Men's Choir Supports Young Musicians

At a rehearsal this week, Hampshire and Surrey Hills Men’s Choir presented the donations from their summer concert to Lynfa Landauer from The Cheryl King Trust.

The Cheryl King Trust is a local charity that funds music lessons for children and young people from low-income families across Surrey. From singing to instrumental tuition, and covering every genre imaginable, the Trust is driven by a simple but powerful belief: that no child should miss out on the joy and transformative benefits of learning music just because of the cost.

The delightful St. Thomas-on-The Bourne Church played host to the concert at the end of June which was conducted by Musical Director Philip Viveash-Brainch and assisted by Deputy Conductor James Harrison, with accompanist Charlotte Hobbs. A full audience, including the Mayor of Farnham, Councillor Graham White and the Mayoress, Mrs Judy White, were treated to a high-quality performance by the choir and members of the choir as soloists or in a small group nicknamed the "Hash Tones". Included in a programme of traditional male-voice classics, folk songs, show tunes and popular favourites, were the four items that the choir performed at the Cornwall International Male Choral Festival in May that led to them being awarded second place in this major competition. The Mayor described the concert as " a joyous evening demonstrating the control and power of a very special male voice choir" and many regular attendees labelled it as "the best yet".

Making the presentation choir Chairman, Mark Kusionowicz, said “We must keep alive our cultural musical traditions by encouraging each new generation to get involved at an early stage and the Cheryl King Trust aims to remove the financial barriers to children. It was great to hear that our donation could provide music lessons for two children for a year.”