Firstly, my thanks to the Gedling Eye team and all its readers for all the support given to our choir and a Happy New Year to you all.
Looking back is something we try not to do at Carlton Male Voice Choir as we are constantly pushing forward to continue to make our choir relevant in a quickly changing landscape. Our past year contributed massively towards improving our diversity with an influx of new members reflecting the community around us.
We engaged with a large section of the public across the board with over 30 concerts at classic car shows, summer music and beer festivals, parks and outdoor spaces, micropubs, churches including Southwell Minster, Nottingham Castle, two large festival concerts and then some brilliant Christmas appearances across December by candlelight at Rufford Abbey’s beautiful Mill and Wedding Venue; we even performed for a joyous private wedding, at a working men’s club and under the towering Clipstone’s Headstocks in the pouring rain!
The choir has toured Northampton, Bournemouth, Merthyr Tydfil, Cardiff and Swansea, had choirs visit us and performed jointly with Radcliffe on Trent Male Voice Choir, Vicky McClure’s our Dementia Choir and the amazing Sing It Bold! Gospel Choir based in St Anns. We have raised funds for loads of great charities including the British Legion Poppy Appeal, Prostate Cancer, Emmanuel House and Maggie’s Cancer Care to name just a few. We met comedian John Bishop at Southwell Minster who said we massively exceeded his expectations as the oldest Boy Band!
We employed a new member of the Music Team, the young and brilliantly talented Philip Miles, who will become our next Principal Accompanist in 2024 and a photo session at the Bonington Theatre launched our new ‘smart casual’ look which we now employ effectively for less formal events. The standard of singing and performance flexibility has never been so high.
We now have a wonderful, colourful and bright advert on the back of a 44 Nottingham City Transport bus which travels between Nottingham City and Gedling and lots of banners and posters up around the region to entice new members, all helping our choir thrive and raise funds for great charities. Look out for those, spread the word and let people know about the work we do at Carlton Male Voice Choir.
We have had many new members join us in 2023 and I can now proudly say we have someone from each decade from their 20’s to their 80’s singing in the choir; exactly as it should be! Many of these new members have already performed at some amazing places, experienced some brilliant events and audiences and for those that wished have even sung solos at high profile concerts.
Why not join us as a singing member in 2024? Simply call us on 07306 039777 and now is a great time as we learn new music from across the genres for another excellent year of singing.
If I was to choose just one highlight of the year for me personally it would be performing with the beautifully presented Classic Minis at Nottingham Car Show held at Wollaton Park back in June. By some amazing feat we were safely able to get 3 gorgeous red, white and blue Minis from the club ‘Notts About Minis’ to park at the side of the performance area beeping their horns and flashing their lights to the choir being conducted by me, there was a video filmed which I put up on my YouTube channel – just search “Carlton MVC with Notts About Minis” to see this amazing spectacle.
Looking forward to 2024 the choir sponsor and support a new scratch choir for men called Nottingham Men Allowed commencing for the very first time in February where we hope around 40 men from the area will come together for just 6 rehearsals to learn 4 songs to perform live at the Marcus Garvey Centre in April for Prostate Cancer, no commitment just a one off good fun event with a free beer for everyone that signs up – for more info, dates and to get involved contact joinnma@hotmail.com call us on 0788 7918638 or look up www.nottinghamsings.org
Finally, we launch our brand-new and reimagined music competition in 2024 seeking and rewarding young musician talent in Nottingham, details are on our website: www.carltonmvc.org
Ian Watts
Musical Director of Carlton Male Voice Choir
Further information and contact details for the Carlton Male Voice Choir can be found on their facebook page HERE or on their website www.carltonmvc.org
Is it about time we had an integrated Carlton voices choir with women included instead of a separate one for men only?
It seems very old fashioned and segregation.
“Old fashioned” yes men have sung together throughout time.
“segregation” female voices cannot extend into the bass range of a men’s choir.