It is sad to report that Tom Baxter MBE passed away quietly in Bangor Care Home on Thursday evening.
Tom resigned from the choir in 2018 due to poor health and had been a member for 43 years. Tom was Chairman in 1980 when the choir went on the ground-breaking tour to Bulgaria.
During these strange testing times there has been some work going on at home and then displayed on the harbour wall, Donaghadee.
Keep up the good work. Keep your eyes open for more masterpieces.
Stay safe.
Donaghadee Male Voice Choir were marking the stalwart work from Ivan Black and his service to the choir over twenty-five years as an accompanist and Musical Director and we wish him a full and restful retirement. We understand he is continuing to make music and produce that well-known magic we have enjoyed together.
Our President, Lady Sylvia Hermon, celebrated Ivan’s work with the choir and we marked her retirement from politics in November 2019 with our appreciation of her dedication and continuing support for the choir.
Ivan Black announced his retirement as Musical Director of Donaghadee Male Voice Choir in December 2019. Ivan has been associated with the choir for well over 20 years, initially as accompanist and latterly as Musical Director.
Choir Chairman David McAlpin said:
“I know I speak on behalf of the choir when I express a genuine debt of gratitude to Ivan for his service to the choir over many years. We have known Ivan for a long time and he took over the reins of the choir at what was a particularly difficult and turbulent time following the death of Robert Wilson in 2015.
He has travelled with the choir to Canada, USA, and all over Europe and introduced new music and style to our performances. He has also enhanced our concerts with his own virtuoso performances along the way!
Ivan has shown complete and unquestioned commitment and loyalty to the choir over the years and he steps down with the best wishes from all at DMVC. We wish him the best of health and happiness in his retirement from the front of the choir.”
November 2019 - Donaghadee Male Voice Choir would like to wish our President, Lady Sylvia Hermon, a very happy and joyous retirement from Parliament.
Life Member
Although Billy is in hospital, he was presented with this well deserved ‘Life Membership’ plaque by our President Lady Sylvia Hermon, after twenty five years of dedicated singing with Donaghadee Male Voice Choir.
We wish Billy a speedy recovery and congratulations on receiving this award.
Stanley Robertson Memorial Trophy
David Ayre is presented with the ‘Stanley Robertson Memorial Trophy’ for his work over the past year above and beyond his normal duties and as a non committee member of the choir
Life Member
David Ayre receiving his ‘Life Member’ plaque from our President Lady Sylvia Hermon after twenty five years singing with this choir.
Life Member
Ivor Morrison receiving his ‘Life Member’ plaque from our President Lady Sylvia Hermon after his twenty five years singing with this choir.
Our annual concert in Bangor Aurora of Friday 22nd April 2019
A very successful night with Walter Love as the compere to introduce the choir and then fabulous Ballyholme Primary School children, Crawford Bell, Andrew McBride and Gareth James as they entertained a full house in the Bangor Aurora complex. Many thanks are extended to all who made this possible, including the staff of the Aurora, all the artists and of course the audience who responded well to the varied program.
Donaghadee Male Voice Choir
Ballyholme Primary School Choir
Choir Purchases a ShelterBox for Indonesia
As a result of the recent earthquake and tsunami which hit the Indonesian island of Sulawesi inSeptember 1.5 million people have been affected and hundreds of thousands of survivors are in urgent need of food, water and shelter.
At Donaghadee Male Voice Choir practice last week choir Chairman Richard Montgomery presented Valerie Goodchild, President of Donaghadee Rotary with a cheque for the purchase a ShelterBox as part of the on-going Indonesian Tsunami Appeal.
ShelterBoxes are designed to provide temporary shelter and life-saving supplies to displaced families, and typically contains a tent designed to withstand extreme weather conditions, water purification kit, blankets, tools and other necessities to help a family
survive.
Richard Montgomery, Chairman of Donaghadee Male Voice Choir presents Valerie Goodchild, President of Donaghadee Rotary, with a cheque for the purchase of a shelterBox as part of the Indonesian Tsunami Appeal. Also in the photograph are Peter Goodchild and Mike Camlin, Secretary of Donaghadee Rotary.
Response from Rotary
Please pass on my sincere thanks to all the Choir for the generous donation for a ShelterBox. I have now sent our club cheque to ShelterBox Trust, explaining that this was in respect of a donation from Donaghadee Male Voice Choir in response to publicity for our own donation following the latest earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia.
I have asked that your donation is acknowledged directly by ShelterBox, but in the meantime I thought that you and your members might be interested to learn that they can check on the work of ShelterBox live on Facebook.
