Our last concert of 2024

Last night we sang in Hitchin, in the lovely old church of St. Mary’s.  In spite of the church being cold, we managed to warm up everyone’s spirits with our uplifting songs and carols.  The addition of Da Capo Brass brought an extra dimension to the singing of O Come All Ye Faithful and Hark the Herald Angels sing with the amazing fanfares at the beginning.

It was extra special as one of our altos, Leah, is one of the players in Da Capo Brass, and she slipped unobtrusively from the choir to play her trumpet. Da Capo Brass treated us to the Carol of the Bells and a delightful rendition of Santa Baby, with a very seductive trombone playing the tune!

The highlight of the evening for us was the brass accompaniment to Festival Gloria, as well as some of the other songs to which they had added their own arrangements.  

Bob Press was a wonderful compere, giving away choir secrets and keeping us all amused as he donned his Christmas Santa hat while wearing his dinner suit!!  

Funds from this concert will be donated to Road Victims Trust.  I hope the collecting buckets were full after the short talk from Paul Jones about the Trust.

£119.56 was raised in the collection and we are adding £600 from the proceeds of the concert, making an amazing £719.56 for this very worthy charity.

Sing out for Dementia

What a fabulous concert at St. Mary’s Church in Dunstable.  The weather outside was certainly frightful, to quote a well known Christmas song, but it didn’t stop us singing to more than 200 people in the lovely church.

The concert began with the choir processing in holding candles after Stephanie sang the first verse of Once in Royal David’s City.  Magical!! Then Caritas Harmony took the stage for a sparkling rendition of I Saw Three Ships and For Him All Stars have Shone.

Then the compere, Tom Quinn, introduced the Caritas Singers, a smaller group of ladies who learn extra songs!!  The first song, Cradle Hymn, was beautifully sung and then a Dominican Republic carol, Cantemos a Maria, complete with the very difficult clapping rhythm.  Caritas Harmony then sang The Little Drummer Boy, with the altos drumming with their voices and The Most Wonderful Time of the Year – a new song to our repertoire.

Then the time the audience had been waiting for.  The complete Sing out for Dementia Choir.  What a treat they had with Away in a Manger, Angel’s Carol and the very difficult, Festival Gloria.  The audience gave loud and enthusiastic applause, leading them into the interval.

The start of the second half was very different.  The choir was surrounding the audience, even having some singers in the balcony, to sing And the Angels Sang.  We hope the audience had a real stereophonic experience!

The next carol, still in the round, was Do you Hear What I Hear? with beautiful solos by Annamaria, Karen (seen in the picture above) and Stephanie and Georgie.  The whole piece had the addition of a descant on the flugelhorn, played beautifully by Jeremy Loukes.

Then Tom introduced the Mayor of Dunstable, Louise O’Reardon to draw the raffle, which raised nearly £500.

Soraya Bowen, the regional fundraiser for Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire gave a short talk on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Society.  She astounded us by saying that every three minutes, someone will be diagnosed with Dementia, which made us all realise how important fundraising is to help alleviate this dreadful disease.

Caritas Singers then treated us to an a cappella arrangement of It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas and then a lively version of Jingle Bells.  This Little Babe from a Ceremony of Carols and The Twelve Days after Christmas finished the Caritas Harmony songs and it was time for the full Sing out for Dementia Choir to sing their final songs.

The First Noel was a lovely arrangement twinned with Pachelbel’s Canon on the keyboard.  The ladies’ voices soared up to the chorus of Noels. Then the well loved White Christmas, where Eunice Quinn joined Sue at the keyboard to provide the extra two hands for the arrangement.  Finally, the encore – not on the programme.

Sleigh Ride, complete with Santa Hats, sleigh bells, horses’ hooves and a whiplash, not to mention the neigh, played on the flugelhorn to finish it off.  As the ladies raised their hands for the final ‘Sleigh Ride’ the audience got to its feet and gave a resounding cheer and round of applause.

What an ending to a wonderful concert.  

Please look in the Concert Photo section for more photos of our rehearsal, all decked out in Christmas tops!

The ladies of Caritas Harmony would like to thank all the people who came to our concert in Harpenden and gave so generously to the Hospice of St. Francis.

In case you’re wondering, this is the end of our song The 12 or So Days of Christmas!  Such fun!

 

Peter, an ambassador and volunteer at the Hospice of St. Francis told us his personal experience with the Hospice and encouraged people to give generously – which they did.

We were delighted to be able to send £400 to The Hospice of St. Francis.

Caritas Singers gave a spirited rendition of Cantemos a Maria at Harpenden.  Apart from asking us to sing in Spanish, we had to master the tricky merengue rhythm in the clapping – well done to those who managed it!

