir will have to work to bring it off, it is not as hard as some previous pieces which the choir has performer successfully.

This is separate from the Easyfundraising scheme.  You can nominate the choir as a beneficiary under Amazon Smile by clicking on this link. Please ensure that you enter the choir’s name as follows:

Bingham and District Choral Society.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/ch/503557-0

Choir members tuning into Anne-Marie Minhall’s afternoon programme on Classic FM last Friday (18th January, 2019) were delighted to hear a request from  Brad Poulson being aired on behalf of BDCS. Here is the clip for those who missed it. The Rutter piece chosen for Brad and the choir was the Requiem Aeternam.  Well done Brad for putting the choir out there!

John Rutter, the legendary composer and conductor of choral music, came to lead a Singing Day at The Minster School, Southwell, on Saturday at the invitation of the Bingham and District Choral Society.  Judith Unell, Publicity Officer for the choir, says, ‘We just couldn’t believe our luck when John agreed to do this for us because he has such an incredibly busy schedule of international commitments. We feel very honoured’  The Singing Day was widely advertised and quickly sold out with more than 300 people attending.   Four young members of the Minster Girls’ Choir helped ensure that things ran smoothly on the day and also took the opportunity to pose for a photo with John.

His exuberant and warm personality enabled everyone to relax and experience the joy of singing, but also to benefit from his immense knowledge of vocal technique. There were plenty of highly entertaining anecdotes too, drawn from his rich musical career.  The choice of musical pieces ranged from the poignant and delicate ‘Who is Silvia’ by British composer George Shearing to the storming adaptation by John himself of `When the Saints go Marching In’ at the end of an uplifting, entertaining and unforgettable day.

“It was a real privilege to have the chance to sing with John Rutter; he is a superb facilitator and raconteur as well as an outstanding musician, and he is so right that people rarely get the chance just to sing good music, not prepare for a performance!  His suggestions for improvement were so well paced and mostly limited to the morning when we could all expect to be fresher.  And the Hallelujah chorus after lunch is the best solution I’ve come across to what I have usually heard described as ‘the graveyard slot’!”

“I am dropping you a note to say thank you to you and to everyone in the Bingham Choral Society for organising the wonderful day we all enjoyed so much last Saturday. I have sung many Rutter works over the years including his Gloria and Requiem but had never had the opportunity to experience working with him or to be able to thank him for the joy he has given. Sadly, my husband died at the end of July last year and I chose The Lord Bless You and Keep You as the choir anthem for his funeral, it was very special and very poignant when we sang it on Saturday.”

“Just a note to say thank you to all concerned for the John Rutter singing day on Saturday.  It was a wonderful day when if we weren’t singing we were smiling.  So uplifting!

The whole choir was very sad to hear of Tony Goldstone’s death, on January 2^nd.  Tony and his wife and duettist partner Caroline Clemmow had become our firm friends and musical collaborators over a number of years, and our thoughts and sympathies go out to Caroline.

Anthony Goldstone was born in Liverpool in 1944.  His family moved to Manchester where he attended Manchester Grammar School.  He studied piano at the Royal Manchester School of Music, and continued with Maria Curcio, who had been a pupil of the legendary Artur Schnabel.  Tony enjoyed early success, appearing at the Last Night of the Proms in 1976, playing an early Britten work for left hand piano and orchestra.  After the concert was broadcast, the composer wrote to him, ‘Thank you most sincerely for that brilliant performance of my Diversions.’

Tony and Caroline began playing together in 1984, quickly having great success, and they married in 1989.  There is a surprisingly large repertoire of music, better known in other formats, which has been arranged for either piano duet or two pianos.  Tony added extensively to this by making many of his own arrangements.  Their discography includes over twenty CDs, with music by a full range of composers from Mozart to the present day.  Last December they issued a disc of Vaughan Williams arrangements, including his Symphony No. 5 and the Tallis Fantasia, that is especially recommended (Albion Records ALBCD031).

Tony and Caroline lived near Scunthorpe, and it was through Neville Ward’s work with Scunthorpe Choral Society that they came to the notice of the Bingham Choir.  In 2006 they played with us in a concert of music by John Rutter, Bob Chilcott and George Gershwin, with Neville conducting.  We repeated that programme in autumn 2015, when it became the first concert that Guy Turner conducted on becoming our Musical Director in succession to Neville.  It was a great success and the joy given to the audience by some additional duets that Caroline and Tony played was duly noted.  We therefore invited them to give us a complete concert of duets.

That concert took place last September, before a packed audience in Bingham Church.  One of the highlights of a spellbinding evening was the second half wholly devoted to Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the animals, with the poems of John Lithgow narrated by Guy Turner.  Sadly, that wonderful concert was to be one of Tony Goldstone’s last public performances.