Decibellas Do the Double!

Decibellas Women’s Choir from Tarporley, Cheshire, is delighted and very proud to announce that it has won two categories at The Chester Competitive Festival of Performing Arts 2015.  Competing against other excellent Women’s vocal groups, Decibellas carried away The Stamford Cup and The Rita Landi Challenge Cup.

Decibellas’ first performance was in the Women’s Choir Open, competing for The Stamford Cup, awarded to the competitors with the highest marks.  Their first piece was Over the Rainbow, Arlen arr. Joanna Forbes.  Jeffrey Wynn Davies, adjudicator on the day, praised the dynamics, balance and nuances of the performance, making particular mention of the “fabulous ending that faded into the air”.

The choir’s second piece was Hope for Resolution, Caldwell & Ivory, that combines a choral and Zulu chant, having been written for Mandela and Le Clerk.  The adjudicator commented that even though the piece had been written for a much larger choir, Decibellas delivered a wonderful performance and very effectively demonstrated the change in character during the piece.

The next class was for smaller choral groups (5-15 voices) who competed for the Rita Landi Challenge Cup. For this section a small ensemble of volunteers (Decibellisime)  from the larger choir, performed The Lily and The Rose, Chilcott, and How Do I Love Thee, Nathan Christensen.  Jeffrey Wynn Davies commented that although the Chilcott piece was not technically difficult, the group “did not miss a trick”.  He was also impressed with the complexity of How Do I Love Thee and commented that he had awarded extra marks for technical difficulty.

Hazel Rowlands, Chair of Decibellas, commented “We are thrilled to have won both trophies and really didn’t expect it.  Our goal in entering the competition was, in fact, to improve our performance skills and to have fun!  I’m pleased to say that we achieved both!  A particular thank you goes to our brilliant Musical Director Kathleen Ryan who has inspired the choir with her wonderful calm aura, knowledge and experience.  Our accompanist David Bird was joined by a talented musician Peter Mitchell from the Royal Northern College of Music who came along to accompany the choir on the djembe for our performance of Hope for Resolution.”

Decibellas will be performing their competition pieces as well as a selection from their repertoire on Saturday May 9th 2015 at St Boniface Church in Bunbury, Cheshire, when they will be joined by the Llangollen Male Voice Choir in a Concert celebrating ‘Friendship through Song’.  The concert is in aid of St Lukes Cheshire Hospice.  For more information and tickets visit Decibellas events page.