Felling Male Voice Choir

12.06.2008: Choirs get the celebrations under way on a high note at Sage Proms

Musical magic from a host of North's talented amateur performers at Sage

I have experienced another wonderful concert of musical magic at The Sage Gateshead. I went on the night of Saturday June 14, expecting to listen to some more of my favourite Felling Male Voice Choir's melodies, only to be treated to Gateshead's best.

The Angel Proms were superb. There was so much more to enjoy with the ladies' choir, The Felling Concert Choir and the Grainger Singers as well as the very talented St Thomas More Chamber Choir.

The latter was a brilliant mixed choir of young people in the middle of doing their exams, taking time out to entertain us so richly. For the most part unaccompanied, they sang music that made my heart jing and brought tears to my eyes. It was marvellous to hear such enthusiastic, pure music in a school choir; quality beyond compare really. All credit to the soloists as well.

We were also treated to some fantastic brass band pieces by the Felling Band, who played complicated stuff with some Trad Jazz with professionalism to beat any of the greats.

There was also a very talented young lady called Kate Malcolm who, although just 12 years old, played the cornet
like an expert. It seems she has only been playing for two years and both her proud parents were playing instruments, her mum playing in the same concert. Wow, what a family! The concert was compered very ably by our Marian Foster from BBC Newcastle. All in all, it was three fantastic hours of unbelievably quality music performed by amateurs from the talented "other side of the Tyne".

I live in Newcastle and wonder if we could produce such fine sounds ourselves?
BEVERLEY D THOMPSON, Benton, Newcastle

29.04.2008: Singers wow judges at festival to scoop award.

A CHOIR from Tyneside showed they were in fine voice as they won a prestigious competition. Gateshead's Felling Male Voice Choir (FMVC) beat four other choirs to scoop first prize at the Eskdale Festival of the Arts, held in Whitby, North Yorkshire. The event, founded in 1902, invites choirs from the local area to perform in different classes.

Musical director David Conway said: "We were all delighted to take first place in our section of the festival. There have been quite a few changes in the choir in recent years and this performance shows that we are back on top form."

Judge Vivien Pyke praised the FMVC for its renditions of Shenadoah by Jack Hindmarsh and the male voice choir classic The Last Words of David by Randall Thompson. She gave the choir top marks for what she described as "a sensitive and heartfelt performance".

The famous Teesside Apollo Male Voice Choir and Stockton Male Voice Choir were among the other competitors in the festival.

The 80-strong Felling choir was founded in 1920 and has won at least 100 trophies during that time, cluding one presented by the Queen at the Festival of Britain in the 1950s. After claiming their Eskdale trophy, choir members treated fellow guests at the Grand Hotel in Scarborough to an impromptu concert in the bar - singing for nearly two hours.

Last year members of FMVC were invited to sing with choirboy-turned-TV personality Aled Jones during his concert at The Sage Gateshead. The choir also holds an annual celebrity concert and last year raised thousands of pounds for local charities St Oswald's Hospice and Macmillan Cancer Care through ticket sales.

The FMVC will now go on to compete in the prestigious internationally-renowned music festival at Llangollen, in Wales, in July. Fans can also catch the choir at The Sage Gateshead when they will perform as part of the Angel Proms Concert, on June 14, and again on October 25 when the choir will have Sir Thomas Allen as their guest in hall one.

"How was your trip ?" I innocently asked John Kerr as he stepped off the bus at the Novotel in Reading. No verbal response was forthcoming; his face said all that needed to be said. A lot of effort had been put into the weekend away, however no amount of planning could have avoided the bus journey, which took a total of 8 hours to complete. I was now starting to become concerned about the evening concert as more jaded bodies stepped down from the coach and dragged their cases into the hotel, all with faces conveying the same message which I received loud and clear from John.

Best course of action was to get out of the way, let the guys get checked-in, showered and dressed and not to mention that they only had 30 minutes to do so. I was off to the concert venue - the Great Hall in the University of Reading, a fantastic redbrick building, which although impressive from the outside, proved even more impressive when we entered.

The design of the building, with it's barrel roof meant that the acoustic was ideal for our performance, allowing us to make the very most of the dynamic ranges in the pieces. Even more pleasing was the Steinway piano and the pipe organ which would lend so much to our performance, especially as we planned to perform the Dvorak pieces 'The Maiden in the Wood' and 'Grief', both especially written for male voice choir and 4 hands on one piano.

After meeting with the Reading Male Voice Choir and talking to their organising committee it was time to work out the finer detail with Gwyn Arch, their Musical Director while the Felling boys had something to eat and drink prior to our joint rehearsal. Our initial thoughts about the acoustic held true and as the strains of African Trilogy by RMVC died away the men of Felling made their appearance, looking suitably refreshed and ready for action.

