Wins in the Isle of Wight Music, Drama & Dance Festival 2023
| Type of post: | Chorus news item |
| Sub-type: | No sub-type |
| Posted By: | Dave Bryant |
| Status: | Current |
| Date Posted: | Sat, 8 Apr 2023 |
A great night for Wight Harmony on Friday 17th March 2023 when the male barbershop chorus took part in several classes.
The chorus won the Community Choir cup in class 656 with two contrasting songs - 'She's Like the Swallow', a beautiful Canadian folk song of some pain for a loved one when she finds that her loved one, also loves someone else. Melanie Armistead, described the performance as 'lovely unison singing, moving as one voice, followed by the harmonies filtering in unobtrusively, adding texture, and allowing the solo line to emerge'. This was followed by the pop group Elbow's 'One Day Like This'. Melanie described this performance as such: This built into a glorious and uplifting body of sound. I loved the way 'day' popped out of the texture throughout. The dawn truly came up and life's possibilities seemed so joyful. The adjudicator gave the choir an 'outstanding' with 90 marks, with an 'outstanding', something she doesn't often do apparently!
Wight Harmony then entered the Barbershop Male Voice Choir class 639 and were winners again!
The two songs were Bob Dylan's 'To make you feel my love,' and 'I'm Walkin'. Melanie's comments were again very positive. The sound (To make you feel my love), is full and satisfyingly in tune with subtle injections of energy. This is music making and communication. Thank you.
For I'm Walkin; she went on to say 'Slide and jazzy. A wonderful ensemble that is senstive to the solo voice. I just tapped my feet and enjoyed this. She gave 89 marks with a distinction.
A total of 4 quartets entered the barbershop quartet class 650, 3 from the Wight Harmony choir. The winners were the Blue Eyed Boys. This quartet was Steve Morris (bass), John Kerr (lead/baritone), John Ward (barione/lead) and Dave Bryant (tenor). They sang 1. The Way We Were, and 2. Chances Are. Melanie commented, 1. Nicely tuned and free moving with musicality. Touching word-painting with a lovely sense of the natural sense of their rhythm. Beautiful. for the second song, she commented, 'A very cheeky flirtatious little number and this adjudiactor could see the attraction! Bravo gentlemen. A well crafted bit of singing that came to life. Melanie gave the Blue Eyed Boys 88 marks with a distinction.
The other Wight Harmony quartets were Quaynote 87 marks and Part Exchange 86 marks - all very close.
A small group Wight Harmony group Random came third in the small chorus class 619, with some very favourable comments from Melanie - settled into a very confident performance - the tone blossomed on 'the smile on your face', - a full sound for a small ensemble. Well done gents.
A thoroughly enjoyable evening!! Congratu;lations!!
Dave Bryant
Musical Director
The chorus won the Community Choir cup in class 656 with two contrasting songs - 'She's Like the Swallow', a beautiful Canadian folk song of some pain for a loved one when she finds that her loved one, also loves someone else. Melanie Armistead, described the performance as 'lovely unison singing, moving as one voice, followed by the harmonies filtering in unobtrusively, adding texture, and allowing the solo line to emerge'. This was followed by the pop group Elbow's 'One Day Like This'. Melanie described this performance as such: This built into a glorious and uplifting body of sound. I loved the way 'day' popped out of the texture throughout. The dawn truly came up and life's possibilities seemed so joyful. The adjudicator gave the choir an 'outstanding' with 90 marks, with an 'outstanding', something she doesn't often do apparently!
Wight Harmony then entered the Barbershop Male Voice Choir class 639 and were winners again!
The two songs were Bob Dylan's 'To make you feel my love,' and 'I'm Walkin'. Melanie's comments were again very positive. The sound (To make you feel my love), is full and satisfyingly in tune with subtle injections of energy. This is music making and communication. Thank you.
For I'm Walkin; she went on to say 'Slide and jazzy. A wonderful ensemble that is senstive to the solo voice. I just tapped my feet and enjoyed this. She gave 89 marks with a distinction.
A total of 4 quartets entered the barbershop quartet class 650, 3 from the Wight Harmony choir. The winners were the Blue Eyed Boys. This quartet was Steve Morris (bass), John Kerr (lead/baritone), John Ward (barione/lead) and Dave Bryant (tenor). They sang 1. The Way We Were, and 2. Chances Are. Melanie commented, 1. Nicely tuned and free moving with musicality. Touching word-painting with a lovely sense of the natural sense of their rhythm. Beautiful. for the second song, she commented, 'A very cheeky flirtatious little number and this adjudiactor could see the attraction! Bravo gentlemen. A well crafted bit of singing that came to life. Melanie gave the Blue Eyed Boys 88 marks with a distinction.
The other Wight Harmony quartets were Quaynote 87 marks and Part Exchange 86 marks - all very close.
A small group Wight Harmony group Random came third in the small chorus class 619, with some very favourable comments from Melanie - settled into a very confident performance - the tone blossomed on 'the smile on your face', - a full sound for a small ensemble. Well done gents.
A thoroughly enjoyable evening!! Congratu;lations!!
Dave Bryant
Musical Director
