Skip to content

Choirs raise £4000 for Charities

 

To experience an evening of superb music in a packed St Mary’s Church is a rare pleasure for Banburyshire dwellers! “Six of the Best” was one of those occasions.

On behalf of everyone at Banbury Rotary Club – thank you so much to everyone involved  for taking part in what was – by common audience and participant acclaim – a highly successful concert on Saturday evening.

Congratulations to every single member of the six performing groups and to your conductors, accompanists and admin/tech support people. The sheer variety of performance pieces turned out in itself to be a piece of accidental brilliance – and the high quality of each group’s performance of its particular genre of song or anthem must have made every one of the conductors/musical directors really proud.

The evening also owed its success to everyone who pushed and facilitated ticket sales – so thankyou again to everyone in your choirs involved in this and to Malcolm Douglas and his staff at Henry’s. The concert was a sell-out!

And many thanks to the sound and lighting team, Ashley and Richard, whose expertise in their fields ensured smooth continuity and enhanced the whole atmosphere, and to Marilyn and Andrew Fairbairn and their teams of stewards at St Mary’s, who organised the stage setup on Friday evening and Saturday morning, assisted throughout the afternoon’s rehearsals, ran the bars in the evening and were there to reset the church afterwards ready for Sunday worship.

Once again – many thanks to all involved – especially to the co-ordinators for the singing groups. We know how much is involved in preparation for events like these on top of people’s own personal and society schedules!

We’re delighted to report that the concert surpassed our financial expectations as well. Final calculations have still to be made but you will be pleased to hear that after taking ticket sales, choir member contributions, retiring collection and donations + gift aid into account, adding £1000 matched funding from the concert’s main sponsor, Barclays Bank, then subtracting necessary expenses – First Aid, Advertising, Programmes – (everyone who took part in any way from choirs, Rotary Club and St Mary’s Church gave their time and talents freely) – we have raised a round figure of £4000 to share equally between Helen and Douglas House Hospice and Rotary International’s Flagship Polio Eradication Charity.

In addition, as most readers will be aware, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation doubles every £1 that Rotary Clubs across the world raise for Polio Eradication, so this means that with their help we shall have contributed £6000 to this cause.

What a great finale outcome! Well sung everyone!!!

Once again – many thanks to all involved!