THE GENTLEMEN SONGSTERS MALE VOICE CHOIR

"Singing from the heart of the Black Country"

Coming Soon - Autumn Concert featuring Special Guest Laura Wright

We are pleased to announce that the special guest at our Autumn Concert on September 21st in Dudley Town Hall will be the magnificent soprano, Laura Wright

The following comprehensive biography has been supplied by Decca Records, her recording company

Laura Wright

With over a million album sales under her belt Laura Wright has been one of the biggest selling classical artists this decade – not to mention the first female singer since Katherine Jenkins to reach Number One in the Classical Chart with her album ‘The Last Rose’.  Indeed the 22-year-old Royal College of Music opera student is undoubtedly Britain’s most exciting new soprano.

Last year Laura completed a UK tour with tenor Alfie Boe and the Queen’s Jubilee tour with Russell Watson. She became the first soprano to perform at the Olympic Stadium and who can forget ‘that performance’ of Ravel’s ‘Bolero‘ with Noah Stewart on the ITV Dancing On Ice final.  Laura opened the iTunes Festival for Andrea Bocelli in the Autumn and was proud to perform Faure’s Requiem at the Royal Opera House for the Royal Ballet.

Laura recorded the new Diamond Jubilee song, ‘Stronger As One’, which HM The Queen cited in her Commonwealth Day Message at Westminster Abbey where the song was premiered.  Laura performed more times for HM The Queen in 2012 than any other artist.

Laura’s album Glorious will leave even the most faint hearted Brit brimming with patriotic pride, not least Laura who not so long ago used to have to wait tables to support her studies.

Laura is also an extremely accomplished sports person, having trained to county level in hockey, tennis and javelin.  Now concentrating on her music career, Laura continues to feed her love of sports with boxing, crossfit, playing rugby for Rossyln Park and by raising money for charity in running and cycling events - she cycled from London to Paris for the Royal British Legion and has completed the London and Venice marathons.

Laura is a regular sporting mascot having already performed at many high-profile events over the years including; QBE International rugby matches and 6 Nations at Twickenham,  Rugby League, The Carnegie Challenge Cup Final, WSB Boxing, polo and football including the Carling Cup Final,  The Champions League and the FA Cup Final all at Wembley.

In November 2012 the RFU announced Laura as their first official anthem singer, supporting the England Rugby team at their international and 6 Nations rugby matches.

Laura’s album was nominated for a Classical Brit Award in 2012 and was honoured to receive the PPL Classical Award at the Nordoff Robbins 02 Silver Clef Awards.  Following her work with Norfoff Robbins, Laura was asked to be an Ambassador. Laura is also proud to be an Ambassador of Arthritis Research UK, having battled her own debilitating condition at a very young age.

With such a sensational singing ability and more than a handful of once-in-a-lifetime endorsements, Laura has her eyes set on making it two years in a row for the record books; tell her that is too ambitious at your own risk of being proven very wrong...

Pictures courtesy of Rhys Frampton

More information on Laura may be found on her website:-

www.laura-wright.co.uk

Our Most Recent Concert

We were delighted to see a packed church (all seats occupied, plus some standing) at a concert in St Mark's Church, Pensnett - aka "The Black Country Cathedral" on Saturday 18th May. We were accompanied on the occasion by the children's choir from St Mark's Primary School, together with a group of drummers from the same school - "What a performance!"

The Following Four Pictures Tell Our Latest Story

The Award Plaque - bearing the inscription "Mayor's Civic Awards - The Mayor's Award 2013. Sponsored by Cougar Monitoring"

The Award Certificate -

Presented to The Gentlemen Songsters Male Voice Choir

by The Mayor of Dudley, Councillor Melvyn Mottram

CHARITABLE DONATIONS

Early in May 2013, Chairman, Pete Hawthorne and Treasurer, Bob Biggs together with 9 of our longest-serving members (with a total service record of 400 years!) attended the Mayor's Parlour to present cheques totalling £4000 to the two charities which we have supported along with the Mayor during his year of office - The Dudley Stroke Association, and Diabetes UK - Stourbridge, Dudley and District Support Group (£2000 each)

SATURDAY 23rd MARCH - CONCERT CANCELLED

Click the above for information about our refund policy

St DAVID's DAY CONCERT IN WALES

We had a brief raid over Offa's Dyke for a weekend trip to join with our friends at Builth Male Voice Choir in their St David's Day Concert in the Builth Wells Leisure Centre on Saturday 2nd March.

A contingent of about forty Songsters, together with a similar number of SWAGs (Songsters' Wives and Girlfriends) enjoyed a superb concert, some magnificent Welsh hospitality, glorious weather and some fantastic scenery - A good time was had by all

AND WE'M ON YO' TUBE!

See and hear us singing "Stout Hearted Men" with Builth Male Voice Choir,

and "Bring Him Home" as one of our own items at this concert

The following pictures were taken by Builth choir's photographer

Pictured - singing on our own               and shown here "en mass"

The following two photographs were taken by our own travelling paparazzi

The Builth Male Voice Choir

Our Own Barbershop Group

PRESENTATION OF FUNDS TO THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION

Following our very successful Festival of Remembrance Concert in November last year, which was held in conjunction with Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, we were delighted to be able to present a cheque for £3000.00 to RBL's regional representative, Bob Townsend. The ceremony took place in the Mayor's parlour.

