This year marks the 50th anniversary of Haslingfield Choir. Established in 1971 by Haslingfield resident Margaret Houghton MBE, the choir has since performed two concerts each year in All Saints’ Church. Now under the direction of Paul Jackson, also a Haslingfield resident and until recently Director of Music and Performance at Anglia Ruskin University, we continue to perform an exciting variety of programmes.
We are a friendly and committed choir and enjoy sharing our love of choral music with enthusiastic audiences. Rehearsals take place weekly in the spring and autumn terms in Haslingfield Methodist Church where we are accompanied by the talented pianist Maurice Hodges. At the moment our rehearsals are held via Zoom, but we are looking forward to meeting in person as soon as Covid-19 restrictions allow.
We continue to explore new musical opportunities, such as our recent selection for an Adopt-A-Composer award run by Making Music, in partnership with Sound and Music. This has involved the writing of a new work for us, ‘Haslingfield Tapestry’ by the exciting young composer Alex Paxton, to include orchestra and three local children’s choirs. We hope to perform this new composition at our next concert. We have also produced our own lockdown version of John Rutter’s beautiful piece ‘O, Waly, Waly’. Recorded by each choir member at home and edited and mixed by our Musical Director, you can access the performance at our website www.haslingfieldchoir.org.uk
At our Summer Party this year we hope to celebrate our 50th anniversary; we would like to invite all current and past members who have sung with us at any time over the past 50 years to join us. Please contact Kate Dickens through our website for more information.