Registered Charity No: 1059527

(Most  recent website update:   14th January 2012

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 , over the last 20 years the Choir has achieved an enviable reputation in the Nottingham area, and  beyond, for Male Voice Choral singing under 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.

2008 saw us celebrate our 25th year with a tour to Rome, Celebratory concert and a Silver Jubilee Dinner.

For  info & Photos of Choir 25th Anniversary Events.

     A)  Click on ROME for fotos of some of our activities during our Tour to Rome

              Sept. 20 - 26th 2008.    And on  MediaOfficer  for a text on the subject.

    B)  Click on CONCERT for images of our Oct 4th Anniv, Concert.

    C)  Click on DINNER   for details and images of the 25th Anniversary Dinner.

In late 2008 the Rt. Hon Kenneth Clarke MP QC kindly agreed to be our President.

In April of  2009, after 20 years in which he lead the Choir to great heights, Richard Howarth relinquished the baton to   Chris Burton, a very talented  young musician whose biography can be  read at  MD Bio.  We wish Chris well and look forward to singing under his direction.

The Choir generally performs some 10-15 concerts per year in venues ranging from local village halls and churches to Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall. An outstanding example was a concert in Lincoln Cathedral in Feb 2001 when over £4000 was raised for the RNLI.  More recently, December 2008, the sum of £3400.00 was presented to Save the Children.  During its life the Choir has raised over £300,000.00 for a wide range of Charities.

Several tours overseas had been made prior to our recent Rome trip, 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.  

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.....

NEW MUSICAL DIRECTOR

As readers of this site may know, we recently advertised for a Musical Director to replace Chris Burton, who, with Leah, his partner, have provided such brilliant musical leadership over the past 2 years.  Mrs. Victoria Barlow (left) has accepted the post and is already challenging the Choir to raise its standards!  Mrs Barlow, who lives in Coddington, was recently Director of Music at St Mary’s R.C. School in Chesterfield  where she organised four choirs including participation in the BBC’s Choir of the Year Competition. She is currently studying with the ABCD (Association of British Choir Directors) for a Diploma in Choral Directing.