Pictured below are our Chairman, Pete Hawthorne CBE, with Dudley Mayor, Councillor Melvyn Mottram and Bob Townsend planting a small poppy in Dudley's Coronation Gardens

SPRING CONCERT 23rd MARCH 2013 --

Due to adverse weather and very poor road and car-park conditions in Dudley town centre, our Spring Concert concert regrettably had to be cancelled

We have a duty of care to all of our members, audience, friends, supporters and fellow performers - and we therefore made the difficult decision to cancel the performance

APOLOGIES TO ALL CONCERNED

Please click the following link to view a statement from our Chairman Pete Hawthorne, and to download a form to request a Ticket Refund if required.

CHAIRMAN's STATEMENT

if you do wish to apply for a refund, and are not able to hand the completed application form to a chorister, then please post it to

GSMVC, c/o 18, Hopyard Lane, Gornal Wood, Dudley DY3 2XD

THE "MISSING TALENT"

Our first concert in Dudley Town Hall this year should have been our Spring Concert when our special guest was to be our long-standing friend, the finalist from Britain's Got Talent, Jean Martyn.  Supporting Jean should have been  Susie Riddell (Tracey Horrobin from BBC Radio4's The Archers) and the choir from Cotwall End Primary School - see below for full details.

Pictured above are Councillor Melvyn Mottram, Mayor Of Dudley, welcoming Jean and some of the choir members to Dudley Council House

Those of you who have seen Jean will know what a wonderful entertainer she is, and we were all looking  forward to some fantastic organ playing - including a vast array of music from classical to pop, and a few joint items with the choir.

During the concert, the choir were scheduled to present cheques to the Mayor towards his charitable fundraising for his year of office - this will now be re-arranged to another time in the near future. We were also looking forward to a surprise musical response from His Worship! - Maybe on another occasion!

Jean Martyn - pictured at the keyboard of the Brighton Pavilion Compton Organ

To quote from Jean's own website:-

Also joining us on the night were to be be the choir from Cotwall End Primary School, Sedgley - a choir which appeared with us in a very successful concert a couple of years ago.

And we missed out on meeting our compère Susie Riddell, Tracy Horrobin in BBC Radio 4‘s ‘The Archers.

Susie Riddell (Tracy Horrobin in The Archers)

In late 2011 Tracy left the admittedly unsuitable Den, arriving on sister Susan Carter's doorstep with Brad and Chelsea in tow just in time for Christmas. Susan’s husband Neil was delighted, as you can imagine. Even more so when he found himself doing up 6, The Green so that Tracy and her children could move in. But it was all worth it to regain peace and quiet at home! Tracy is not the most peaceable person to have around and was soon at odds with her niece, Emma Grundy when she shopped Tracy’s brother Keith for arson.Whenever Tracy is around Ambridge starts to buzz!

Susie Riddell grew up in Birmingham. She trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Susie plays Tracy Horrobin in BBC Radio 4's The Archers, having returned to the series a number of years after playing the very young Kate Aldridge! She has been a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company and her extensive radio work includes roles in Ulysses, Frankenstein, The Great Gatsby, 1984 and Rudy's Rare Records with Lenny Henry. Susie has also narrated many audiobooks and appeared in the audio series Doctor Who: Hornets' Nest for the BBC. Television includes Saxondale, Gavin and Stacey, Emmerdale and Doctors. Stage work includes roles for the Birmingham Rep, the Bristol Old Vic and Oddsocks Productions along with work as a street theatre performer at events such as the London Olympic Games. Susie is also co-Artistic Director of the theatre company, Idiot Child and regularly devises, performs in and produces productions for the company. She plays piano and trombone and sings First Soprano with the City of London Choir.

A DELVE INTO THE PAST

The following picture (taken by the Wolverhampton Express & Star) appeared in their "Pictures From The Past" section of the publication recently. It shows the choir in full song when they climbed Ben Nevis in 1978. It is pleasing to note that some of those pictured are still members of the choir - although they now look so old that the rest of us can't recognise them!

Courtesy - Wolverhampton Express & Star

FUTURE CONCERTS

Gentlemen Songsters concerts are arranged in various locations - for full details of all of these events, see our FUTURE CONCERTS page.

Tickets for all of our events are available through Derek Siviter, our Ticket Secretary. For details  how to contact Derek see our TICKET SALES page

CHOIR CD's Etc

                                                      "From Puccini To Queen!"  ----   Now sold out

Here are some of photos taken during one of the recording sessions:-

Early on Saturday morning	It's all smiles (from some of them!)	John in serious mode	Let's Face the Music

Below are the track lists from the three CD's which we have produced in the past - all of which are now sold out

To hear and see " THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC", one of the tracks on "The 60's & More From The Songsters", select one of the two links below

For a low resolution short extract select::-    

For a higher resolution, complete version of the track select:- 

To hear " GWAHODDIAD", one of the tracks on "Do You Hear The Songsters Sing?" select the link below

To hear " AN ERISKAY LOVE LILT", one of the tracks on "From Puccini To Queen" select the link below

We have been delighted to work with Reelsound in the production of the above CD's - for further information on Reelsound - visit their website by clicking the link below

BOOK LAUNCHED

A book titled "With A Song In Their Hearts" was launched at the same time as the choir's third CD.

The book written by Chris Smith delves into the fifty years of the choir's history - as seen through the eyes of an outsider.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

IN HONOUR OF BERT BISSELL M.B.E. - Our former President

     BERT BISSELL M.B.E.                                The Bert Bissell Memorial, Coronation Gardens

              1902 - 1998                                                                                    Dudley   

"The best is yet to be"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[Choir Summary] [Choir Officials] [Our Sponsors] [Our History]
[Our Members] [Future Concerts] [Ticket Sales] [Information] [News]