A member of the Operations Team will brief on the disasters in Indonesia, the Philippines, the flooding crisis in Kenya and ongoing conflicts in the Lake Chad Basin and Syria.
The broadcasts are live at 2.30 pm on Tuesdays, and there is an opportunity to post comments. You can also catch up anytime on their FaceBook Page: www.facebook.com/ShelterBox.
Again, thanks from Rotary Club of Donaghadee and ShelterBox for your continuing support for the fantastic humanitarian aid it provides wherever, and whenever, it is needed.
Regards,
Valerie Goodchild
President, Rotary Club of Donaghadee
Sent from my iPad
Photo with permission of Bangor Spectator.
Ballyholme Primary School P5 and P7 choirs treating our musical director Ivan Black and our deputy conductor Norwood Steel to musical renditions after they had been presented with eight ukuleles for their music department. The ukuleles were given in appreciation of their brilliant performance as guests of Donaghadee Male Voice Choir at our annual concert in Bangor Aurora on 13th April 2018.
DMVC on the BBC
BBC Radio Ulster’s Sing Out programme on Sunday 13th May 2018 at 6.30 pm, repeated on Tuesday 15th May 2018 at 7.30 pm. There were interviews and some examples of the choir’s singing, including this specially recorded version of Mood Indigo. Check out Ivan’s great piano solo and accompaniment here:
Duke Ellington’s Mood Indigo, Recorded in the Choir Hall, Monday, 30th April, 2018
Choir trip to Croatia April 2018
The Choir had a great trip to Croatia for five days in April, staying at Apotija on the Croatian Riviera. Highlights included a concert in St. Jacob’s Church, Apotija, a gala concert with eight other choirs in the town and a descent into the incredible limestone caves complex at Postojna in Slovenia, where we sang with the other choirs in a huge cavern. Here are a few photos taken on the trip.
Annual Concert at Bangor Aurora
Our annual concert was held in Bangor Aurora on Friday 13th April 2018, with special guests, Donaghadee Community Choir, Ballyholme PS Choir and Gillian McCutcheon. It was expertly and wittily compered by George Jones. We had an outstanding attendance, with only just enough seats for the capacity crowd. There were outstanding performances by all our guests, with the children of Ballyholme Primary receiving a special welcome. The ladies of the Donaghadee Community Choir sang beautifully. This choir gets better and better. Gillian McCutcheon gave a brilliant virtuoso performance. It has to be said, modestly, that we ourselves were in rather good voice on the night.
President of Donaghadee Male Voice Choir Lady Sylvia Hermon presents a cheque to Valerie Goodchild, Vice President of Donaghadee Rotary Club, for the purchase of a ShelterBox. Also present are Robert McIlveen, Immediate Past-President of Donaghadee Rotary Club, Michael Pritchard Honorary Secretary and Richard Montgomery Vice-Chairman of the choir
Donaghadee Rotary Club achieved over £2000 this year for Shelterbox. In addition to the choir’s purchase of a shelter box, the main collection was at the Annual Carol Service in Donaghadee 1st Presbyterian Church and a generous donation from a married couple living in Donaghadee
“The 2017-2018 season got underway with practices commencing on Monday 4 September in the Robert Wilson Hall.
We already had an engagement on our schedule for Thursday 12 October when we provided a musical backdrop to the presentation of awards at the Construction Employers’ Federation Confederation Awards Ceremony held in the Culloden Hotel and Spa. This was once again something completely different for the choir and was greatly appreciated and enjoyed by the huge and enthusiastic VIPs, attendees and representatives of the the construction industry from across Northern Ireland and beyond..
One week to the day on 19 October we set off for Warsaw for a concert tour. Details are covered in the events section of the website but suffice it to say that it was a most successful tour, with wonderful warm and appreciative audiences.
Please use this link for a local report of a special concert http://bazylika.salezjanie.pl/index.php?pokaz=galeria&gal=165 (You can use a ‘translate’ button on the site)
Sadly, we learned during our return journey from Warsaw that Raymond Gregg had passed away on 24 October.
It is very hard to accept that Raymond was with the choir last October 2106 on its visit to Chatel-Guyon in the Auvergne, France.”
Naming of the ‘Robert Wilson Hall’ February 2016
Saturday 27th February, with brilliant sunshine, saw the official naming of our choir hall as ‘The Robert Wilson Hall’ by Maureen Wilson and Lady Sylvia Hermon MP. This marks the distinguished service by Robert Wilson MBE who gave so much over 47 years to Donaghadee Male Voice Choir and many more with his special music abilities taking the choir to many countries and great successes.
