Weybridge Male Voice Choir
Who Are We?
The Weybridge Male Voice Choir has been in existence for over 100 years. The choir consists of 4 male voice sections – Tenor 1, Tenor 2, Baritone and Bass giving a spine tingling four-part harmony unique to traditional male voice singing (you don’t have to be Welsh!).
There are over 50 members who sing for enjoyment, there are no auditions. Just come along any evening and try us out. We are a friendly group of guys who have fun singing together and provide fellowship.
We are led by a young Musical Director Jonathan Kilhams and accompanist Tom Kelsey who rehearse us in both traditional music such as ‘Calon Lan’ to modern songs such as ‘The Sound of Silence’. Our current piece we are learning is ‘Good Night, Dear Heart’, ‘Modino’ (a South African piece) and ‘Nessun Dorma’.
Members are provided with music, but with practice you will be able to sing off copy.
When We Meet
Every Tuesday evening from 8-10pm, with a few exceptions.
Where We Meet
The Parish Centre of St. James Church, Weybridge, Surrey KT13 8DE – Free parking in large adjacent car park.
Concerts
The choir’s main focus is to put on concerts for the Community, usually as a charitable event. These are really enjoyable events where the chance to perform is a reward for all the practice. We have 3 main concerts, where selected pieces from an extensive repertoire are performed. New pieces are gradually added as time permits.
We’re getting ready for our summer concert, and are looking forward to what promises to be a special evening. There are a few new songs, some recent additions, and some old favourites that reflect the theme of our concert, coming soon after recent VE80 commemorations. A photo of the choir celebrating VE50 has been located (see below)! We are also pleased to welcome some new members who joined us after our Spring singing course.
This time we will be joined by tenor, Charne Rochford, an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. He is a regular at Opera Holland Park in London. A few years ago he made his cinematic debut at the Venice Film Festival where he appeared in the Magic Flute directed by Kenneth Branagh, conducted by James Conlon. He has spent many years appearing in operatic roles in Britain and around Europe, and has performed with many of our major orchestras. Later this year he will sing the title role in Tannhäuser in Sofia, Bulgaria. The choir will join Charne in one of his popular operatic songs which most of our audience will recognise.
The retiring collection is for the Commonwealth War Graves Foundation, which engages and educates people of all ages and backgrounds, to tell the inspiring stories of all those men and women who died whilst fighting in the two World Wars. A brief talk will be given by their Director of Fundraising. We hope you will contribute generously to the collection. We invite our audience to join us for a glass of wine during the interval. Tickets are now on sale, so make sure you get yours soon. Buy your tickets online from: www.ticketsource.co.uk/
Our Spring concert went well at St. James, with a full church. The choir performed a mixture of traditional and modern pieces our debut song ‘Modimo’ (with drum), proved a great success. Our guest artiste, Caitlin Downie wowed the audience with both classical and musical pieces, her ‘Trolley Song’ proved a great hit! She joined the choir for a performance of Run’ that raised the roof. A retiring collection of over £1,000 was made for Princess Alice Hospice. Photo’s by Heidi White.
Cornwall International Male Choral festival
This event runs every 2 years and the choir has been involved for many years. In May 2024 they took part again, to finish 5th in the Competition, as well as singing in many Gala concerts – review attached.
Link to our Competition Performance
The choir are currently planning to go to the 2026 festival, staying in Newquay. The Music is yet to be decided but we are really looking forward to the event where we not only perform in numerous concerts and the competition but have a chance to chat with other choirs and hear their repertoire.
Article: Weybridge Men Make Waves in Cornwall
The Weybridge Male Voice Choir travelled down to Cornwall on May Bank Holiday weekend to take part in the 2024 Cornwall International Male Choral Festival. The festival is the largest competition of its kind in the world, attracting 60 youth and adult choirs from around the globe. As well as the main competition in Truro cathedral the choir took part in 4 Gala concerts where they sang with other choirs – The Newquay Gala organiser wrote ‘’We want to thank you personally for all you did to make the evening the success that it was and to thank the choir for the quality of their performance at the concert. One of the most inspired decisions I made over the whole weekend was to have you to close the concert. What a performance!’’
On their way down the choir stopped at Bath Abbey, see photograph, to give an hour-long lunchtime concert, along with a Chopin Nocturne by Tom Kelsey the Choirs accompanist. It was an absolutely fabulous setting, the music resounding around the Abbey.
On competition day the choir travelled from their base in Newquay to Truro Cathedral to meet up with 11 other choirs who patiently awaited their turn to perform in front of the judges and a packed Cathedral, filled with wives and partners, quite a tense moment! Each choir was required to sing 3 songs one of which must be A cappella.
The choir first performed Wide Open Spaces, written by Sarah Quartel, a young upcoming Canadian composer. The second, Sing your Way Home, A cappella, is based on music written by Dvorak. Their finale was a rousing, powerful song called Baba Yetu, written by an American composer called Christopher Tin and comes from the soundtrack of the computer game Civilization IV; a version of the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili. David Ingoldby gave a tremendous performance as soloist in this last piece. The choir received a standing ovation and was widely acknowledged to be one of the most entertaining choirs present. When the results were announced – the Choir gaining 5th place in their category of 12 choirs, their best-ever competition performance! The judges commented ‘’Lovely range of programme, great sense of entertainment throughout.’’
“We were blown away by the result” said Andrew Wilson, the choir’s chairman. “The standard is very high. All the work, the extra rehearsals, the commitment made by everyone in the choir, the focus on getting everything right, paid off. The sun shone, the men sang beautifully, we had fun hearing new songs and meeting people from the other choirs. It was brilliant.” Hats off to Jonathan Kilhams, our Music Director, and Tom Kelsey our accomplished Accompanist, for putting together such a great show!
The choir meets every Tuesday from 8-10pm in St. James Parish Centre, Weybridge and is unauditioned, just come along and join in the fun. The choir’s motto is ‘Serving the Community’ and sings at many concerts in the local area, usually as fundraising for a local charity. Our next concert is a joint concert with the Treble Clef on Saturday 6th July and our main choir Autumn concert is on Saturday 21st September. We can also sing for you!!! You can learn more about the choir and hear their music at weybridgemvc.org.uk.
Other Events
Free Singing Course: In April (Tuesday 1st, 8th and 15th)
The Singing Course was very successful with 7 men joining the choir for the 3 weeks and 4 deciding to enrol. As well as learning about singing technique the course focused on learning to sing an arrangement of the Beatles ‘In My Life’ by Dominic Stichbury. The piece was taught largely by ear and will be performed at the Summer Concert.
Concert at St. Nicholas, Shepperton – Saturday 17th May
– with Organ recital by Mike Wood – in aid of Church Funds.
Concert at St. Paul’s, Addlestone – Saturday 7th June
– with Choir solo performers – in aid of Free School Summer Lunch Project – £ 600 raised.
Weybridge Summer Fayre – Saturday 21st June
– singing with other choirs in Churchfields Park between 1.15pm and 1.45pm.
Elmbridge ‘Sing’ Concert, St Peter’s Hersham – Friday 3rd October.
Christmas Concert, St. James Weybridge – Friday 12th December.
Social Media
Website: weybridgemvc.org.uk – where you can get lots of details about the choir and sign up for our News letter.
Facebook: facebook.com/weybridgemalevoicechoir
Twitter (X): twitter.com/Weybridge_MVC
Instagram: instagram.com/weybridgemvc
Contacts
General Enquiries
Colin Groves (Secretary): secretary@weybridgemvc.org.uk
Concert Bookings
Ian Thomas: ian-thomas2@sky.com