Blog

Update – Aug 2017

Saturday, 29th July, will always be remembered as the day we joined forces with the Barnburgh Male Voice Choir to perform John Rutter’s cycle of spirituals – Feel the Spirit – at Wentworth Church. Having worked on the pieces since January, sometimes flagging along the way, it was most uplifting and gave us a great sense of achievement. What a splendid evening! Thank you to the Male Voice Choir, to Andris and to all the ladies in the choir who worked solidly to learn the music.

So now we become two choirs again. The Village Singers will be busy in September with a concert at the United Reform Church at Intake in Doncaster on Thursday, 14th, and another concert on Saturday, 23rd at St. Andrew’s Church in Epworth.

We have six dates to confirm for December – but Carols on the Green in Barnburgh will be on Friday, 8th December at 6.30pm with the Village Singers and Rockingham Band. Everyone welcome.

News Update – Feb 2017

Now for something entirely new!

We are teaming up with our counterparts, the Barnburgh Male Voice Choir, to form a mixed choir in order to perform a cycle of spirituals arranged by John Rutter, entitled ‘Feel the Spirt’. This is an exciting development for both choirs. As yet, we have no definite venue or date; we are still in the early stages of learning the music, but the concert will be well advertised when the everything is finalised. We hope that you will come along and support us on the night!

New Year Message – Jan 2017

Our first major outing of Christmas was our Carols on the Green event which is always well attended by some two hundred or so villagers. After the big tree lights were illuminated, down came the rain, so we all trooped into St. Peter’s Church and held the event in there. It was rather full – but a good natured carol fest ensued; Rockingham Band were really good sports, and there was mulled wine and mince pies in abundance.

A regular event on our Christmas programme is the concert in Swinton Church sponsored by Mexborough Rotary Club. It is always a splendid evening which we share with Rockingham Band and Swinton Queen Street School Choir. It goes without saying that the children are the stars of the show – and well deserved!

Then, the third of our trilogy of church evenings was held at Goldthorpe Church, when we were invited to share the concert with the Thurnscoe Harmonic Male Voice Choir – our last event before Christmas. Our relationship with this choir goes back almost to when we first started singing some fifteen years ago. With these events and a few carol singing engagements at other venues – we had a busy time of it.

We have much to look forward to in 2017. We are hosting another visit from the Donaghadee Male Voice Choir from County Down at the beginning of May – there will be two concert evenings on Friday, 5th May and Saturday, 6th May. Thurnscoe Male Voice Choir will also be joining us for this weekend. More details of concert venues as they become available.

Finally, something new and exciting. We are hoping to join forces with our counterparts the Barnburgh Male Voice Choir for a joint concert with a difference. Both choirs are learning a cycle of Spirituals arranged for mixed voices by John Rutter, entitled ‘Feel the Spirit’- so sopranos, altos, tenors and basses all singing together. We haven’t even started learning the music as I write, but will post more details about the performance later in the year.

Happy New Year from us all.

Julia and the Barnburgh Village Singers.

News Update – Feb 2014

Last year we welcomed another pianist, Julie Smith, to our fold. Our pianist Michael can’t always be with us due to irregular work commitments. We hope it will be a long and happy partnership!

We were also pleased to have finally sorted ourselves a new uniform, after much disappointment and anguish! Finding an item of clothing that suits thirty six women – don’t go there!

2013 was another busy year of concerts, weddings and days out. December saw the usual hectic round of carol singing. Hopefully, there will be pictures in our gallery section of choir singing at the wedding of Michael and Rachel in December.

News Update – Feb 2013

Last year, (2012), we celebrated our tenth year of singing together. During those years we have grown from a small group of about a dozen singers to our present choir which has thirty six singers, a pianist and deputy pianist.

We still enjoy our links with local and not-so-local Male Voice Choirs and performed with the Barnburgh Male Voice Choir last April – a joint concert to celebrate our ten years and their thirty years!

Some of our members also visited the Donaghadee Male Voice Choir in Northern Ireland in October as they had a party to celebrate their seventy five years, then at Christmas we shared a concert with the celebrated Thurnscoe Harmonic Male Voice Choir! (We get around with the lads!)

We held our own anniversary party in our Village Hall on October 20th last year with invited guests. We enjoyed a splendid buffet and danced the night away to the music of the Luke Cannon Trio.

By the end of the year, we finally got around to sorting out a new uniform, so we look forward to wearing that for our spring concerts, 2013. (See diary section)

We continually strive to maintain a comprehensive programme of music and this year we hope to add Mozart’s ‘Ave Verum’ and Faure’s ‘Cantique de Jean Racine’ to our programme, along with more African folk songs, songs from the shows and a couple of gospel songs. (See our updated list).

Many thanks to all our regular supporters and to Julian for maintaining our website.

Julia and the Barnburgh Village Singers.

News Update – May 2010

It is several weeks since we said ‘Au revoir’ to our friends in the Donaghadee Male Voice choir from Northern Ireland. What a weekend! The two concerts they gave, accompanied by our choir on the Friday night and four of our local Male Voice Choirs on the Sunday night, were hugely successful and an opportunity for old friends to get together and share our love of choral music.

The Barnburgh Village Singers gave one of their best performances ever, as well as excelling themselves in the catering department, providing supper on Friday and Sunday luncheon for our guests. We hope to be visiting Northern Ireland again in the not too distant future!

At the end of April, we said a sad ‘farewell’ to our long-time pianist, Jonathan Storer, who has been with us since 2003. Unfortunately, pressures of life and work made it difficult for him to continue enjoying our company! Many thanks Jonathan, for helping us to grow and flourish over the past few years – and best wishes for your future!

Happily, we have managed to find a young man to take over from Jonathan. His name is Michael Towle, and he is very busy getting to know our repertoire, and learning how to be patient with thirty odd feisty ladies! We hope to be ‘back on the road’, and available for concerts and other bookings after our summer break.