more harmony's 15th anniversary concert is a super success!

Well., here we are, one month on from our Fifteenth Anniversary Concert and believe me when I say, we're still only just com
ing back down to Earth!  After weeks of hard work, preparation and planning, on September 20th we celebrated fifteen years of More Harmony in style - and we were absolutely delighted with what a success it was!

Having been unable to celebrate our tenth anniversary in 2020 due to Covid restrictions, we were determined that our fifteenth should be a big event.  We also knew that we wanted to achieve two special things from it:

1. Celebrate the rich culture of music in our local area.

2. Raise some money for our charity of the year, Marie Curie.

To achieve the first of our aims, we were delighted to invite several guest performers to the event.  We welcomed InTune, Port Isaac Chorale, The Shipwrecks, Wadebridge Town Band and singer Charlotte Philps to entertain our audience.  They all did an absolutely fantastic job of showcasing just what a wealth of talent there is in Wadebridge and the surrounding areas.  A huge thank you to all of them for coming along and making the evening such a special one!  Music has such a phenomenal power to bring people together and it was wonderful to be surrounded by so many homegrown, independent musical groups.

Three of our members also took to the stage - Wenna Watts, performing alongside Charlotte Philps, and Alice Watts and Emma Tofi, singing a duet.  At More Harmony, we love to encourage our members to shine and seeing these women sing their hearts out was a very proud moment for all of us.  Of course, the chorus also performed two sets - both opening and closing the concert - and we were blown away by the response we got from the audience!  "Absolutely stunning" and "you sound phenomenal - as though there are three times as many of you as there really are!" were just two of the amazing comments we received after the show.  We are so grateful to everyone who came to support us!

To meet our second goal of raising money for charity, we decided that all proceeds from the bar should go towards Marie Curie, plus we held a fantastic prize raffle with all money made from ticket sales also going to Marie Curie.  We'd like to extend an enormous thank you to all of the wonderful local businesses and organisations who donated prizes, ranging from a weekend stay in Falmouth to meals out at local restaurants - and much more besides!  

Thanks to the generosity of so many local businesses - and of our fabulous audience - we were able to raise £500 for Marie Curie.  We were delighted to welcome Marianne from the charity to a recent rehearsal, where we were able to hand over the cheque for this fantastic cause.

Of course, no show is complete without a host and ours went above and beyond for us!  We'd like to say a massive, heartfelt thank you to the wonderful Naomi Kennedy from BBC Radio Cornwall, who kept the show on track, entertained the audience and was just generally an all-round superstar!  Naomi was awesome - the perfect emcee - and everyone at More Harmony has been talking non-stop about what a great job she did!

The concert was a chance to show off what we do at More Harmony and we hope we did that in spades!  So many of our singers came to us as women who had never sung outside of the shower or their cars, only to fall in love with singing a cappella with us!  To give them their stage and let them show off all of their hard work was so important to us.  We are immensely proud of every woman who sings with us - not only for their voices, but for their enthusiasm and the fun they bring to rehearsals, not to mention the warm welcome they give to every new singer who walks through our doors.  One of the greatest compliments we received on the night was how "together" we seem.  We really are a close-knit bunch who look out for one another and help each other to be the best we can be.  It's that ethos of friendship and fun that has kept More Harmony going for fifteen years and we hope it keeps us going for another fifteen - and beyond!

We never forget those we've lost along the way and we were honoured to dedicate a song at the concert to those singers who are sadly no longer with us.  We were very touched to have the daughter of one such member as a VIP guest at the concert.  She even acted as our photographer - thank you Hayley!

Speaking of thank yous, we also owe a big thank you to our other VIP guests for coming along to support the concert.  Mayor of Wadebridge Ian Welch, Zelda Grey of the Ladies Association of British Barbershop Singers, Kevin & Cathy Daisy from Wadebridge Music Festival, our former LABBS Liaison Officer Val Murray and her husband Andrew, Marianne and Adrian from Marie Curie, More Harmony's first ever MD, Sian Netherton and our former member and invaluable supporter Mel Baber.

Of course, we'd also like to thank everyone who came along to what we think was a fantastic evening of music and celebration right in the heart of Wadebridge!  You all clapped and cheered and helped to make it a night we'll always remember - thank you for making it so special.

Now, we're excitedly looking forward to the future!  We're busy rehearsing for Christmas - keep an eye on our socials to see where we'll be performing - and we're also planning an open rehearsal on November 6th.  We've already welcomed two new singers since the concert and we hope to continue growing our fab, friendly chorus, so if you're a woman aged 16+, we'd love you to join us on November 6th and see what we're all about!  We'll be learning two Christmas songs in a night and we're planning on making it a full-on festive occasion, so why not break out your Christmas jumper and come along?  There's no charge, so there's nothing to lose!  Join in the fun on Thursday November 6th, 7:15-9:30pm (doors open at 7pm) at Wadebridge Ambulance Hall.  Drop us a line to find out more.