Tuesday 1 February 2011

Cantilena Ushers in Christmas....

When we chose 11th December 2010 as the date for our autumn concert at St Mary's, Glastonbury, we did have some concerns about the clash with the carol concert at Wells Cathedral and the Frost Fair concert at St John's Glastonbury. Glastonbury was heaving that evening with revellers from the fair; would St Mary's be heaving too?

We needn't have worried! For our first concert at St Mary's in eight years and also the first under the baton of Tony Bevan in about the same time, we had a nearly capacity audience.

The Orchestra put together for the occasion produced a truly musical interpretation and there was palpable excitement in the church.

We were pretty strict about sticking to the Advent theme with readings from Rowan Williams,  Isiah & "Cider with Rosie". The audience joined in with Advent carols with considerable enthusiasm. And Bach's beautiful "Wachet Auf" brought the evening to a most satisfying close.

We'd offered to showcase St Margaret's Hospice , and their representative, Sue Medlicott explained to the audience the importance of the work the Hospice does, believing that every human life has a value and should be lived to the full, even it its last moments. Contributions from audience members topped £250.00.

And let's not forget the mince pies from Burns the Bread! Delicious smells of mulled wine lured audience members into the adjacent church hall and they attacked the heaped plates of mince pies, washing them down with the wine.

It's so rewarding to be able to combine the pleasure of singing beautiful music with supporting a very good cause. In fact, I think that people who chose St John's or Wells Cathedral over us were missing out!

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