2022
HARP Christmas Carol Concert – 17th December
The Choir has been supporting HARP for a number of years and it was with great joy that we teamed up with HARP once again for a Christmas Carol Concert at St. Andrew’s Church, Westcliff. The concert consisted of well known carols, Christmas songs and readings. The choir thoroughly enjoyed singing the varied programme of music and the audience and special guests had a great time – especially during the Christmas Singalong. Refreshments were served afterwards and we appreciated the help and support of all the volunteers from HARP.
The Choir has been unable to support HARP for 2 years due to the COVID pandemic, but thanks to the generosity of the audience we managed to raise over £900 for HARPS work supporting the homeless and vulnerable over Christmas.
The Choir has been supporting HARP each year since 2017 (apart from 2020/2021 due to COVID) and in that time we have raised over £5,431 for this local worthwhile cause. If you would like to know more about the work of HARP then please visit: harpsouthend.org.uk/.
Thanks to Gaz de Vere for permission to use the photo.
RNLI Singing @ Leigh Station – 15th December
Will there be a train strike or won’t there? That was one of the questions we were asking when planning our annual support to the RNLI with Carol Singing at Leigh Station. Luckily on the day we’d planned to go there were no strikes although the train timetable was suffering a little from strikes close to the day. So several members of the choir braved the bitterly cold weather and sang heartily to the commuters as they travelled home. Carols old and new and a couple renditions of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. Commuter traffic may have been a bit lighter than normal due to the ongoing rail strikes but those who did pass through were quite generous and we managed to raise £303 for the RNLI.
It was the first time since 2019 that we’d been able to support the RNLI in this way due to the COVID pandemic,. It was good to get back to our normal Christmas events. The money we raised this year now takes the total support to the RNLI by the Southend Bach Choir to over £4,778.
First Post-lockdown Concert – 20th March
After two years and three months the Southend Bach Choir is truly back in business. I think everyone enjoyed singing in our concert and all the feedback from the audience was very positive, it was really great to be back singing in public at last. Our exit collection for Ukrainian Humanitarian Relief raised £475 and at our committee meeting the following Thursday we decided to contribute another £75 from choir funds which raised the total to £550.
Special thanks go to Colin for putting the whole thing together, to Janet Walker for her excellent accompaniment on the day and to our excellent soloists, Eve, Elaine, Janet, Alex, Ros and Ian.
