St. Stephen's Community Singers Concert
After a fall dedicated to learning new repertoire, St. Stephen’s Community Singers took their talents to the West Vancouver community to perform for the residents of Kiwanis Garden Village. This residential community is fortunate to have a great hall with excellent acoustics and a multiplicity of functions. It suited the needs of the guest performers perfectly.
St. Stephen’s Community Singers is a community choir based at St. Stephen’s Anglican Church under the sponsorship of the Reverend Kenneth Vinal. It is open to all, no auditions, small bi-annual fee and great fellowship! The group meets from September to June from 3:45 - 5pm The repertoire is varied, moving from pop classics and folk melodies to classic art songs and religious standards. The director, Dr. Annabelle Paetsch, brings formidable musical credits to the group augmented by patience and a sense of humour!
The fall concert, “Singing the Seasons, Fall to Christmas”, took place on Thursday, November 24 at 3:30pm. The easy, lilting style of the first two numbers, “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and “Autumn Leaves” set the tone and suggested the variety of the concert offerings. These pieces and many others were enriched by the accompanying flute of Nancy Riecken and Lynne Graham. Percussion was added when appropriate by Hilary Clark playing snare drum, triangle, maracas and tambourine. (Not all at the same time!)
An international inclusion featured “Calypso Lullaby”, “Christmas in Killarney” and two Australian carols, plus “In the Bleak Midwinter” and “Go Tell it on the Mountain”. Canada was represented by Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”
The audience then joined in with some well known group carols ending with “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. A good time was had by all.
IMAGES
- A full view the choir and audience in the Great Hall
- Director, Dr. Annabelle Paetsch speaks to the audience
- A view of the choir and director
- Members of the audience
- Flautists and percussionist
- Dr. Paetsch in a hat
- The percussionist and reporter, age 92 and going strong.
Photos John Ruddick