Members of the society met outside the Waitrose store in Portishead to sing carols and collect donations for the charity Crisis at Christmas. Our Chair, Alex Cottrell, sent this message …

A huge thank you and congratulations to those stalwarts who turned up to sing outside Waitrose last night – 17 singers, conducted by Jonathan. Despite the relatively small numbers and being outdoors on a cold night, you produced a good sound. I’m so pleased we managed something that lets the public know we exist and are still singing, and collecting for charity. Thanks again, stalwarts! It was lovely to see you in action!

Next term, I have decided to continue the idea of extracts from substantial works, and to resurrect some of the music we were rehearsing for the Concert on 4 April 2020, when we had to cease rehearsals due to the outbreak of the pandemic. Hopefully we will be able to enjoy having an orchestra again in the future, but for now, we are fortunate in having our supremely confident accompanist, Richard Lennox. The venue will probably be either the Methodist Church or the Gordano School Hall.

I have included two works that we were rehearsing in March 2020 for the concert on April 4th; excerpts from Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise and Parry’s Blest Pair of Sirens. It would be good to feel that that rehearsal time had not gone to waste.

There will also be excerpts from my She Walks in Beauty, a work I composed twenty years ago to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Because our concert will take place within her Platinum Jubilee Year, some of the music will have Royal associations. As in past concerts, there will also be some instrumental music.

Our soloists will be Eloise Routledge, who sang in our Summer concert (‘An Evening at the Opera’) in June 2015 and in our Poulenc Gloria in December 2016, and Edward Goater lives in Somerset and has performed all over the UK.

“We all had such a great time singing and making music and were able to forget about Omicron”

“Despite all the issues, we managed & enjoyed singing our programme putting everyone into a Christmas Spirit. Great assortment of Music & Carols & audience participation which everyone enjoyed. Well done Jonathan who ended up rather like a One Man Band in not only leading us but also doing a great solo on his Cello. Also Richard with an incredible Christmas Composition & how beautiful was Katherines Solo. I’m sure those who attended went away feeling The Christmas Spirit & helping to dispel some of the Doom & Gloom we are all experiencing.”

“Sending a sincere ‘thank you’ to everyone involved with the PCS Christmas Concert which was so very special. My daughter and husband said the Concert was brilliant, so uplifting and they loved the audience participation. They especially enjoyed the intimacy and being close to the heart of the live music being played so brilliantly by Johnathon and Richard.”

“A Celebration of Singing Together Again”, 16 December 2021 – review by Jonathan Palmer