Christmas at Home and Away

Our festive offering this year was in Trinity Church Gosforth on Saturday 7th December 2019:

Christmas at Home and Away

Musical Director Mark Anyan

Special Guests : Mouthful

The exciting 4-piece a Cappella vocal group who gave us 2 sets of really unusual and exciting singing!

Warren Smith accompanied us in style on the magnificent organ and piano. He had his own solo spot playing Toccata by Georgi Mushel

Lucy Anyan, the 8 year old daughter of Musical Director Mark Anyan, sang the treble solo for the first verse of Once in Royal David’s City. Lucy was very confident and sang beautifully!

Mark and Lucy Anyan with Warren Smith

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Come and Sing Mozart Requiem

‘Come and Sing’ Mozart’s magnificent REQUIEM
with members of Newcastle Choral Society
Musical Director: Mark Anyan

SATURDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2019 10 TILL 3
TRINITY CHURCH GOSFORTH

We had an amazing day on 14th September! Under our Musical Director Mark Anyan’s command, a choir of 104 singers in total, made up of guests and members of NCS, worked hard all day – the powerful attraction of Mozart’s Requiem without a doubt! Thank you to everyone who came and the appreciative audience of family and friends plus some passers by, who came in at the end of the afternoon for an informal performance! ” It really was a very good performance” from an audience member.

Warren Smith, Director of Music at St Mary’s Church Ponteland was our superb guest organist. Our guest soloists were a delight; Emma Anyan Mezzo, Nerys Angel Soprano, Luke Busbridge Bass and multi tasking Mark Anyan as Tenor and Conductor!

Trinity Church is a marvellous venue and our thanks go to the team of staff and volunteers who manage events such as ours so immaculately.

Rehearsals now continue for the Feb 1st 2020 performance of Mozart Requiem in the Banqueting Suite at Newcastle Civic Centre at 7.30pm.

We will also be squeezing in a festive concert on Sat Dec 7th 2019 at Trinity Church again.

Diary Date:

SUNDAY 3rd May 2020 at 3.00pm

SAGE ONE GATESHEAD

NCS are delighted to be collaborating with Hertfordshire Chorus and their Musical Director David Temple in a blockbuster concert in Hall One. https://www.hertfordshirechorus.org.uk/ They are a very impressive choir and it is a privilege to be joining forces with them!

In the first half, the combined choirs of around 200 voices will be performing the North east premiere of James McCarthy’s Codebreaker’– an oratorio about the life of Alan Turing, the “father of computer science”, commissioned by Hertfordshire Chorus in 2014. It’s a terrific piece!

This will be conducted by Mark Anyan

In the second half,  David Temple will conduct Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony

It’s all go at NCS! Come and join us!!

 

 

 

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FEEL THE SPIRIT

On SATURDAY 29 JUNE 2019, 7.30pm

TRINITY CHURCH GOSFORTH

NEWCASTLE CHORAL SOCIETY and NCS CHAMBER CHOIR

Musical Director MARK ANYAN

A bit of Awakening and Toe Tapping went on in our FEEL THE SPIRIT  concert last month, the final one of the 18-19 season!

RUTTER Feel the Spirit

TIPPETT Five Spirituals

BRITTEN Rejoice in the Lamb

 The audience enjoyed the varied programme and particularly the guest organist Louise Reid who accompanied the choir for the Britten piece  Rejoice in the Lamb. Louise’s son Christopher, a chorister at Newcastle Cathedral, sang the Treble in the same piece. Members of the choir took solo roles in the Britten and the Tippett and were declared a hit!

 Sara Louisa Parry mezzo soprano delighted us with 3 pieces by Harold Arlen. Sara, combines a professional singing career with a busy teaching practice. She is a member of vocal trio Closer performing mainly in Switzerland, and in the UK with the Neil Sedaka tribute show Oh! Carol

Our own Eileen Bown accompanied the choir and Sara on piano

NCS Chamber Choir had their own section in the concert singing Charles Wood’s Full Fathom Five and Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies.

 

 

 

 

 

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SING GOSPEL WORKSHOP

‘Sing Gospel’ workshop

Come find your joy with Sharon Durant at our ‘Sing Gospel’ workshop.

Join in with uplifting gospel songs, beautiful harmonies and John Rutter’s ‘Feel the Spirit’ for a great day of singing together.

Hosted by Newcastle Choral Society

Musical Director Mark Anyan

 Saturday 15th June 2019 10 till 3

St Lukes Church Hall, Claremont Road, Newcastle upon Tyne

All voices welcome

Cost £10

Tea and coffee available – bring your own lunch or use food outlets nearby

Parking available on Claremont Road

Contact enquiries@newcastlechoralsociety.org.uk

Mobile 07980 484598 or 07707 621312

Sharon Durant is a freelance vocal teacher, performer, choir leader and composer. She works with singers of all ages leading workshops and singing projects within a wide variety of settings including schools, where she trains teachers on the use of singing in the classroom.

For many years, Sharon worked at Sage Gateshead as Vocal Strand leader, delivering a diverse collection of large-scale singing projects. She has also worked with organisations such as Music in Hospital and Care, British Lung Foundation (Singing for Lung Health), Sunderland Music Hub and Concordia.

Sharon directs, composes and arranges for several community choirs including Customs Voices, Urban Chorus and North East Gospel Choir and performs as part of Mouthful, a four piece ensemble who push the boundaries of vocal possibility and successfully devise new vocal material.

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Carmina Burana

On Saturday 23 March 2019 7.30pm
at the Banqueting Suite Newcastle Civic Centre

Newcastle Choral Society and the NCS Chamber Choir

Musical Director Mark Anyan had a blast with

Carl Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’

Our soloists were stunning!

Austin Gunn Tenor

Lisa Swayne Soprano

Philip Smith Baritone

David Murray and Eileen Bown provided the accompaniment, on two pianos, and also performed Lutoslawski ‘Variations on a Theme of Paganini for two Pianos’ which was breathtaking!

We were joined by a choir of schoolchildren from St Godric’s RC Primary School Durham and St Stephen’s RC Primary School Longbenton. They behaved impeccably, sang their own pieces beautifully in the first half and gave that extra lift to Carmina Burana. Lovely comments were received from the Head Teacher of St Godric’s:

‘A great experience that will inspire the children for years to come! We were so well looked after and everyone was so kind to us.’

and from the Deputy Head of St Stephen’s ‘It was a pleasure to be involved and such an experience for all of the children and their families.’

From an appreciative audience member: ‘Carmina was amazing, a ‘tour de force’ and the children’s input to the whole concert, brilliant’.

We were all very happy!

David Whetstone, former Culture Editor of the Journal was kind enough to give us a lovely review. This can be viewed here

 

 

 

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‘A Christmas Celebration’

NCS Chamber Choir was born June 2018

Our Christmas 2018 concert was held on 15 December, forecast to be dire weather later in the afternoon and sure enough it was!  Arctic blasts transformed the roads and pavements into sheets of ice! Singers living in  farflung places and prospective audience members decided it was safer to stay at home. Nevertheless, for the hardy folk who turned out undeterred, we thank you! It was a super night, much appreciated by the audience.  NCS Chamber Choir, newly formed in the summer,sang an Appalachian Carol which was well received.

‘ A cappella group Quintessential Voices brought traditional and modern elements to the concert in their own inimatable way.

The pay bar and the complementary mince pies went down a treat. Trinity Church Gosforth is such a great venue and we were, as always,  well looked after by their staff and volunteers.

 

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