Kinder Children’s Choir of the High Peak and the Kinder Youth Choir received standing ovations from local and international audiences during their third concert tour of Normandy, France, in July 2007.

The 43-strong touring party, based at the small harbour town of Port-en-Bessin, near Bayeux, performed concerts in abbeys and churches in Normandy towns, including Cerisy-a-la-Foret, Treviere and at the famous Tapestry site at the historic city of Bayeux.  

Since their first visit to Normandy as part of the D-Day commemoration in 2004, the choir has built up a warm relationship with local audiences and the region’s tourist and culture authority who promoted the concerts. For more than half of the choristers, it was a first visit to France and, as part of the educational aspect of the eight-day itinerary, the choir visited the American War Cemetery at Omaha Beach and viewed the historic Bayeux tapestry telling of the Norman invasion of England in 1066.  

Kinder Choir Trustee Robert Mulholland said that the tour could be counted a great success. “Comments from members of the audiences, including local people and international visitors were very generous. An American choral director visiting Normandy said he was amazed at the standards achieved by the young choristers, which were enhanced in the beautiful acoustic of the Abbeys. The Choir brought great credit to the High Peak. Each concert was preceded with a short explanation by our French hosts of the High Peak and its own delights as a tourist destination. We all owe a great debt of gratitude to Founder Director Joyce Ellis, who creates such professional attitudes within the choir under all kinds of circumstances, to the tour organiser Carol Prowse, accompanist Kath Hesford and a hard-working and caring team of chaperones,” he said.

Concerts included performances by the Concert Choir and Youth Choir, with highlights including You Raise Me Up (Lovland/Graham), Mary Stuart’s Prayer (Donizetti), Come Again Sweet Love (Dowland), You’ll Never Walk Alone (Rodgers) and Bob Chilcott’s Peace Mass, beautifully performed in the various church settings.  

An audience of almost 800 gave a warm reception to the Kinder Children’s Choirs of the High Peak at their annual Summer concert at the Opera House, Buxton, on Sunday July 1, 2007.

More than 120 children aged from seven to 18 participated in the various choirs, performing a wide range of items including an arrangement of I Believe (Hawley Ades/Andrew Burr), musical theatre favourites, Masquerade, from Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, songs from Chicago and from Rodgers and Hammerstein, all under the inspirational leadership of Founder Director Joyce Ellis.

Warm tributes were paid to long-serving accompanist Andrew Burr, who had announced his retirement from his full-time position as the choir’s accompanist. Happily, Andrew will continue to pen the splendid arrangements which have delighted audiences in recent years.

Awards were given to acknowledge five and 10-year membership of the choir as follows: Silver Five-Year Membership Medal: Lydia Baldwin, Amy Griffith, Rowan Jones, Laura Kennedy, Rebecca Longden, Alieke Oppermans, Harvey Oppermans, Hannah Wallace. Gold 10-Year Membership Medal: Stephen Johnson, Ellen Backhouse, Catherine Barber

Special Award winners for 2007 were: Ellis Concert Choir Cup: Nic Barber and Stephen Johnson; Harding Junior Cup: Rebecca Longden; Special Award Cup: Emma Benstead.

The concert was sponsored by Buxton Car Centre.            

TWO of the Kinder Children’s Choirs, again representing the High Peak on a national stage, won enthusiastic acclaim from the huge audience and warm praise from the adjudicators in the category finals of the prestigious BBC Radio3 Choir of the Year competition at Cardiff Millennium Centre last week (November 12).

The competition, one of the Britain’s most prestigious choral events, took place amid a fervent atmosphere in the spectacular new auditorium, hosted by Aled Jones, over two days. Howard Goodall, well-known as the composer of many popular TV themes, including The Vicar of Dibley, said, in his adjudication of the Kinder Youth Choir’s performance of a choreographed selection of songs from Abba and ‘Grease’, in the Open category: "Lovely sound, from both boys and girls. Incredibly polished and precise. Super voices throughout; almost every aspect of the delivery, diction, ensemble, dynamics, tuning, are flawless. I love the confidence, openness and charm of this performance. There was an utterly refreshing lack of inhibition from start to finish.”

Howard also lavished praise on the Kinder Junior Singers, performing in the Children’s category: "Very accomplished throughout - in particular the upper sopranos with very well-supported high notes. Both ‘Strings in the Earth and Air’ and ‘Iona Boat Song’ were performed with great feeling, delicacy and sensitivity.”

The two Kinder Choirs, directed Joyce Ellis, were invited to compete in the finals after hotly-contested qualifying rounds in various regions around Britain and a national selection stage where the best qualifying choirs were judged on recordings of their performances in the regional rounds. More than 5000 singers took part in the qualifying rounds. Only six choirs were invited to compete in the category finals in each of four categories, Children’s, Youth, Adult and Open. 

"This is a huge competition with high standards all round", said Joyce. "Quite a few of Britain’s top choirs did not reach the national selection stage this year, let alone the finals. For us to have two choirs out of three through to the finals was really exciting, and a tribute to the hard work, commitment and consistency of our young people. They immensely enjoyed the experience of performing on this high profile national stage."

The winner of the Children’s category final was the Fulham Prep School Chamber Choir and the winner of the Open category, which included some of the country’s leading adult and ethnic culture choirs, was the London Bulgarian Choir.

KINDER Choirs were rocked by the news of the death of their founder chairman, Dennis Harding OBE, on October 9th 2006. Dennis, a highly successful businessman and an indefatigable supporter and advisor for many local, regional and national charities, was the first man turned to by Joyce Ellis, when she conceived the idea of forming the Kinder Choirs 16 years ago.

