The Audley Male Voice Choir (AMVC) from Staffordshire, a well-established and greatly admired choir within the amateur musical industry, performed to a full house at St John’s Cathedral last Friday evening.
The Audley Male Voice Choir, who can claim the Royal Albert Hall as one of their many concert venues, chose Oban as a place to perform in as part of a mini tour of Scotland which included a visit to Iona.
Due to a personal relationship with a local Rotarian, the concert on Friday evening was organised by Oban Rotary Club who arranged the venue, pre-event publicity which included posters, programmes, tickets and liaising with the Oban Times and Oban FM. This resulted in a full house, where the audience was treated to a wide cross section of songs emanating from many countries with loud applause for the choir's rendition of "Bonnie Mary of Argyll".
The Audley Male Voice QChoir were ably supported by Oban's local Sequence Choir, members of Oban High School Pipe Band and Rotary's Young Musician of the Year, Katie Houston who played the flute to much applause.
Indeed, audience participation was hugely evident throughout the concert but no more so than at the end when all concerned sang "Amazing Grace" to the sound of the bag pipes. The concert was unique in that AMVC, although choosing Oban as a venue, not only covered their own expenses but those of their traveling support. 24 of their followers even paid to get in.
Left: The Sequence Choir
Below: Katie Houston - Oban Rotary Club Young Musician of the Year
All proceeds from the Concert will be donated to “Mary's Meals", one of Oban Rotary's favourite local charities. It was generally agreed that this was a special event in Oban's calendar and it is to be hoped that the AMVC will come again to honour us with their music.
The evening was brought to a close by generous Votes of Thanks from Bill Clifford from Mary's Meals and Tommy McQuade, the President of Oban Rotary Club