|
Miscellany was formed in 1982 when five or six friends in Clevedon, North Somerset, began exploring the choral repertoire for upper voices and chose a name to reflect the range of music that they sang. Concerts and competitions were soon regular events as the group built a reputation for delivering high-standard entertaining programmes encompassing the music of eight centuries. Now, as then, most of Miscellany’s performances are to raise funds for good causes. They have performed in venues as diverse as the Cathedrals of Bristol and Clifton, The Abbott’s Kitchen at Glastonbury Abbey, St Mary Redcliffe Church, Cheltenham Town Hall and several National Trust properties as well as numerous village halls, care homes and local churches. The group is also happy to provide music for church services, weddings, funerals and private functions. Milestones have included appearing on HTV as finalists in the ‘Sing Out’ Competition in 1996 and 2000; a weekend of concerts in Epernay, France; Miscellany’s 25th Anniversary celebration meal and concert; recording in the presence of composer Mike Westbrook seven tracks commissioned by Libby Horner for her DVD catalogue of the stained glass windows designed by Sir Frank Brangwyn RA; and more recently a concert tour of the Isle of Man in April 2014. The choir has not only been fortunate enough to find excellent singers when vacancies have arisen but also benefitted from the talents of a series of professional accompanists. Olivia Oddie, Jean Canard, Nigel Nash, Sheila Rice and Rachel Hamilton have been the successive regular accompanists while Alan Farnill, Susan Gregory, Richard Lennox and Valerie Shelton have appeared with the choir as guest accompanists on other occasions. The choir’s three charity CDs represent the variety of music that they perform, including madrigals, motets, anthems, spirituals, folk songs, part songs, twentieth century popular songs and jazzier numbers; for details and lists of tracks see CD page on this website. Having covered the professional production costs, all receipts from CD sales are given to charitable causes with donations from this source alone currently exceeding £11,000. To contact the choir please call their leader, Andrea Argent on 01275 875262 or see the Contact Page. http://www.libbyhorner.com/libby/Publications.html
http://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/mikewestbrook/mike_bio.shtml
Mike Westbrook is one of Britain's most creative, experimental and
daring jazz composers.
|
