front room

Concert at St Mary's Church, Fawkham
Saturday, 12th November 2011

The tiny church of St Mary’s in Fawkham near Longfield was the setting for Front Room’s autumn concert, promoted by the Friends of Fawkham Church. Accompanied by Roger Harris, the programme opened with ‘I got rhythm’ written in 1930 by George and Ira Gershwin for the musical Girl Crazy and ended with an arrangement of Coldplay’s Viva la Vida, which was the band’s first number one single in both the US and UK in 2008. Along the way, Front Room sang favourites such as Moon River (Breakfast at Tiffany’s), I know him so well (Chess) and All that Jazz (Chicago) as well as arrangements of songs by Lennon & McCartney, The Carpenters, Manhattan Transfer and Billy Joel.

Violinists Joanna Love and Shelley Dixon were the evening’s soloists performing an arrangement of The Entertainer for two violins, a novelty duet by W.A. Mozart entitled Crab Walk, and an arrangement of JS Bach’s Double Violin Concerto, Bach at the Double for Swing Trio, accompanied at the keyboard by Judi Dixon. The Friends provided interval refreshments of mulled wine and mince pies and over £300 was raised towards the upkeep of the church.

Southdowns Church
Sunday, 23rd July 2011

Front Room's third concert at Southdowns Church once again included a varied programme of songs from the 1920s through to the present day. On this occasion Front Room were joined by two young singers, Natasha Kissane and Scott Godfrey, who sang well know songs from the West End shows such as Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, accompanied by Roger Harris. The proceeds of the concert were donated towards sponsoring one of Southdowns’ resident nurses who is taking part in the Sinai Desert Trek in November 2011 in support of the Alzheimer’s Society.

Top Choir Kent 2011, Canterbury
Saturday, 16 April 2011

Front Room was delighted to receive an invitation to take part once again in the final of the Top Choir Kent competition, organized by the Rotary Club of Canterbury. We enjoyed another great day out together in Canterbury and performed to a sell-out audience in the Shirley Hall at Kings School, including members of the seven other choirs competing for the title and last year’s Top Choir Kent, Green Street Blues from Sevenoaks. We opened our short programme with “Mangwani m’pulele”, a Sotho children’s song, and then sang two award-winning songs: “The way we were” the beautiful title song from the film starring Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1973, and “The Continental” from The Gay Divorcee, which was the first song to win that same Award almost 40 years earlier. The judges were impressed with our performance and how much we had improved over the past 12 months. This year’s Top Choir Kent is Viva Acapella from Orpington and the Rotary Club raised £6,500 for charity and an additional £1,000 for the Pilgrims' Hospice from the end of concert collection.

Some photos from the event here: Top Choir Kent photos
For more information about the event see the Top Choir Kent website.

Concert at St George's Church, Gravesend
Saturday, 2nd April 2011

Front Room was joined by the Pocahontas Performers, conducted by Alan Vincent, for a concert entitled ‘Thank you for the music’, which raised over £800 for the Tower Restoration Fund. Pocahontas Performers sang a varied programme of sacred and secular choral works from the 16th century to the present day, including a performance of Mozart’s beautiful ‘Ave Verum Corpus’ accompanied at the organ by Geoffrey Lester who also performed Herbert Howell’s ‘Psalm Prelude’.

After the interval, Front Room sang arrangements of well-known popular songs from the 20th century such as ‘The Continental’, ‘Mister Sandman’, and ‘The way we were’, accompanied once again by Geoffrey Lester, this time at the piano. A rousing encore of Abba’s ‘Thank you for the music’ by the combined voices of Front Room, Pocahontas Singers and the audience brought the very enjoyable evening to a close.

Gravesham Festival of Music & Drama
Saturday 5th March 2011

Front Room was awarded first place in the Adult Choir class, singing John Rutter’s 'Home is a special kind of feeling’ and an arrangement of ‘The Continental’ by David Blackwell. Front Room Ladies won the Ladies Choir class singing ‘Song of Shadows’ by Armstrong Gibbs and 'Chattanooga Choo Choo’ arranged by Mac Huff. The Back Room Boys’ performance of ‘Whispering Grass’ and ‘Back in the Days Gone By’ (complete with actions) in the Vocal Ensemble class was enjoyed by the audience of fellow competitors and their supporters.

St George's Church
Church Street, Gravesend DA11 0DJ
10th March 2012

Midsummer Music
The Church of St Peter & St Paul, Luddesdowne Nr Meopham DA13 0XE
23rd June 2012

St John's Church
Wrotham Road, Meopham DA13 0AA
10th November 2012