A concert celebrating music for female voices – Make a Joyful Noise – which took place at St Mary’s Rye has raised £2,600 for the 1066 Pink Ladies, a breast cancer support group with over 160 members from the region.
Three very different choirs were on the billing and performed to a full house, indeed extra chairs were procured from the vestry at the last minute to avoid the need for audience members to stand.
Rye-based Sing It Out Choir had a repertoire of crowd pleasing songs from stage and screen including One from A Chorus Line. Ashford-based Alchemy – a choir for upper voices – wowed the audience with an ambitious set that ranged from the Witches Chorus (Macbeth) to the Skye Boat Song, and visiting choir – The Border Belles – delighted everyone with their atmospheric rendition of Toto’s Africa complete with full rainstorm sound effects thanks to ingenious use of finger clicks, jumps and claps.
Rye’s businesses came up trumps donating an impressive range of gifts and vouchers for the raffle and prize auction.
Pat King, one of the remarkable 1066 Pink Ladies said: “We were blown away by the event itself. We’ve never been asked to be part of something like this before, and to discover how much was raised was just astonishing. We can’t thank Rye enough – what incredibly generous people – the businesses but also everyone who bought a ticket for the concert. The total is equal to what we usually raise in the course of a year, so we are feeling very fortunate indeed. It will help with our running costs which include things like paying for a therapist to join us at every meeting so that anyone in our group has the opportunity to speak with them. It will also enable us to do some of things we often talk about but don’t always have the funds for – like wellness walks with tea and cake at the end, or pamper sessions for women who need a little TLC after their treatment journeys.”
Joanna Allen, co-founder of the Sing it Out Choir (alongside choir leader Rebecca Lodge Birkebaek) commented: “This was the first time we’d organised a concert of this scale, and we are quite taken aback at how successful it was, not only did we all have immense fun in taking part, but we’ve managed to raise a really impressive amount for a worthwhile cause. We’ve also made new friends in the process – there’s now talk of a return visit to Herefordshire next summer, home of the Border Belle’s, for another concert.”
You can find more on the 1066 Pink Ladies support group on their website and if you’re local to Rye and want to give the Sing It Out Choir a try – they meet every Wednesday at 7.30pm in the St Mary’s Centre.
Image Credits: Joanna Allen .