Choirs and brass combine for Pentecost concert

May 20th, 2013
[by David Armstrong]

The Catholic and Uniting Church choirs combined again to present, with the Motueka District Brass band, a good quality concert to an appreciative audience at St Peter Chanel Church yesterday.

This was the second time this year that the two choirs have combined, the most recent collaboration being the Good Friday morning service which we reported here.

Meanwhile, the town's brass band took the opportunity for a final rehearsal before travelling to Greymouth for the annual competitions between South Island brass bands.

The theme of yesterday's concert was "From Easter to Pentecost", the six-week period after Easter. The event was superbly organised and the music arranged by band and choir leader John Rimmer along with his wife Helen.

Jim Fry was once again an entertaining and erudite compere, and Cath Grant provided sympathetic piano accompaniment for the choir. Donations collected at the door went to Motueka Victim Support.

Some of the earlier choir items were relatively unknown and harmonically quite difficult, and were mostly handled with confidence, and later in the programme some more familiar items were sung with aplomb.

The band, too, played some popular pieces solidly, including an attractive medley from West Side Story". They also gave musical backing to the choir with two pieces, one being a beautiful arrangement written by John Rimmer of Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus".

A special treat was a Rimmer original, "A Song of Humility", performed by seven of the female chorists in a beautiful and haunting rendition that left the audience for a few moments in silent awe.

John Rimmer conducts Motueka District Brass, with the choir in the background

The combined choirs of St Peter Chanel and St Andrews churches

>> , to be added to the page. [If this link doesn't work, use this form instead]

[ Return ]
[ Other news articles ]

We wish to thank these local community-minded businesses who generously sponsor our site. They recognise the value of supporting this community asset, and in return Motueka Online is pleased to use and recommend their services whenever appropriate.

Ray White Motueka, Motueka Floral Studio, Nelson Building Society, House of Travel,
Greenwood Active Health, Lynette Mytton, T.O.A.D Hall,