Budleigh Salterton
Male Voice Choir

Dec 2011

Pleased to announce the appointment of our new Musical Director, Peter Good, who starts with the choir in the new year.

Sept 2011

SANDRA JEPPS – ACCOMPANIST

Sandra completed a One Mile Open Water Swim across Roadford Lake for Hospiscare on 24th September 2011. So far she has raised over £300 for the charity concerned.

Pictured here emerging from the water at the end of it!

Very well done Sandra, our love and congratulations to you.

 

 

 

 

CLIVE AND KAY WING

Clive sings in the Second Tenor section and he and Kay were married on 25th July 2011.

It was an informal family and friends day, with the reception at John (sings in the Second Tenors) and Doris Russell’s home at Stoneyford.

The day was hot and sunny, the setting beautiful, the renowned sheep shed looked impressive, with lights, decorations and candles. The barbeque was very successful, plenty to drink and Doris’ amazing puddings – the wonder of everyone present.

The bride looked lovely and Clive scrubbed up well! The speeches brought tears to the eyes, so it was very emotional too. Friends sang in the evening and the donkeys and alpaca joined in.

A truly wonderful, memorable day.

 

MIKE AND CAROLE EVERSHED

Mike sings in the Bass section and he and Carole were married on 16th July 2011 at Exmouth Town Hall.

Reception was held on board the Tudor Rose, one of the Stuart Line boats, sailing up the Exe to Topsham and back.

The cake was made by Dennis (sings in the Basses) and Maureen, of Sophies in Exmouth and was delicious.

A lovely, enjoyable and happy day.

 

 

The choir’s new CD “Flying High in Glorious Devon” is now on sale.

Singing sixteen super new songs, the Budleigh Salterton Male Voice Choir has just recorded their latest CD, “Flying High In Glorious Devon”, which was officially launched on 26th November. 

With popular tracks such as Softly As I Leave You, You’ll Never Walk Alone and Thank You For The Music, sitting comfortably alongside well-loved music from the shows and traditional, rousing, Welsh hymns, there will be something for everyone and, perhaps, the perfect Christmas present for that ‘hard-to-buy-for’ relative!

Members of the Choir are proud to present their latest collection and delighted that £2.00 from the sale of every CD will go directly to Devon Air Ambulance Trust to help in their vital work.  The CD will be available for £8.00 each at all eight Devon Air Ambulance Charity Shops across the county.   The shop locations are Exmouth, Exeter (Heavitree Road and Cowick St.), Plymouth, Newton Abbot, Barnstaple, Honiton and Topsham. See www.daat.org/charityshops for exact locations.

The CD will also be on sale at all our future concerts as listed on our Future Concerts page and clips from the CD can be heard on the New CD page.

Royal British Legion Concert in Plymouth

Unfortunately the Royal British Legion concert on Saturday 18th December 2010 was a victim of the winter weather.  With icy roads and snow the concert was cancelled.  However the good news is that the same concert will be rescheduled to 10th December 2011 – less than a year to go to go!

May 2011

The choir has just returned from a successful trip to Cornwall over the May Bank Holiday Weekend to participate in the Cornwall International Male Choirs Festival. 

About 48 members stayed at The Falmouth Hotel for three nights, together with 40 wives or partners.  The Falmouth Hotel was an excellent choice, with superb facilities for socialising, good food and efficient friendly staff.   We were joined for the main competition at the Hall for Cornwall in Truro by an additional nine members, so that we had 57 members on stage for the competition.  Although we performed as well as we could, the competing choirs were very strong so we did not make the first three. 

We also performed in concert with four other choirs in All Saints Church Falmouth on the Sunday, and on Monday we performed in Pendennis Castle in Falmouth, and in the Temperate Biome at The Eden Project.

March 2011

Our concert season kicked off on Saturday March 5th at Tower Street Methodist Church in Exmouth at with our guests the Rame Peninsular Male Voice Choir in aid of Choir Funds.
We are now in the process of fine tuning our competition pieces for the Cornish International Choir Festival to be held from April 29th to May 1st.  As we are not required to sing at the Royal Wedding we will be making our way to our hotel in Falmouth. On Saturday we will make our presentation at The Hall for Cornwall in Truro at 3.00pm. The three pieces we will be performing are as follows:

1. Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera
2. All Through the Night
3. Comrades in Arms

The results will be given later in the afternoon. We are hoping to have more than 55 members on stage.  Later in the weekend we have a concert in Falmouth and will be singing at the Pendennis Castle and at the Eden Project.

As we are now not going to Austria we have accepted an invitation to sing at the Anglo Welsh Festival in St. David’s all, Cardiff on Saturday September 10th.  We will b joining about 700 male voice choirs, mainly welsh, so it should be an uplifting experience!  It is a formidable programme, including four items to be sung in welsh. So as soon as we return from Truro we will start learning all the pieces for Cardiff.

 

January 2011

It was with great disappointment that the proposed trip to Austria had to be cancelled because of spiralling costs. However we are looking at the possibility of organising a continental concert tour in Sept/Oct. 2012.

The annual Choir dinner was held at the Manor Hotel, Exmouth in February. Numbers were slightly down but a very entertaining evening was enjoyed by everyone. Among our guests was our president and founder Mrs. Pam Jones.

October

The choir had two concerts in October.  On 2nd October we had a joint concert with Barnstaple Ladies Choir in Barnstaple for the benefit of the Paul Locke Memorial Fund, which helps paediatric care in Devon.  The concert was a great success: great singing, marvellous afterglow provided by Barnstaple Ladies, and more important raising over £800 towards paediatric care in Devon.

On 23rd October we sang in Exmouth for the benefit of Age Concern, Madeleine and Andrew Goddard as our guest soloists.  With 55 members on stage, and a church with excellent acoustics, our sound gets better and better!

September

Visit by Wagga City Rugby Male Choir

During September we welcomed the Wagga City Male Choir from Australia to Budleigh Salterton.

On Tuesday 21 Sept we had a joint rehearsal at our normal rehearsal venue (The Peter Hall), and on 22 Sept we had a joint concert in St Peters Church. This was extremely well attended, (more than 250 in the audience, including The Mayor of Budleigh), and all ticket proceeds went to The Fairlynch Museum, Budleigh's own museum. Over £1300 was given to this good cause. As for the concert, this was a great success, and most songs from both choirs were met with generous, even rapturous, applause.

Following the concert, the party atmosphere continued at the afterglow in "The Feathers" with exchange of good fellowship and more rousing singing. These types of occasions make the fellowship of singing so very worthwhile, and many of the friendships forged will surely endure. See their website for more details of their visit to Devon and the rest of their UK tour www.wcrmc.org.au

July/August

Our last concert for the first half of our season on 17 July was the opening of the Budleigh Music Festival at St. Peter’s Church, together with the Caldecott Male Voice Choir from South Wales. The combined choir of over 100 voices was a real treat for the 250 strong audience and we even sold out of programmes. After the concert both choirs assembled in the Feathers for supper and a sing song. An evening to remember.
Our August Concert was half in St Michael’s Church in Beer for the benefit of the Roof Fund of the Congregational Church. We were well treated to ‘supper’ by the Congregational Church, followed by a rousing afterglow at The Dolphin. The singing brought in holiday makers from the streets of Beer, and by the end of the evening choir, locals and holiday makers alike were joining a medley of popular songs.