The joint rehearsals went well, Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves (from Nabucco) and Gwahoddiad, with a copy of Morte Christe tucked up the sleeve, just in case an encore was required. Although Felling were down in numbers, with less than 50 on stage, they men who were there acquitted themselves admirably, both balanced and considerate in their singing. Weeks of rehearsal go by, sleepless nights worrying about tone, pitch, diction and whether the words will be remembered, however and as usual, the guys raise their game in a concert and they were certainly ready to maintain their reputation as one of the best male voice choirs in the country.

The concert, to a packed audience, went very well. The inclusion of German soprano Anna Bineta Douf also added another dimension to the concert, a concert celebrating the 60th anniversary of the twinning of Reading and Düsseldorf. The two choirs gave a varied programme that delighted the audience and a performance that delighted their MDs. That organ... well the sound was used to full effect at the end of American Trilogy, a piece arranged by Mickey Newbury for the late Elvis Presley and a number which audiences seem to love.

After a bite to eat (there's a pattern emerging here), a few drinks and an impromptu sing-song it was back on the dreaded bus for the short journey back to the hotel, for more singing and one or two (or three) more beverages.

The next morning saw the choir looking the least healthy I have seen them for a number of years. A combination of a long journey, a late night and that 4th beverage seemed to be taking its toll. The sweet voices from the night before had now become low level murmurs, leaving me with the view that I now had 50 basses for the afternoon concert in Ealing. This proved not to be the case and the guys performed admirably once again in what must be one of the most difficult acoustics outside of Gateshead Civic Centre where we were to perform the following weekend. Interestingly enough at that following concert I asked the same question again "How did you enjoy your trip?" to which the reply was somewhat different - they guys and their guests had a great weekend, a weekend of laughter, of singing and of friendship, most of all though it raised the comment "its was nice just to have a Felling trip away....when is the next one ?"

Click Here to see photographs of our visit to Reading and Ealing in June 2007.

16.06.2007: Teesside Apollo MVC

You may remember from the last edition of Vocal that we reported the funeral of long standing MDof the Teesside Apollo MVC Gwynne Morris. His replacement was Nick Bennett but tragedy has followed misfortune. Gifted musician Nicholas Bennett, director of the Teesside Apollo Male Voice choir died in the early hours of Saturday 16th June. Nick was married and had a baby son. His car collided with a tree off the A167, near Coatham Mundeville, Co Durham, half a mile from junction 58 of the A1(M) at 2.25am on Saturday. Choir secretary Joe Thompson said: “We are just completely stunned, there are no words for it. I was with him on Wednesday night. We were talking about our arrangements for Christmas. He was a wonderful, talented young musician. We were so fortunate to be able to get a rising talent like that. He walked into our rehearsal room last year. He was a breath of fresh air. Our thoughts go out to his family”.

17.03.2007: Barnaby Bear has a musical weekend

At the concert designed to raise funds for Father Thomas’s mission in Gambia Barnaby, escorted by Rebecca Conway – daughter of the Musical Director FMVC – was pleased to be allowed to have its photograph taken as proof of attendance.  The bear which was on loan from school was pleased to be part of such a performance and whilst there was no picnic with the music he seemed to have a fun time.

It has to be said that such a small bear became rather afraid when FMVC started to sing ‘Tiger, Tiger’.  Armstrong Gibbs’ setting of William Blake’s poem( 250th celebration of his birth this year)  begins with an almost frightening explosion of the opening words.  He seemed more at home with ‘American Trilogy’, clearly a bear from across the Atlantic!

The two hour programme included the premier of a new setting for guitar and soloist performed by the composer, John Kerr and soloists Hewson Taylor and Norman Grainger adding to the very disparate array of music sung by the choir. 

03.03.2007: Mayor’s Charity Concert at Sage Hall 2

This year Felling shared a concert with the Felling Band: shared with a difference.  The band played for the first half of the concert and FMVC entertained the audience in the second half.  The stage is much too small to have a full band share the platform and we found ourselves not able to perform a joint item.

Our contribution was a 55 minute programme that included the accompanists, Tracy Dixon and Philip Chapman playing two of Moskowski’s ‘Five Spanish Dances’ for four hands on one piano, an eclectic mix of traditional male voice music such as ‘Arise O sun’ arranged by Doris Arnold, to spirituals, songs from the shows, opera choruses and folk songs from around the world.  The programme also included a performance of one of Dvorak’s pieces written for piano duet and male voices.  FMVC have not sung ‘Maiden in the wood’ for more than two decades and it was a welcome return to such a well conceived composition especially with the Steinway available for the concert.

This, sadly, will be the last Mayor’s concert to be held at the Sage but we look forward to taking part in the same concert next year wherever it is to be held.

Click Here to see photographs taken at Sage Hall 1 on 3rd March 2007 at our concert with Aled Jones