Members Page

Other events in Radcliffe

INTRODUCTION and HISTORY of the Choir

Radcliffe on Trent is a village of some 8000 inhabitants situated 5 miles east of Nottingham on the A52. In 1983, fired originally by the enthusiasm of the local school's Head of Music, Mr Clive Sims, 28 local men founded the Radcliffe on Trent Male Voice Choir (RMVC). Since that time the membership has grown to around 70 and the Choir has achieved an enviable reputation in the Nottingham area, and beyond, for Male Voice Choral singing under their Musical Director Richard Howarth and, up to Sept 1999, his assistant and choir accompanist Alex Denman. Sadly Alex died in early 2007 in his 90th year.

In September 1999 the Choir were extremely fortunate to attract the services of a highly talented replacement for Alex - Eleonora Babitskaya,  born in Russia and  who then lived in Germany before moving to England in 1995.

An additional feminine presence results from the recent appointment of  Briony Pereira as Assistant Musical Director. Briony is also Head of Music at Dayncourt School in Radcliffe. She brings a new and refreshing attitude to our practices.

The Choir generally performs some 15-20 concerts per year in venues ranging from local village halls and churches to Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall. An outstanding recent example was a concert in Lincoln Cathedral in Feb 2001 when over £4000 was raised for the RNLI.

Several tours overseas have been made including to Antwerp, Gent, the Rhine Valley and also Atlanta, Georgia in the USA. A visit to reciprocate the 1999 hosting of the Hermanus Choir from South Africa, was made to Cape Province in Febuary 2000 when 5 concerts were sung.  

Our next overseas tour, a week in Rome, is planned for September 2008, as one of several events to mark the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the Choir.

We usually engage a soloist to broaden the scope of our concerts. These have included Mike Rayner, Dawn Foxall and Donna Bateman. The latter accompanied the Choir to South Africa and was extremely well received. For brief biographies of these fine singers click on SOLOISTS.

We also sometimes sing joint events with, for example, Brass Bands. We have thrice engaged the World and European Champions Brighouse and Rastrick. In Dec 1998, we jointly entertained a packed house at Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall and incidently raised over £11,000 for the charity SHELTER.

A similar concert was held on Dec 16th 2000 when the Williams Fairey Band was present together with Donna Bateman and compere Richard Whiteley. The benefiting charity was Marie Curie Cancer Care..

As part of their involvement with this organisation several members climbed Snowdon  to raise awareness via a resultant news article in accordance

with the second objective below:   

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OBJECTIVES

The Choir is a Registered Charity and has a written constitution which includes the following two objectives: (i) the study and practice of choral music in order to foster public knowledge.... (ii) to assist and support charitable institutions or purposes.....