Annual General Meeting 2007
Chairman's Report
David Disbery began his report by welcoming our 14 new members and expressing the hope that they were enjoying the fun and humour that characterise our rehearsals. He thanked Ron and Colin especially, but also the choir as a whole, for maintaining such a high level of performance. We were attracting good audiences, and much credit was due to Moira Rawlings for the press coverage that she obtained for us.
It was a pity that subs had had to go up by so much (£10), but the committee had decided there was no alternative. There had been some comments from audiences about a lack of uniformity in the ladies skirt lengths, and David drew our attention to the fact that we have a dress code, which ought to be adhered to. He thanked Ron and Sue for hosting our carol singing again last Christmas.
The Chairman noted two retirements: that of the secretary, David Jones, after nine years in that position, and of Ann Round, who had kept the job of programme compiler when she left the committee some while ago, but was now giving it up. Both David and Ann were warmly thanked for their services. David Jones had agreed to take over now as programme compiler.
It was good to see Ian Tovey back after a year teaching away from home. David reminded us how much Ian does for us, and thanked those who had filled in for Ian during his absence: on top of the raffle and the work he does in connection with the programme Roger Cragg had taken sole charge of staging and seating, with the help of Peter Derrington (Gill's husband); Graham and Joan Stevens had taken on rehearsal interval drinks, with the help of Sue Nicholls; Geoff Round (Ann's husband) had taken on concert interval drinks.
Thanks were also due to Helen Bolan and Di Waughman for dealing with the ordering, sale and hiring out of vocal scores, to Margaret Vickery for seeing to the hire of orchestral scores, to Malcolm Dineley for looking after concert lighting, to Jeff and Pat Flather for their work on ticket sales, to Stewart Mackie for running our website, to the usual stalwarts who perform front-of -house duties at our concerts, and to Rosemary Lawrence for organising the annual dinner at the end of the summer term. There had been a suggestion that we should have an annual dinner at Christmas time too, and Rosemary would welcome any suggestions regarding this.
Conductor's Report
Our MD endorsed the Chairman's welcome to new members, and quickly calculated the number of tickets they should try and sell between them! He added that the recruitment of so many new members was a news story in itself, given the amount of gloom and doom being circulated concerning the future of choral societies.
Ron went on to congratulate the choir on its successes and to review what had been achieved over the year. The Monteverdi Vespers had been hard work but we had pulled it off, and it had been wonderful to hear the The 18th Century Concert Orchestra again. Mendelssohn's Elijah may perhaps be a bit hackneyed these days, but it was still 'damn good', and Ron was pleased with the way the young bass baritone, James Brash, had performed. The Fauré and Schubert concert had gone well too, with Colin 'brilliant' as our accompanist.
Our conductor thanked the committee for its work, and commiserated with Helen Bolan over the nightmare she had experienced with incompatible Novello scores for the Christmas Oratorio , that we are currently rehearsing. He also thanked Colin ('my righthand man, although that doesn't do him justice').
It was at this point that Ron announced his retirement: he would be stepping down as conductor at the end of next year. There were all sorts of reasons. He still had plenty of energy and enthusiasm for the choir, but in November next year he would be 62, and he didn't want to be one of those conductors who hung on and on until we ended up as an old choir with an old man in charge.
Ron was at pains to assure us that he was not in any way fed up. In fact he wondered what he would do now on Monday nights! He had also wondered aloud to his wife whether the choir might perhaps be glad to see the back of him. 'Perhaps they will,' Sue had replied. 'All they normally get to see of you is the front!'
Ron reckoned that he would have conducted altogether 49 concerts for us. We had been going to sing the Bach B Minor Mass in November next year, but this would have seemed a bit too much like conducting his own requiem, which explained why he had asked the committee to change the programme. And what better piece to replace the mass with than a piece whose title described us so well: The Music Makers.
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