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About the Alvington Singers

Performances.  The choir's concerts take place in villages and towns around the South Hams and are usually given in aid of a charitable cause. The music sung includes part-songs, show songs, jazz classics, spirituals, madrigals.

Choral works Once a year we present a performance of a major work with small orchestra. These have included Beethoven's Mass in C, Mozart's Coronation Mass, Haydn's Te Deum, Bach's Peasant Cantata, Handel's Coronation Anthems - 'Zadok the Priest' and 'The King Shall Rejoice', Vivaldi's Gloria, Faure's Requiem, Karl Jenkins' 'The Armed Man', Rutter's Requiem

  The Alvington Singers performing at St. George's Church, Modbury

The Alvington Singers performing at St. George's Church, Modbury

Diversity. The aim of the choir is to sing as wide a range of music as possible, and under their present musical director have learnt to cope with styles as diverse as madrigals and African music. Also, contemporary composers often feature. Click here for a list of recent concerts.

Workshops. Annual choral workshops are run in the spring by the choir's musical director and deputy conductor. These have included such works as Mendelssohn's Elijah, Mozart's Requiem, Haydn's Nelson Mass, Poulenc's Gloria, as well as works featured in the choir's programme.

Commissions. In 1998, the choir was awarded a lottery grant enabling them to commission a work from the well-known West Country composer, Barry Ferguson - Humbug, Mr Scrooge - based on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. This was subsequently performed in Shaftesbury and Dartmouth and revived at Christmas 2005 in the composer’s presence to celebrate the choir’s 20th anniversary.

Community involvement. Weddings feature regularly in the choir's activities; also singing at Civic functions and Care Homes. These opportunities give the choir a rôle in the local community.

Social activities are included in the choir's programme and an annual event has been the Singers' Supper (see photograph).

  Alvington Singers - annual choir supper

Annual choir supper

Musical Director

The choir’s musical director, Alastair Durden, who has been with the choir for ten years now, studied at London’s Royal Academy of Music from 1966 to 1971. Here he gained teaching diplomas in organ and piano playing, the prestigious Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, as well as a B.Mus. degree from London University. He taught in schools full-time (running the Music Department at a preparatory school in Surrey for ten years) before moving to Devon in 1984. Since then he has been active as teacher, pianist, accompanist, organist, conductor. His choral arrangements for the choir can be found on the Sibelius web-site www.sibeliusmusic.com

  Alvington Singers - Music Director Alastair Durden

Musical Director, Alastair Durden

Accompanist

The choir’s accompanist, Kathy Kenny, has been with the choir since 1998. She studied for a music degree at Goldsmith’s College, followed by a year at Trinity College, London, studying piano accompaniment. She comes from a musical family, her father having been a distinguished professional violinist, and is herself a gifted violinist as well as pianist.

 

 

 

Kathy Kenny, Accompanist to the Alvington Singers

Accompanist, Kathy Kenny

© Alvington Singers, last updated July, 2008