Since then Dennis had been an extremely wise and inspirational chairman of the Trust he set up with fellow trustees to administer the choirs. He and his wife Rosie were a leading and  much loved  part of the Kinder success story and Dennis will be sadly missed by everyone connected with the Choirs.
Dennis was particularly proud of the inclusive ethos of the Choir whereby membership is open to all children, without voice test or audition, and he was instrumental in setting up the bursary system which ensures that no child is excluded for financial reasons.

He was also extremely supportive of the Trust’s Community programme which enabled Miss Ellis to take the arts and skills of choral singing into High Peak schools, in collaboration with local school principals and music masters. The programme in recent years has helped give thousands of children the opportunity to sing and perform in public with their school choirs.

In a Thanksgiving service at the Methodist Church, Chapel-en-le-Frith, the Kinder Concert Choir, conducted by founder director Miss Joyce Ellis, contributed a most moving tribute to Dennis, singing two pieces, Sanctus from Missa Brevis by Edward Gregson and You Raise Me Up, words and music by Rolf Lovland and Brendan Graham.

THE Kinder Children's Choir performance at the International Eisteddfod is on video on the official Llangollen web site. The choir was placed 4th, which is very creditable.

Kinder Children's choirs feature in different parts of the official "Their Past, Your Future" web site which is operated by the Imperial War Museum in London.  The 2 educational projects that the choir undertook in connection with their tours of Normandy, as a part of the 60th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, and the tour relating to the 60th anniversary of the end of the war feature under the Learning Centre/School Project Showcase.  We have some photographs on and also sections of the DVD we produced in 2005. 

TWO of the Kinder Children’s Choirs have been selected to appear in the final rounds of the BBCRadio3 Choir of the Year competition at Cardiff Millennium Centre in November.

The competition is one of the nation’s most prestigious choral events. The selection of two of the Kinder Choirs, the Kinder Youth Choir and the Kinder Junior Singers, comes after hotly-contested qualifying rounds in various regions around Britain and a national selection stage where the best qualifying choirs are judged on recordings of their performances in the regional rounds.

"This is a huge competition with high standards all round", says Choir Director, Joyce Ellis.  "Quite a few of Britain’s top choirs have not even got as far as the national selection stage this year, let alone the finals.  For us to have two choirs out of three through to the finals is really exciting, and a tribute to the hard work, commitment and consistency of our young people."

This will be the third consecutive time that Kinder Junior Singers will be in the final. It is the first time that Kinder Youth Choir has entered the competition. They are competing in the Open Class, which also includes a selection of the country’s leading adult and ethnic culture choirs.

Readers who would like to see and hear these choirs in action will have the opportunity when all the Kinder Children's Choirs take part in their summer concert, "London Pride" at Buxton Opera House on Sunday, 2 July. Besides a finale of popular songs of London, repertoire includes old and new choral favourites.

Tickets from Buxton Opera House Box Office
Telephone 0845 127 2190

KINDER Children’s Choir and the Kinder Youth Choir sealed one of the greatest achievements in the Choir’s 15-year history at Cardiff on May 14 when they were both named Choir of the Day in their respective categories in the prestigious BBC Radio3 Choir of the Year competition.

The choirs were given the highest commendation by the judges after performances in the regional qualifying round of the competition. Their achievement followed similar success by the Kinder Junior Singers in the children’s choir category in Manchester in March when they, too, were named Choir of the Day by a distinguished panel of judges. The triple coup reflects great credit on the preparatory work of Choir Director Joyce Ellis, who was unable to conduct the Concert Choir in Cardiff because of indisposition.

Kinder were extremely fortunate that Miss Ellis was able to arrange at short notice a distinguished deputy in John Pryce-Jones, a former colleague. After a brief rehearsal period, John, who had been conducting the Northern Ballet Orchestra at Sadlers Wells, London, earlier in the week, was delighted with the Concert Choir’s performance. “They are so professional, it is a joy to work with them,“ said John, “Everything we discussed and tried at the rehearsal happened on stage - they are real professionals and deserved their success.”

The Concert choir impressed the judges with performances of four songs, Welcome by Edward Gregson, O Lovely night by Michael Praetorius, Hymn of the Travellers by Holst and I Got Rhythm by Gershwin arr Andrew Burr, the Choir’s gifted accompanist.

The Youth Choir performed a compilation of popular songs arranged by Andrew, without a conductor. They wowed the judges and the audience with four choreographed songs Dancing Queen, The House of the Rising Sun, Sunny Afternoon and You’re the One that I Want.

Gillian Dibden, one of the judges, a renowned choral director with the Berkshire Young Musicians Trust, said: “Kinder Youth Choir gave an excellent and confident performance without a conductor, achieving a blended sound and great presentation.” The other judge, Ken Burton, internationally renowned as principal conductor of the London Adventist Chorale, said: “Kinder Children’s Choir created a mature full bodied sound making challenging pieces appear effortless. They gave very musical performances which were thoroughly enjoyable.” Youth Choir member, Natalya Dubaic, receiving their Choir of the Day certificate from BBC presenter Petroc Trelawny, said: “It has been so much fun, it felt like we owned the stage.”

All three Kinder choirs go forward to the National Selection Stage in June. Judges listen to CDs of the winning performances from the regional auditions across the UK. The best 24 choirs, six from each category, go to the Finals on November 11-12 at Cardiff. Eight winning choirs and four wild card choirs, go to the Grand Finals on the December 10 at Cardiff. The Finals will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Grand Finals will also be televised on BBC Four.