Pro Carmine's concert last Friday evening raised more than R2200 for the Grocott's Christmas Cheer Fund. Christ Church in Speke Street was well-filled with an appreciative audience who were welcomed with a small glass of sherry to get them in to the Christmas spirit.
Pro Carmine's concert last Friday evening raised more than R2200 for the Grocott's Christmas Cheer Fund. Christ Church in Speke Street was well-filled with an appreciative audience who were welcomed with a small glass of sherry to get them in to the Christmas spirit.
The choir, under the directorship of Peter Breetzke, had put together a varied programme of new repertoire and old favourites – starting with the "Fanfare for Christmas" by Robin Wells and going straight in to "Sir Christemas" by the same composer.
Other new works included a modern setting of a traditional lullaby, "Dormi Jesu", by Peter Aston and a US Carol, "Behold that Star", in a spiritual style by Thomas Talley. More familier pieces included, "Adam Lay y Bounden"; "Sing Christmas!", "Gaudete", "Sing Lullaby!" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".
Pro Carmine are usually exclusively a cappella but this time they did two pieces with accompaniment – a carol called "Shepherds Come" by Neil Saunders with piano backing and a "Kyrie", based on French carol tunes by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, which was sung from the back of the church and featured Peter Breetzke on the organ and the solo voices of tenors Sibu Mkhize, Dan Parker and Charles Antrobus.
There were also readings – including an account by two English soldiers of the famous "truce" that happened in the trenches in World War I, where the British and the Germans sang carols to each other from their respective trenches, the ee cummings poem "I thank you god for most this amazing day" and an impassioned 1712 letter to The Spectator by a young lady desperate because the over-decoration of her church with Christmas garlands has stopped her being able to flirt during the service with the baronet she'd had her eye on.
This year the Grocott's Mail Christmas Cheer Fund is supporting the Ikhaya Losizo Cluster Foster Home Scheme to help them continue to provide a safe and loving environment for 18 vulnerable children between the ages of two and 18.
Watch an extract from "Gaudete" with soloist, Jessica Smith.
Watch "Christmas is coming".
Both from Friday night's performance.
