ORIGINS
Original aim – to be a Community group for any who enjoyed singing, competent or not. And the main focus – especially for those who opted to – was to lead the singing for major festivals at the Church – Harvest, Remembrance, Easter, and especially the Christmas Carol service. Eric has been granted life-long membership.
From the beginning, too, on the Eve of Old Dalby Day (end of August) we’ve led ‘Songs on the Green’, a light-hearted ‘Songs of Praise’, beginning with our own song, ‘Old Dalby Day is here’.
The Old Dalby Quartet (initially ‘Chapel Quartet’, as all 4 then lived near the Old Chapel) was an offshoot from the Singers, and contributes to Concert programmes.
Initially most Singers were from Old Dalby and Queensway. Now more and more are from other villages and Melton Mowbray. Our numbers have varied from 20 to 35, and ages from 14 to 90 years old.
EVENTS and REPERTOIRE
For the Floral Dance, trumpet (Jim Sallis), Violin (Clare Lee), Lucy Grice (Flute) and others also accompanied.
Other highlights have been: in Jan-Feb 2008 was our performance (with guest conductor Michael Bonshor, and 3 visiting soloists) of Vivaldi’s Gloria, sung at Old Dalby and twice in Melton Mowbray. The same year, in June, we gave a Flower Festival Concert.
Songs include from the Shows (e.g Oklahama, My Fair Lady, Les Miserables), medleys (Beatles, A.Lloyd Webber, popular Christmas songs), as well as pieces from classical works such as Handel’s Messiah. A popular piece has been I Got Rhythm, and for men's voices, Rhythm of Life. The programme Christmas Concert in 2015, in Old Dalby, Melton and Leicester.
In 2016 the choir performed at Old Dalby and presented a wonderful concert at the United Reform Church on Chapel St, Melton Mowbray LE13 1LZ. the next day on Saturday 10th December, 7.00pm. Edgars performed on piano and was joined by several guest artists for a truly memorable evening.
For summer 2017 the repertoire included an ambitious selection of beautiful works by Karl Jenkins, and couple of Verdi choruses, the Bright Side of Life with a visit to the Vicar of Dibley amongst others. The summer concerts were on the 24th June at Old Dalby Church and the 7th July, at Cotgrave, All Saints. Edgars performed magnificently and soloists Anne, Oliver and Russ helped made for great entertainment and a happy smiling audience.
The immensely varied 2017 winter concert included Tchaikovsky accompanied "God Rest", several wonderful Christmas pieces including "A Winter Lullaby" performed with Old Dalby School Choir.
LEADERS
List of Accompanists: John Norburn, John Bairstow, Merrony Markham, Peter Field, Kim Myung, Andrea Lee, Edgars Cuzinskis, Jenny Walker, Harry Lee Payton, Thomas Corden, Deborah Davies (Cranmer Co of Singers), Paul Hayward.
Adapted from Nick Rennie’s Article,
Melton Times, Nov 2020;
Autistic Melton teenager recognised for his music talent.
Old Dalby Singers’ Thomas Corden (18) has been shortlisted for the Young Artist of the Year category in the Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire’s annual awards scheme.
A former pupil at Melton’s Birch Wood Area Special School, he suffered with severe autism from birth and struggled with all aspects of life. Thomas has moderate learning difficulties and has had issues with speech and language but discovering his talent for music has given him a new-found confidence.
Five years ago, he started piano lessons before passing several exams with high marks and going on to raise money for charities by performing a number of local concerts. Thomas plays the piano and church organ at the Sunday services for United Reformed Church in Melton and he is currently working virtually every week with the Old Dalby Singers choir to produce some Christmas carols for people to watch online.
His proud mum, Louise, told the Melton Times: “I was asked to nominate him by the chairman of Melton Mencap, as she watched Thomas playing the keyboard for their Christmas family day, as he has done for a few years now.
“Throughout lockdown, to keep a positive mind and to continue in his efforts to work hard, I helped Thomas set up his own You Tube channel, so that he can share his videos with friends and family to give them something to make them feel happy.
“He struggles with his confidence, social skills and some life skills, but he really loves music.”
The family has already seen a great improvement in Thomas’ confidence and ability to socialise through his music career.
He now attends RNIB/Sense College, to improve his life-skills, and Loughborough College, for a music practitioners course.
Thomas has decided that he would like a career in music and works extremely hard on a daily basis.
Mum Louise added: “He is always smiling - his hard work and music talent is recognised and appreciated by his school, his choir and the charities he has performed for.
“We, as a family, are extremely proud of Thomas because of his commitment to work hard in playing the piano and church organ. People love listening to his music and it is wonderful to hear the praise that they give to him.”
Every year, the Lord-Lieutenant’s award scheme recognises the efforts and successes of 13-to-19 year-olds across the county.
A total of 57 nominations were received for the four categories with four entrants shortlisted for each. All finalists receive a framed certificate together with a prize, category winner also get a prize to the value of £500 and the overall Young Person of the Year will be presented with a special trophy. Finalists and their parents are usually invited to a formal awards evening and dinner in April but an alternative socially distanced event will take place tonight instead.
Lord-Lieutenant of Leicestershire, Michael Kapur OBE, said: “As a result of Covid-19 I had to postpone our special ‘red carpet’ awards evening and dinner originally planned for April. However, I am pleased to announce we will be holding a virtual event for our finalists. Ahead of the event, I have been sharing some of our finalists’ achievements via my twitter account, to demonstrate how the young people of Leicester and Leicestershire continue to astound me with their creativity, strength of spirit and selflessness.” He added: “I hope that the positivity and enthusiasm that shines through in their personal stories brightens your day and inspires more young people to follow their passions and encourages our local communities to continue to nurture and support the incredible young people in their midst. When you see the high standards of our finalists, you can appreciate how it makes my job of deciding who should receive the overall Young Person of the Year award that much harder, and long may that remain the case.”
Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=lChfZrFHePY to watch an online stream of the awards.
For Thomas’s You Tube channel search for “ItsTCThePianoman”, or direct to his YouTube page at; www.youtube.com/channel/UCODxwy2M4hTagwdkhr7UH0g/
The Old Dalby Singers are all very proud of Thomas.
