Aeolian Singers Christmas Concert

We’ve enjoyed having the Aeolians sing at our Harvest Service (our mini-choir joined them for the day) but their Christmas Concert on 5^th December was something special. As Tony said, nobody could doubt that Christmas was about to come!

We started with Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria which included some delightful duets and solos from Antonia Rusenescu and Lucie Halili.

In the interval that followed there was wine and mince pies and an opportunity to purchase something from our Bring & Buy stall in aid of an orphanage in Uganda.

The second half of the concert was all about carols old & new, some for the choir alone and some with audience participation.

Stephen Jones had written a descant for ‘A Great & Mighty Wonder’ which he played on the piano and conducted. Simon Worley shuttled between organ and piano  – latter to “Jazz up” Good King Wenceslas – and delighted us with his version of “Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.

We had two readings by members of the choir. The first was a humorous ‘take’ on the 12 days of Christmas and the second a letter of apology from Good King Wenceslas to the parents of his Page.

The concert closed with the choir singing “We wish you a Merry Christmas”. There was much emphasis from the Tenors and Bases on “bringing out the figgy pudding” and “won’t go until we’ve had some” and actually we’d have loved them to stay longer. No figgy pudding, but they did clear away the last of the mince pies.

A really enjoyable evening for which we are most grateful – so a big thankyou to the Aeolians, to Simon and to Stephen.

The video recording is split into two parts, the Gloria and then the Carols section (both below).