Recent events
Pictures and videos from some of our recent events are featured here:
All the King's Men
Concert with Tees Valley Youth Choir
Christmas Cracker Concert
Celebration of the Choir's First Half Year
'Baroque to Beatles' Concert with VOX
Hartlepool Festival of Music and Arts
'Songs of the Sea' Concert
All the King's Men, the children's opera by Richard Rodney Bennett, was given two performances in the Hazel Pearson Theatre at Middlesbrough College on 11 October 2009. The production was funded by a grant from 'Platform - for Classical Music in the Tees Valley'.
An excellent partnership with the Performing Arts Department of Middlesbrough College was developed, and staff and students built this fantastic set in a just a couple of days, and took charge of all the technical aspects of the performance.
Parents and relations helped with costumes!
Locomotion, the boys' choir based in Darlington, formed the rest of the cast.
The opera was set in the English Civil war. The people of Gloucester, defended by Colonel Massey and his Parliament soldiers, wait inside the walls.
(The replica muskets were loaned by local scouts!)
The messenger, played by Tyler Henderson, reports to Colonel Massey that a huge army of the King's soldiers is approaching.
King Charles I was accompanied by his soldiers, his (fairly useless) generals - and the queen and her ladies, who were not at all keen on the discomforts of war, or the company of rough soldiers!
The ladies were played by Jessica Briscoe, Faye Hadfield, Jessica Rose, Charlotte Spacey and Caitlin Wase.
All the cast sang with enthusiasm! The choirs' Music Directors had taught the songs in just three rehearsals, before the sessions at Middlesbrough College started.
Here conductor/director John Forsyth worked with the cast in two intensive weekends.
Katie Anderson and Hannah Stephenson played in the orchestra, alongside excellent instrumentalists from Tees Valley Youth Orchestra. A substantial donation from the proceeds of the opera was sent to the Friends of TVYO.
The final chorus. The King's large army, with its ambitious plan for bridging the River Severn, has been outwitted by the wits and hard work of the people of Gloucester.
Everyone was applauded! Guests from Platform and Middlesbrough College, and the Mayor of Darlington, who has supported Locomotion, were delighted with the standard of the performance and commented on the professionalism and focus of the young singers.
Flowers for John Forsyth - he put a great deal of work and energy into the opera and inspired everyone to give of their best. He's looking for another opera to perform in 2010!
Despite the pressure of preparing for the show in three singing rehearsals and two weekends' work on the staging, singers were full of enthusiasm, with many of them saying that they had made new friends and had learned a lot about working hard and fitting into a team to achieve a great result.
One of the singers wrote, "I loved taking part in the opera and I'm sure the audience enjoyed the show too! It felt great being on stage. The light, colour and sound created a fabulous atmosphere! I surprised myself at what I could achieve."
The large audience and the giving of so much in-kind help meant that the opera made a profit! About £300 was donated to each of Locomotion and Tees Valley Voices.
Concert with Tees Valley Youth Choir, 12 December 2009, St. Barnabas Church, Linthorpe, Middlesbrough.
Following excellent contributions from Tees Valley Youth Choir and Locomotion, Tees Valley Voices, conducted by Katie Anderson and accompanied by Hannah Stephenson sang four items, including two arrangements of carols for two-part choir by John Rutter.
The church was a beautiful setting for the concert, and the friendly co-operation of the helpers there meant that everything went smoothly. Interval refreshments were served by the church.
Tees Valley Youth Choir, Locomotion and Tees Valley Voices ended the choir performance by singing together 'I saw three ships' and 'The twelve days of Christmas' - a wonderful sound!
There were carols for the audience to join in, with beautiful descants from sopranos of the youth choir.
TVV is very grateful for the donation of £300 from the proceeds of the concert.
Christmas Cracker Concert, 19 December 2009, Lingfield Point, Darlington (no photos available at present).
This event took place on the night of the big snowfall! Travel was difficult for many but a large, warm-hearted audience gradually filtered in. The planned programme was cut substantially to achieve an early finish, but the solos were still included - Steven Proctor's amazing violin solo and Rejoice Greatly from Messiah, sung by Rowan Pierce were much enjoyed.
John Forsyth had assembled an excellent orchestra which performed two pieces, and Tees Valley Youth Choir, Tees Valley Voices and Locomotion had their own items to sing. The large combined choir (with ages ranging from about 8 to 80!) performed arrangements of several carols, and there were popular carols for everyone to sing. Mulled wine and mince pies fortified everyone for their snowy journey home.
The event was organised by hospice fundraisers and Darlington Operatic Society, to raise funds for St. Teresa's Hospice. John Forsyth co-ordinated the musical programme and conducted the choir and orchestra.
Tees Valley Voices singers joined the choir of adults and young people on the Thursday before the concert for the one rehearsal. Despite not having seen the thick folder of music before, and the fact that John Forsyth took the rehearsal at a cracking pace, they coped wonderfully well, finding their places in the music and identifying which line to sing. It was a steep learning curve, but there was lots of support from others there. It was good to see that they all turned up on concert day for more of the same!
Celebration of the Choir's first half year, 11 February 2010, Mill Lane Primary School, Stockton.
While the choir warmed up in preparation for the presentation, parents and friends enjoyed a glass of wine and a forum with committee members in the room next door before going into the hall to join the children.
Katie and Hannah explained that there had been a lot of 'fun' music this term - blues, gospel and songs from musicals, and that different kinds of repertoire and vocal styles would be added in future.
A lively presentation of songs learned this year followed.
'Baroque to Beatles' Concert with VOX, 20 March 2010, St John the Baptist Church, Stockton.
VOX is an excellent choir of people aged from 18-30, conducted by Jeremy Harbottle. Katie Anderson is one of the sopranos!
We just about managed to squeeze the audience in, and they were treated to madrigals, songs by Lennon and McCartney and Paul Simon from VOX, and two groups of songs from Tees Valley Voices.
The choirs sang Twilight together, in a new arrangement by Jeremy Harbottle. Hannah Stephenson and Katie Anderson shared the duties of accompanist.
Hartlepool Festival of Music and Arts, 8 May 2010.
"We're sorry, but the classes are running at least an hour late!" was the message as the choir arrived at Hartlepool's Town Hall Theatre. With customary good humour, parents and children accepted the situation and filled in the time by finding food in a nearby supermarket or by watching the solo singing classes.
We had time to don T shirts, have a sing and take some photographs in the dressing room before we were called for the start of our class.
Seven choirs competed. Tees Valley Voices sang fourth, performing Creatures of the Deep and Ain't no mountain high enough.
Eventually, it was time for the adjudication, and we were delighted when it was announced that the choir had come second, receiving a silver certificate and an adjudication sheet which spoke of "a lovely unison tone - you are singing 'as one' ", "diction is clear", "So much to commend here - well done all". We were very proud of the choir's professional performance - and excellent behaviour, too.
'Songs of the Sea' Concert, 17 July 2010, The ARC, Stockton.
The Studio Theatre at The ARC, Stockton-on-Tees was the appropriately named venue for a concert on Saturday 17 July inspired by the coming of the Tall Ships to Hartlepool in August.
The capacity audience of parents and friends enjoyed a nautically-themed evening which drew on the rich heritage of music connected with the sea, together with a modern musical retelling of the story of Jonah and the Whale - the Jonah-man Jazz.
Many of the choir members also worked hard to prepare solos and duets to enliven the evening, showing their great potential and increasing confidence.