Americana

Our Summer concert in July 2019 was a first for us in a new venue – The Abbey School – and at a new time – 4.30pm. We, and our audience seemed delighted with both innovations.

The theme for the concert was Americana and we took a ride through two centuries of American music. We opened the concert with three traditional Spirituals. We loved singing the work of Samuel Barber, Randall Thompson and Morten Lauridsen, all of whom write brilliantly for SATB choirs. In American popular music the words are often just as important as the notes, and it was fascinating to explore three different settings of Sure on this Shining Night, not least because it meant our conductor, Matthew Thomas Morgan was able to take a solo to set us off.

The spotlight also fell on our accompanist, Martin Jones, who played, with great bravura and to great applause, four of George Gershwin’s Preludes. The concert ended with a fabulous medley of fourteen songs by Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein.

And we raised over £400 for the Thames Valley Air Ambulance, thanks to our generous audience and our generous hosts at The Abbey.

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