Passing of an old friend
July 2018 and it is sad to report the loss of a good friend and founder member of Donaghadee Male Voice Choir. Willie Roberts was a long standing member of the choir and always had a story to tell. A quiet man and dedicated over many years with the choir at heart as he rarely missed practice and engagements wherever they were.
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 at 6.30 pm, repeated on Tuesday 15th May 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.
