St Oswald’s Church Ashbourne
The main feature of the Easter Concert this year from Ashbourne Singers held in St Oswald’s Church in Ashbourne, was the beautiful Requiem by Gabriel Faure. Steve Duckworth also selected other pieces that reflected his theme how important ‘relationships’ are.
Highlights included Will Todd’s The Call of Wisdom a piece written especially for the Queen’s diamond jubilee in 2012. The Young Singers impressed us all yet again with their ability to perform to such a high standard. Steve’s mentoring of these young people is really impressive. Jessica and Alice delighted us with their confident singing of Day By Day.
Joshua Phillips, the choir accompanist, gave us a virtuoso performance on the piano with the Intermezzo Op 188, No 2 by Brahms, the whole audience was enthralled.
Many hymn tunes can sit in your memory and feel so comforting when heard or sung; Be Still For The Presence Of The Lord sounded so right in this setting, followed by One Voice by Ruth Moody. It was then time to enjoy a glass of wine in the interval.
Since Steve took leadership of the choir in 2014, he introduced an Easter Concert into the yearly programme as an annual fundraiser for local charities. This year, Careline was its beneficiary. Manager, Jane Fulham was present at the concert and she outlined the charities aims to the audience at the end of the interval.
The stage was then set for the Requiem; Steve on the rostrum, Michael Halls at the Organ and Josh with Viola in hand. A performance was originally planned with the visiting Orchestra from Soisy-sur-Seine in 2020, but this had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.
Rehearsals this term were difficult at times with people being absent at various times, including Steve himself. Despite this, the performance by the choir was a resounding success, with everyone giving full commitment to the music filling the church with lovely music.
Young Ashbourne Singers then delivered beautiful arrangements of Lullaby and I Have a Dream, before coming back together with the adults to sing May It Be from the Lord of the Rings film as a full choir. The evening was topped off with the uplifting hymn Christ Be Our Light by Bernadette Farrell, sung to words set for Easter Vigil.
All in all a lovely concert that touched the hearts of the audience who were full of praise. Well done to everyone, especially Steve Duckworth who yet again showed us how important music is in our lives.
