Thanks to Jonathan Dodd for his thoughts on the Voices of the Isle of Wight concert that opened the 2016 Ryde Arts Festival on Friday night. Ed
On Friday 24th June, the Ryde Arts Festival was opened with a concert by The Voices of the Isle of Wight, at Aspire in Dover Street.
The choir has been performing for 20 years, under the musical directorship of Linda Filby-Borrett.
Packed to the rafters
Aspire was packed practically to the rafters, and there was high expectation of an evening of great music as people of all ages came to listen to this highly-regarded local choir sing a varied programme, from Purcell through to Sting.
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For this performance they were accompanied by Ann Gardner on piano, and the choir was conducted by Stephen Ostler standing in for Linda Filby-Borrett at short notice, although nobody would have known.
The programme started with a duet by Offenbach, continued with two songs from the youngest members of the choir, and there was a piano recital by Miss Yiran Ma, a very young piano virtuosa.
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This was followed by O Danny Boy, then Over the Rainbow and a solo effort of Consider Yourself from Oliver, by an amazingly confident young singer named Arthur Farley.
The young singers then sang a rather spooky song, which was followed by a solo of Santa Lucia by Tony Ridley, and a duet of I could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady. A beautiful arrangement of Fields of Gold followed, a Sting song made universally famous by Eva Cassidy. After that there was a folk song called Homeward Bound.
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A lovely duet from Handel came next, called O Lovely Peace, and Dido’s Lament and With Drooping Wings from the Purcell opera Dido and Aeneas, the first a solo and the second by the whole choir. To finish, there was a song called The Rose, Music of the Night from the Phantom of the Opera, and finally the whole choir sang Wherever You are, a song from the Military Wives.
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I haven’t mentioned all the names of the soloists and duettists, because there were so many. They were all excellent, and each took their turn while also supporting each other in the choir.
A love of singing shared by all
The music was excellent all evening, but the thing that I remember most is the obvious enjoyment and love of singing shared by all of the members. They sang their hearts out, and the audience was delighted as much as they were throughout.
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I sat there myself, thinking I should go and find somewhere to sing too, because the evening was inspiring. Linda Filby-Borrett and all her singers filled Aspire and everyone present with music and joy and enthusiasm.
Thank you for a lovely evening.
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Images: © With kind permission of Michael Dunkason
