Rodolfus Choir and Inner Voices with Ralph Allwood, St John's Smith Square Tuesday December 31 2013
This wonderful choir gave a lovely 30th Anniversary concert at St John's Smith Square this afternoon. And they even did one number with just 16 Alumni including Sophie Daneman, James Bowman, and Iestyn Davies! And the last item was Parry's Blest Pair of Sirens with all members of the audience who had ever sung it joining in. And that included me even though the last time was around 60 years ago when I was a treble. I elected to sing 2nd tenor on this occasion! No, I did not sing it from memory - they handed out copies of the vocal score to all who put their hands up!
The astonishing excellence of this choir of young people is entirely attributable to the work of the remarkable Ralph Allwood. I am thrilled that my great niece Georgie is a member of Rodolfus. Having left Bedales , where was a music scholar, she is at Manchester University studying architecture. But music remains a dominant force in her young life. And no wonder, with inspiration from Ralph Allwood and all the superb other young musicians in Rodolfus. And this afternoon they had a guest conductor in Edward Gardner no less for a couple of numbers.........and another of Ralph Allwood's choirs - Inner Voices.
I was also delighted to see Al and Di Hume, whose son Alex is also a member of Rodolfus. This choir has pedigree!
So all in all a really great way to finish off this year. I will try to remain awake until midnight. But I wont push my luck!
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