Eltham Choral Society’s concert last Saturday was a real crowd pleaser. It featured popular opera choruses, a new commission – Six Songs of Childhood, set to music by the choir’s multi-talented accompanist Andrew Lenon – and a selection of songs performed by the Young Eltham Singers (YES).
The concert was a fitting finale for the choir’s first cohort of choral scholars who, with guest tenor Jacq Herbots, performed solo pieces as well as the solo leads in the choruses. Jill Pollock, the choir’s lead mezzo soprano, sang the solo in Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen, giving a masterclass in vocal command, language and stagecraft.
For the rousing March of the Toreadors from the same opera, ECS was joined by YES, who also performed a number of other works including Bob Chilcott’s Can You Hear Me?, under the direction of David Moore. From the audience’s rapturous applause, the answer to the question was a resounding yes!
The evening was full of joy – and a great warm-up for the England football match! Andrew’s glorious settings of poems from Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses lent plenty of nostalgia and touched the hearts of every child from 0-99!
The only sad note was saying goodbye to our bass choral scholar, Daniel Simpson, who is moving on to study for a Masters degree at the Royal Northern College of Music. We wish him all the best. ECS looks forward to another year working with our soprano and alto scholars Grace Oliver and Eva Hutchins and to welcoming our new tenor and bass choral scholars, Cameron Galvin and Michael Yashkin Daskiewicz. Cameron and Michael both currently study at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire.
After the concert, guest conductor Max Barley paid tribute to the three acting musical directors Hilary Punnett, Genevieve Ellis and Dominic Felts, who stepped in to prepare the choir for the concert pending the arrival of ECS’s newly appointed music director. Naomi Butcher commences her tenure in September 2026.