IMERYS ENGINEERING MALE VOICE CHOIR

President: Barry Grime Chairman: Brian Bassett Musical Director: Barry Hawken Secretary: Dennis Mitchell Tel: (01726) 822655 Email: dennisandshirley.mitchell@talktalk.net CHOIR PROGRAMME Imerys Engineering Male Voice Choir meets on Thursdays from 7-9 pm at Imerys Contract Services, Nanpean. If you would like to come and experience male voice music with a view to joining, contact any choir member or our Secretary, Dennis Mitchell. If you would like to secure a booking for a concert, please contact our Secretary. Members of Imerys Engineering Male Voice Choir include singers from a variety of different backgrounds. The life-blood of a male voice choir is new membership and we are always on the lookout for those who are interested in joining us. You do not need to be a soloist, but you need the will to learn, to make a commitment to the group and of course, to enjoy yourself. The experience gained from singing to different audiences at a variety of venues and the camaraderie within the choir is reward enough. To know that in so doing you are also raising money for charity, makes it all the more worthwhile. Origins Imerys Engineering Male Voice Choir was formed in the early 1960s to compete in the China Clay Works Choirs Class of the St Austell Music Festival. It is one of three remaining choirs in the St Austell area to be supported by Imerys Minerals Ltd, formerly ECC International. At one time membership was exclusive to ECC International's engineering employees, but this is no longer a requirement. What we do now Predominantly a concert choir, contest work still features in our choir's calendar and we have been successful in music festivals throughout the South West and on one occasion had the honour of being Cornish Champions. As a concert choir, we have raised many thousands of pounds for worthy charities and to this end continue to give concerts at a variety of venues across Devon and Cornwall. Recognising the importance of fellowship in good music, the choir members have always been enthusiastic travellers and the choir has toured extensively in the UK and occasionally in Europe. We have also appeared in the BBC Look North programme set in Yorkshire and in two of BBC Television's With Brass & Voice programmes, where we were accompanied by the fine sound of St Austell Brass Band. The choir has also performed with others from Cornwall in BBC Television's Songs of Praise in Truro Cathedral and at the Eden Project and One Thousand Cornish Voices in the Royal Albert Hall. We have produced two recordings, both of which have proved to be a great success. Above all we enjoy our music and hope that, singer or listener, you do too. Our Musical Director Barry Hawken was born and brought up in the small village of Whitemoor which lies on the edge of 'China Clay Country'. Upon leaving school he joined English China Clays where he trained as a Works Clerk and in 2003 was appointed Senior Buyer in the Purchasing Department. In 2006 Barry left Imerys (formerly English China Clays) to pursue other business opportunities and interests. Barry Hawken has taken an active part in music from an early age. His involvement with music was initially with brass bands and he considers himself extremely fortunate to have been a member of the St Dennis Youth and Senior Bands under the direction of the late Eddie Williams - a period when the Youth Band were unbeaten in the South West and held the title of 'National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain'. Barry's involvement with choral music began in his mid-twenties when he was asked to lead the singing for a musical production at his local Methodist Church. This proved to be the beginning of his involvement with Choral music through a series of hugely successful annual Musicals which packed the Chapel to capacity night after night. From the cast of these Musicals, Barry formed the mixed-voice Choir, Halwyn-a-gan, which draws on the talents of singers from throughout the Mid-Cornwall area and which he continues to conduct. Active and energetic in the promotion of choral music, Barry has been heavily involved in encouraging young people to take up singing and has recently been working with the Foundation for Youth Music in local schools and currently has a group of 30 young people who meet on a weekly basis in order to develop their singing potential. Barry Hawken became the Musical Director for Imerys Engineering Male Voice Choir in July 2006 and he and the choir look forward to working together and building upon the choir's present position. Our Soloist Karen Hurn has been dedicated to singing all her life and is well known as a soloist throughout Cornwall. Performing from an early age, Karen sang at her first music festival at the age of 7. To date she has won every local championship, including success at the prestigious Cheltenham Festival. In 1987 she became the first ever winner of BBC Radio Cornwall's Young Musician of the Year. Over the years Karen has helped to raised thousands of pounds for numerous charities, including £2000 for Mount Edgcumbe Hospice. This money was raised through the sale of her first recording, Thank You For The Music, which has sold over 500 copies. Karen's new and current recording Songs for Sunrise, has already sold 1000 copies. The CD's variety of music and artists has wide appeal and all proceeds are being donated to The Sunrise Cancer Appeal, funding the Oncology Unit at Treliske Hospital Truro. Our Accompanists Merle Oliver trained as a teacher at St Matthias College, Bristol and recently retired as Deputy Head Teacher of a local primary school, although she still teaches music throughout the school, plays for their concerts and shows and coaches their steel band! Merle is also organist at Carne Hill and plays for numerous chapels, choirs and soloists in the area. Studying both piano and organ with the late Russell Kessell, founder conductor of Treviscoe Male Voice Choir, Merle accompanied that famous choir for more than 10 years, until unforuntately, it was disbanded. Our accompanist since 1974, Merle is sympathetic, yet discerning, her musical contribution beyond valuation and her commitment an example to us all. Ceryl Humphries has been involved in accompanying and choral singing from an early age. She has accompanied and conducted children's choirs, ladies' choirs and male voice choirs in Wales. In 1988 she obtained a teaching appointment in Cornwall and soon after became accompanist, then Musical Director of Tresillian Ladies' Choir. At present she is organist in Portloe United Church, accompanies Karen Hurn, St Stythians Male Voice Choir and is a keyboard player in a group called Jacka Jazz. Our President Born at St Just, Lands End, of a Cornish mother and Lancastrian father, Barry Grime has absorbed love of music in the Celtic Tradition. Mother was a soloist for many years in mid Cornwall church and chapel concerts and father an active promoter in the local brass band world. Barry, after training in engineering in the UK and overseas with a bit of choral singing thrown in, returned to Cornwall in 1959. Married to a Cornish girl, Kay, with three successfully launched children, he always wanted to get into choral singing again. His satisfaction as a new Chief Engineer in the china clay industry in 1962, was to be involved in the formation of this choir and to have been associated with it ever since. He always promised to sing with the choir in retirement and has enjoyed doing just that since retiring as Engineering Director of ECC International in 1991.