July 4th
St Laurence's Church Ludlow
This was the last concert organized by Owen Jones, a chorister who tirelessly has set up a whole string of prestigious concert in the cathedrals of the country. When we last sang at the Ludlow Festival the organizing committee were so impressed that they invited us back to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the festival. Sadly Owen was unwell and was unable to attend to hear his nephew Rhys Meirion, tenor, produce a masterly appearance as solo artist.
There was slight anxiety as in the afternoon it was the last match in the Lions - South Africa test series but all the rugby enthusiasts were able to watch the game in local bars and the result spurred us on for the evening concert.
In the absence of Haydn James, who was in South Africa leading the Lions Choir, our guest conductor was Michael Wyn-Jones a former chorister and deputy conductor of the choir who now is MD of the London Welsh Rugby Club Choir. Annabel Thwaite our regular accompanist was also unavailable and Chris Duckett performed admirable as guest accompanist.
The church was packed and the concert was well received. Rhys Meirion sang a mixture of welsh and operatic songs and it was a privilege to have him as our soloist. As an unexpected encore he produced a 'friend' to help him sing the stirring duet from the Pearl Fishers. The friend was none other than the world class baritone David Kempster. He warmed up with a classy version of 'Some Enchanted Evening' then joined Rhys in a superb rendition of the duet. What a privilege for us and the audience
Mike Jarman LWMVC
