Easter has come and gone and a large number of the Chorus and Friends cherish wonderful memories of singing in Cape Town, South Africa. Your can read comments from Friends (some singers and some partners) describing their personal ‘best moments’ in the Tour 2005 section of this site. With this brief account of the entire Tour we have a lovely montage of photographs taken by Kathy and Richard Lord, do visit the Tour 2005 area.

Congratulations to Val Brockbank and Heather Johnson for their stamina and unflagging enthusiasm in organising the Tour and surmounting all sorts of problems – a mammoth task. Our Musical Director, Sarah Tenant-Flowers, came very close to missing the Tour due to health problems. Sarah deserves a medal for her sheer guts and determination to be with us in Cape Town! Not many people would even consider flying anywhere so soon after undergoing spinal surgery. Sarah spent the 12-hour flight to Cape Town mainly standing or walking up and down the aisles, knowing that over the next few days she faced taking rehearsals with us and the Cape Town Philharmonic Choir, with the soloists and the Orchestra, and finally conducting two performances of The Messiah. Sarah must have been in considerable pain and discomfort, but still managed to enthuse the Cape Town Choir with her fresh approach to Handel’s popular, but often abused, masterpiece. They loved her style of conducting and interpretation and wanted to keep her over there! “No Way!” said Harlow Chorus! The City Hall was virtually full for the two performances and both received standing ovations. Our hosts gave us a great finale party in the City Hall, friendships were forged with fellow-singers, and speeches and presentations were made.

All in all, the Tour was a great experience that we all enjoyed. There were excellent excursions available during the first week, organised by Achim and Jenny Beyer of Estate Tours. For the second week, people went on a variety of tours, the majority going on the six-day tour of the Garden Route. We saw stunning scenery, watched wild animals in game reserves, visited vineries and amazing caves, went on steam trains and boats, swam in the Indian Ocean, ate and drank superbly, met interesting people and lazed (just occasionally!) in the sun. Ahhhh!

Now to recap – All Saints Church, Hockerill, was the venue for our last concert on 5^th March – ‘Passio’ – music for Lent. Solo soprano Anne-Marie Cullum sang beautifully to great acclaim. Paul Ayres deputized for Sarah as conductor and the organ soloist was Malcolm Hicks. Susan Graham Smith, our regular accompanist, had also helped us enormously by taking some rehearsals leading up to the performance. The concert was well received by a good-sized audience and very favourably reviewed in the Herts & Essex Observer by Kevin Goss as “passionate and dramatic – an excellent concert for Passiontide”. You can read the full review here.

Rehearsals for our next concert, on Saturday 14^th May, resumed the day after we flew back from Cape Town and I am happy to say that Sarah is very much better and busy whipping us into shape for Transport of Delight. This is an evening of parlour songs and musical anecdotes designed to entertain and amuse with works by Gilbert & Sullivan and Flanders & Swann. Jeremy Jackman (former King’s Singer) is both a soloist and our presenter. Pieces to be performed include, A Policeman’s Lot; A Wand’ring Minstrel I, TitWillow, and Ghosts High Noon (G&S); and The Gas-man cometh, The Hippopotamus, Misalliance, Slow train, Ill Wind, and M’deira M’dear? (F&S). These songs have been especially arranged for choir performance and are a delight to sing (but also quite difficult!) and great fun to hear, so do tell your friends and encourage them to come. Tickets are £12 or £10 concessions, and only £2 for students.

I was pleased to see some Friends at our Open Evening on 7^th March and am happy to report that we have recruited quite a few new members who have successfully passed their auditions. Total Chorus numbers fluctuate, as people who are on short-term contracts in the Harlow area join and then leave due to work commitments, but we are maintaining and slightly increasing our overall numbers.

Great news! Harlow Chorus has just received £10,000 from the Arts Council towards the Stravinsky project. Cameron Sinclair has been commissioned to compose a new work to partner Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, to be performed on 6^th November 2005, with the Southend Boys & Girls Choirs and the Britten Sinfonia. We have to thank especially Sarah and Christine Hall (our Treasurer) and our hard-working Committee for the enormous amount of work they have put into obtaining the grant money to fund this project. It has been a very long haul, but we are there! Please make a note in your diary now to come to this exciting and prestigious event.

Fund-raising on the Home Front continues apace and our next event is a Plant and Cake Sale on Saturday 21^st May, 10.00 – 12.00 noons at The Arc, Old Harlow. This was a huge success last year and everything went very quickly, so COME EARLY if you want to be sure of some mouth-watering cakes and excellent plants at very good prices! Imelda continues running the Chorus Slimming Club (where does she get her energy?), Fiona Smith organises our small choir service – ideal for Weddings!

I look forward to meeting you at a concert soon – hopefully on 14^thMay, or if you cannot make that date, at Thaxted on Sunday 17^th July. There are some changes for this concert; we have Wendy Dawn Thompson (Mezzo), and the Chorus will also be singing Parry’s I Was Glad. 2005 is the Year of the Sea – hence our choice of Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, and Sea Pictures by Elgar. Our other soloists are Lynda Russell (soprano) and William Berger (Baritone) with the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra. Tickets have been selling fast, so do not risk disappointment by leaving it too late! Friends – do let me know if you want seats in unreserved areas saved under the Friends Scheme.

Whilst thinking about Thaxted, Mark Wilde (Tenor and Counter-Tenor) is giving a ‘Scottish Recital’ on Saturday 2^nd July at 8.00pm at Thaxted Church. The programme includes songs by Haydn, Beethoven, Britten, and Quilter. Mark’s accompanist is David Owen Norris, who will play the first half of the programme on his fortepiano. Tickets are Reserved R1 £15 or R2 £12. Unreserved £9 and £7 concessions and can be obtained direct from the Festival Office, Clarance House, Thaxted CM6 2PJ; Tel/Fax: 01371 831421 (credit card phone line).

Meanwhile, all good wishes to you and thanks for your continued support for Harlow Chorus and choral music – it is very much appreciated.

With all good wishes,