SingFest - Manawatū and Wellington community choirs enjoyed singing together

The Take Note Singers of Wellington were conducted by Felicia Edgecombe at the Palmerston North SingFest on October 31.

SingFest review
By Stanley Barnes, NZCF Manawatu-Whanganui SingFest committee

More than 200 singers, accompanists, and administrators from the Manawatū and Wellington region gathered at St Peter's Church on Saturday for the Choral Federation Manawatu-Whanganui Region Singing Festival.

This biennial event had been deferred from its usual April date because of the Covid-19 lockdown, and the organisers were pleased that under level 1 they were able to hold the region's sixth SingFest.

The non-competitive festival had been planned as a celebration of the return to choir activity after the Covid-19 lockdown and an affirmation of the joy of community singing for its own sake.

Adult singing groups and choirs taking part included All Saints' Church Choir, Renaissance Singers, Palmerston North Choral Society, Manawatū Overtones Chorus, Manawatunes Barbershop Chorus and Take Note Singers, a composite choir of 50 singers from several groups of the same name that operate in the Wellington region.

There was much joy and exhilaration in the wide range of songs presented by those participating, ranging from traditional and contemporary church music to the relaxed style of the barbershop-style close harmony.

In all, 25 songs were presented.

There were two of local composer Graham Parson's pieces: one titled Covid Chorus sung by Renaissance Singers, and a more serious composition, Our Home, from his suite Songs of Home, sung by the Palmerston North Choral Society.

The full suite was commissioned by the society to mark its centennial.

Covid-19 featured in the programme, with a light-hearted Coronavirus Medley by the Edgecombe and Whittaker families, sung by the Wellington Take Note Singers.

The day's festival concluded with a spirited rendering of the English traditional classic Scarborough Fair arranged by contemporary English composer Jeremy Rawson.

Rawson, a personal friend of SingFest co-ordinator Roy Tankersley, had sent a message of greeting to the choirs that expressed his pleasure that we were singing one of his arrangements.

He said he was pleased that we could sing in a festival involving such a large number of singers when all such gatherings in his country were totally out of the question due to the lockdowns.

Singers went away from the festival well-pleased with the activity, and looking forward to the next SingFest in two years' time.