Our concert at Mooroolbark was the start of a fairly busy period for the choir and what an excellent start it was.

The morning was chill but the hall and the audience were as warm as ever and a full house gave the choir a terrific welcome for the 11:00 a.m. concert. COVID had taken a toll on the choir numbers but this did not appear to impact it’s quality or volume.

We used the occasion to introduce a number of relatively new songs to the repertoire – Ysbryd y Nos (Spirit of the night), Hiraeth (Longing – a traditional ballad beloved of Welsh choirs around the globe) and Mansions of the Lord (from the Mel Gibson film “We were Soldiers”). All were well received by our enthusiastic morning audience.

While the choir sat down to gather their breath between brackets, the audience were treated to solos by our master of the keyboard Simon Walters who played an impromptu keyboard version of Dave Brubeck’s Take Five interspersed with elements of the theme from Neighbours – as a topical tribute to the ending of that long running soap opera.

In another break, our Music Director showed us his language skills as well as his vocal mastery in wowing the audience with a rendition, in French, of the wonderful ballad – Les Feuilles Mortes (Autumn leaves).

In the final break, our folk balladeer and first tenor – Raymond Crooke entertained us with an Eric Bogle song – Now I’m easy and then invited choir and audience to join him in the chorus of the well know sea shanty – Bound for Botany Bay.

The World in Union provided a fitting ending to a wonderful morning’s concert and the standing ovation at the end of the concert said it all. We look forward to returning to Mooroolbark for our traditional Christmas concert later in the year.