Take time with Taranaki talent

AFTER an excellent start to the year, the Stratford Mountain Singers are entering the final phase of preparations for the first major concert of 2009 a combined concert with Taranaki Male Choir.
With a concert programme centred on the themes of 'time' and 'love', the two choirs will be performing music in a variety of styles, including classics from both American and European musical theatre, popular ballads, light classics, jazz and spirituals.
"It's a great honour to be able to bring these two choirs together," said conductor of both choirs, Leon Gray-Lockhart, "and as a combined force, they will prove exhilarating for their audiences the rich close harmony of the male choir will provide an excellent boost to the Mountain Singers' male ensemble, and resonate beautifully with it's excellent female contingent."
Together, the choirs will perform a number of songs, as well as a set of songs each. This means that audiences will get the chance to enjoy both the big sound of the 60-strong combined choir, as well as the quality of each individual choir.
"We've also managed to pull out feature groups from within each choir. From Stratford, we have separate performances from the full female chorus, and an additional small ensemble of ladies, and from Taranaki Male Choir, a barbershop quartet. This will mean plenty of variety and we're all looking forward to it."
The concert itself will be staged twice. The first performance will be at the Eltham Town Hall, Saturday, May 16 at 7.30pm and the second at the New Plymouth Club, Sunday May 17 at 2pm. Tickets will be on sale soon.
"It's going to be a real treat for people who love to listen to vocal harmony in a variety of forms. It will also be nice for people to hear songs they are familiar with arranged in interesting ways."