Celebrating the return of the Community Choir
We are thrilled to announce that the Rydal Penrhos Community Choir is restarting, under the leadership of Alan McGuinness.
Formerly an Organ Scholar at Liverpool's Metropolitan Cathedral and Organist and Master of the Choristers at St Asaph Cathedral, Mr McGuinness was appointed to the Music Department this year, where he works alongside Director of Music Pete Williams.
The much-loved Community Choir was set up in 2013 to bring together the voices of our parents, former pupils, staff, and friends. It will now rehearse weekly and once again organise concerts throughout the year to raise money for local and national causes. To date, the choir have raised over £8,000 for charity.
We are lucky to have Mr McGuinness spearheading the Choir's return, after Covid restrictions forced it to disband last year.
Rehearsals will begin on Monday 8 November, from 6.30pm until 7.30pm in the Memorial Hall. Tea and coffee will be provided, and the Choir will be singing music in a variety of choral styles. Please email amcguinness@rydalpenrhos.com if you would like to join.
On this note, Brian Kay (RS 53–63) has shared with us this wonderful piece about his experiences as a choirmaster.
Those long months of lockdown have created a whole host of problems for us all and for me, as a choral and orchestral conductor, they have been deeply frustrating. Not being able to sing in a choir or play in an orchestra – two of life’s most enriching activities – has taken away a particular pleasure which adds so much to our quality and enjoyment of life: it’s only when something like this is taken away from us that we realise how very important it is.
My own 100-strong choir in my Cotswold home town of Burford is back in business and with eighteen months of gossip to catch up on, there’s hardly been time to sing! And The Really Big Chorus (Google it!) of which I am principal conductor kick-starts its return to normal activity with our annual performance of Handel’s Messiah in November, for which 4000 voices annually raise the roof of the Royal Albert Hall – the highlight of my year, every year. We are also back to travelling abroad again, with concerts next year in Budapest and Trieste, our annual summer school and a singing cruise down the Rhine. These amazing events are open to all comers with no auditions, so why not come and join us if you enjoy a good sing with a lot of like-minded enthusiasts.
I can only hope that singing and playing at Rydal Penrhos is back with a vengeance: after all, I owe my long life of amateur and professional music making to my time at Rydal, where the seeds were sown by the boundless enthusiasm and guidance of Director of Music Percy Heywood. He it was who first introduced me to so many great choral works which have formed the backbone of my life’s work and I never stop thanking my lucky stars – and Percy – and Rydal Penrhos – for laying such a positive foundation.
If you’ve never joined in the singing, give it a go – it’ll change your life. And do come and join us as The Really Big Chorus leaps back into action after the pandemic.
Brian Kay (Prep School, School House, Trojan, 53–63)
Bran conducting the Really Big Chorus
The Community Choir is not the only choir rehearsing in Rydal Penrhos – since September this year, the Memorial Hall has also housed a new group, Choirs For Good.
Like the Community Choir, Choirs For Good brings group singing to our local community. Izzy Rodrigues, choir leader for Choirs For Good Conwy, has shared this introduction to the group.
Born in the midst of the global pandemic, Choirs For Good was set up by a group of like-minded choir leaders who wanted to use the power of choirs and group singing to connect and empower people and communities.
Having begun rehearsals on Zoom, as restrictions lifted Choirs For Good ran a series of outdoor COVID safe singing workshops across the country, including four in North Wales.
On Tuesday 21 September Choirs For Good Conwy held their first ever weekly rehearsal in Rydal Penrhos's Memorial Hall. A total of 60 choristers sang across two groups and a number of measures were in place to keep people safe.
Choirs For Good exists to help people Feel Good and Do Good, For Good. Singing together is about much more than singing itself. Choirs are communities of people from all backgrounds, with all the richness and life-experience that combining large groups of people together can bring. Communities are a powerful force for change, and we believe that by placing choirs at the heart of local communities it has the potential to do good for society.
We know that these two factors – positively impacting physical and mental health and wellbeing, and effecting positive change in local communities – can be transformative. We want to support people in feeling good about themselves, whether that’s finding their voice or giving back to society. We see a future where group singing is accessible to everyone, for the whole of their life. •
Choirs For Good Conwy rehearsing in the Memorial Hall
