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Amazing evening at Wentworth Church!!

Article Date: 31 July 2017

On 29th July the choir joined with Barnburgh Village Singers ladies choir and guest artistes to present an evening to remember! The beautiful Holy Trinity church at Wentworth Church was virtually packed to capacity with what turned out to be a very appreciative audience.

The Village Singers started the performance with a selection of songs which was very well received by the audience. Of particular note for me was their rendition of Adiemus by Karl Jenkins, the tribal atmosphere of the music being enhanced admirably by William Roper on Djembe. How the ladies remembered the ‘words’ is beyond me – in this piece Jenkins uses the human voice to create a unique ‘vocal orchestra’ to enhance his music.

Their set ended with a superb performance of Can’t Help Loving That Man by guest mezzo soprano Beverley Davis-Clegg.

The BMVC ‘Men in Black’ followed with their own solo contribution, which again was enthusiastically received. Previously unknown linguistic abilities were evident in their rendition of Nessun Dorma, sung in Italian.  The choir is grateful that if mistakes were made, any listeners fluent in Italian kept mum!!

After the break the two choirs were joined by soloist Beverly Davis-Clegg to perform as the Dearne Valley Festival Chorus. We sang John Rutter’s cycle of seven well-known spirituals, “Feel the Spirit,” which had been brilliantly adapted by BMVC Musical Director Andris Ugulis to include the innovative use of keyboards and percussion. The performance brought a standing ovation from the audience, so presumably we did justice to the piece!

The evening ended in true patriotic style with the audience enthusiastically joining the choirs for a rousing performance of Jerusalem, Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory in traditional ‘Last Night of the Proms’ style.

I was gratified to hear one couple say that “We’d have gladly paid twice what we paid for that performance!”

Praise indeed.