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1947-2000
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| History
1947~2000 |
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FOR EARLY DAYS |
The
present Choir was formed in January 1947, though records show that
a choir exisited intermittently from 1914. Remarkably, the Choir
has had only three Musical Directors since its formation. The founding
Musical Director was Sydney Bowden who served until 1982, taking
the choir through 37 years of song. The continuing strength, existance
and enthusiasm of the choir today rest on the foundation laid by
Sydney Bowden. His accompanist for almost all of that period was
Betty Gluyas, who was succeeded by Caroline Mollard in 1981. Sydney
and Betty are shown in the photograph on the previous page.
David Eastburn took over as Musical Director in 1982 and built up
the membership to 47. Elaine Tangye became accompanist at that time.
The photograph below shows the choir at that time. |
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The
picture on the left shows the Choir in 1985. David Eastburn was
MD and Elaine Tangye was accompanist. Several members above can
be found in the year 2000 photograph (below) and in the year 2004
photograph shown on the Present
page.
Our
present Musical Director, Ken Downing, is on the left end of the
front row.
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Our
present MD, Ken Downing, joined the choir in 1964, aged 14, as a
top tenor and he served as General Secretary from 1976 to 1994.
He became Deputy MD in 1986. Kathryn Baldry took over as accompanist
in 1985; she was suceeded by Colin Anthony. Ceryl Humphries took
over from Colin as accompanist in 2003. Kathryn became our accompanist
once again in 2004 (see the MUSIC TEAM).
The choir became a founder member of the of the Cornish Federation
of Male Voice Choirs. It has participated in the four massed choir
concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in 1984, 1988, 1994 and 2000.
In recent years the choir has undertaken tours to Bournemouth, the
Isle of Wight, Saddleworth (Lancs), three to South Wales, East Anglia,
Kent/Surrey (singing at two massed UK choir concerts at the Fairfield
Halls, Croydon), Surrey and in Malta. Most of these tours generate
return visits by the hosting choirs. Participation in the 11th Malta
International Choir Festival was the highlight of 1999 ~ the choir's
first international venture. We gained third place in this competition
and we were also fortunate to be asked to sing in St. John's Co-Cathedral
in Valetta. We were also very pleased that we could handle a very
difficult test piece - sung in Latin - unaccompanied. A photograph
of the choir taken in the year 2000 is shown below. |
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