Braintree Male Voice Choir
Braintree Male Voice Choir
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Braintree Male Voice Choir was formed in 1971 following a Christmas concert at Braintree College when members of staff took part. Alec Poulton, who was deputy head of technology became the conductor and guided the choir until his retirement in 1989. The former principal of the college, Iori Williams CBE, is the choir's president.
Since then Elisabeth Miller GRSM., ARCM., who studied choir training with Richard Latham at the Royal College of Music has been musical director, developing the choir and it's repertoire .It does not rely only on the normal repertoire of male voice choirs but has stretched it's wings to take in all kinds of different music.
This has led to many innovative themed concerts such as 'A Gala Opera Night', 'Showstoppers', 'Back to the 40s', 'Swinging Through the Decades', 'The Magic of the Movies', 'The Rhythm of Life', and 'Last Night of the Proms'.
The choir has sung in German, Latin and Swahili and also in Welsh.
We have shared programmes with concert and swing bands, other male voice choirs, ladies choirs and many different soloists including two appearances at the Royal Albert Hall in the Festival of Massed English Voices.. Braintree MVC has sung three times in Wales and also in 2005 at the London Welsh Centre as guests of the Gwalia Choir. In the same year members participated in a choir of around 200 male voices at the Cliffs Pavilion, Southend, in aid of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution at the invitation of the Leigh Orpheus Choir.
Regular concerts overseas include a visit to Verberie, a village in northern France twinned with Rayne, and in 2003 members of the choir, family and friends went to Silz, in Austria where they were guests of the Ladies Farmers' Choir who had visited Braintree in 2000. A return visit to Verberie has taken place this Spring.
The choir is a member of the National Federation of Music Societies and Braintree District Arts.