 

Our first Christmas Concert in Luton

          Christmas 2024

Our first concert was a delight!  We were asked to perform at the beautiful Church of the Holy Ghost by one of our choir members, Maggie Templeman, who wanted to raise funds towards the church’s 60th Anniversary.   Maggie and her mum have been raising money tirelessly for this good cause and also in aid of St. Vincent de Paul, whose representative told the audience about their good work.   The Senior Citizens’ Group will also benefit from this concert.

 

The church was packed and the choir enjoyed their first Christmas outing, starting with How Great Thou Art, as requested by Maggie.  Then on to some old favourites, such as Jingle Bells and The Little Drummer Boy as well as new carols such as Cradle Hymn and The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.  One of the highlights was the addition of a descant played on the flugelhorn by Jeremy Loukes, to Do You Hear What I Hear?

 

The concert was finished with The Twelve Days after Christmas – to a standing ovation.  All in all, a great night for everyone.

Hitchin Festival Concert 2024

On Saturday 20th July Caritas Harmony was delighted to return to the beautiful setting of St Mary’s Parish Church in Hitchin to perform in the town’s annual music festival. This has become a regular event for the choir and one that they particularly enjoy. It was also the first time that our new MD, Cassandra White, had directed the Choir in this venue and the Lovely Ladies were anxious to do her proud. Flautist Liz Childs played her flute for three of our songs, complementing them perfectly. We were delighted that Bob Press was able to compere the concert. Bob’s wife, Heather, was a member of the Choir until her untimely death at the end of 2021 and it is wonderful that her husband chooses to support us in this way.

Profits from the concert, £500, were donated to Greenhouse Mentoring, a self-funded community project based at Stopsley Baptist Church where the Choir rehearses. The charity supports young people, empowering them to unlock their full potential and mentoring those who face significant challenges. One of the Choir members, Lyn, is involved with the charity and spoke eloquently to the audience about its aims and how any donations would be used to support its work. For the first time they will be singing at the Hitchin Christmas Festival when we will be supporting another charity, Road Victims Trust (RVT), suggested by another of our Lovely Ladies.

Wayside 2024

On 27th July 2024 the ladies returned to Barton Le Clay to perform their annual outdoor picnic concert in the beautiful gardens of Wayside Cottage. As always, Nigel Barrett had prepared this pretty garden for visitors and we were treated to flowers, trees and grasses in abundance and despite unsettled weather earlier in the day, the sun shone throughout the event.

Around 30 ladies in all performed the concert and once again, set this remarkable garden shimmering with an eclectic mix of the much loved ‘Caritas Style’ of song and harmony. 

More than 50 audience members listened to 20 songs which included Sing a song of Sixpence and The Wedding Ring – both new in 2024 to the choir’s repertoire. Caritas Singers gave stunning renditions of Libertango and Till there was you – the latter song being sung a capella. 

The event was expertly compered by John Roger and the whole afternoon raised £500 for Keech Hospice Care in Luton. 

It was five years ago today, 17th March 2019, when we won our first cup at Watford Music and Drama Festival.  Today we won two!

We won two beautiful cups at Watford Music and Drama Festival on 17th March.  Caritas Singers, singing Libertango and Eatnemen Vuele and Caritas Harmony singing Sing a Song of Sixpence and Feed the Birds.  Many thanks to all the ladies who performed, but especially to Cassie our MD and Sue our accompanist.  We couldn’t have done it without you two special people.

 

CARITAS SINGERS

17th March 2024

Oundle 23rd March.  The competition this year was a very high standard and we were pleased that we gained second and third places in our two classes.  

CARITAS HARMONY

17th March 2024

 

Christmas Gala Concert 2023

Our Gala Christmas was a great success.  The mood was set in the rehearsal when we all donned festive wear to get us in the mood for the concert ahead. 

We were delighted to be back singing in St. Mary’s Church in Dunstable, which is a Grade 2 listed building.  The acoustics are amazing and we were trying out a new beginning to the second half of the programme, singing Gaudete with surround sound.  We even had our own five angels singing from the balcony

The audience was delighted with the choices of music this year and even had to join in with The Holly and the Ivy, words and actions!!   We loved singing the final number with Buccinate Brass Ensemble, Joy to the World.

Getting ready to start the concert, all in our finery and bling!!  We performed a very varied selection of songs and carols this year, including the opening song from Frozen, Eatneme Vuelle.  The most ambition piece was This Little Babe from Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, and most humorous was the 12 or so Days of Christmas.  I wonder if the audience caught the musical references to The Swan from the Carnival of the Animals or The Marseillaise as we sang about Three French Hens?

Some of the helpers manning the bar for the interval.  We also held a raffle, all to help boost the funds for Macmillan Cancer Support.  One of our choir members told her personal experience of using them and encouraged everyone to give generously.  The concert was given in memory of Dave Simpson, a staunch support of the choir and Macmillan, and his wife Deborah drove up from Somerset to be part of the concert.  

Delighted to be able to give £800 to Macmillan