Sedbergh Music Festival 2010

Amabile Girls’ Choir

Amabile Girls’ Choir strives for excellence in all areas of performance, communicating the beauty and diversity of music. The choir, for 13-18 year olds, gave its first formal concert in March 1996, founded and directed by Charlotte Jackson (currently on sabbatical). Amabile employs other highly trained musicians, who conduct and give singing lessons to each girl. The choir’s success has come from numerous engagements in competitions, performances and workshops with distinguished artists such as Catherine Bott, Cantamus Girls Choir and Wyn Davies in some of the most prestigious concert halls in Britain. Amongst these are The Royal Festival Hall, The Sage Gateshead and the Cardiff Millennium Centre. Amabile has toured extensively, mainly by invitation, in Europe and North America and has appeared on British and Greek television.

Since its founding, Amabile Girls’ Choir has enjoyed national and international success. An important moment in this success occurred in November 2006, when it won the BBC Radio 3 Youth Choir of the Year in the UK, with 134 out of 135 marks. At the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod 2002, Amabile won the Senior Children’s Choir class, with a total of 194 marks out of 200 and in April 2006 the choir took part in the European Musical Festival for Youngsters in Neerpelt, Belgium where it was awarded a first prize. In March 2005, Amabile’s outstanding contribution to the civic life of Kendal was formally recognised when it received the Alfred Wainwright Memorial Award. Amabile has enjoyed workshops with a number of choral experts, including Pamela Cook (Amabile’s President), Bob Chilcott and Mike Brewer.

Amabile Acting Musical Director: Frances Chiasson
Amabile Pianist: Lesley Talbot

Poco Amabile

Poco Amabile was established in September 2000 with the purpose of training girls for Amabile. In the first year its membership was eight girls and it now stands at over thirty–five. These girls, whose ages range from eight to thirteen, have very quickly moulded together to form a very committed choir with a unique identity. In July 2003 the choir was one of only four choirs invited to take part in A National Choral Festival at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Poco Amabile were chosen to take part in the National Festival of Music for Youth in Birmingham in 2008 and won first place in the Youth Choir section in the Mary Wakefield Westmorland Festival in both 2007 and 2009. In February 2010, Poco Amabile was named “Children’s Choir of the Day” at the BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year audition round in Manchester. Poco Amabile has taken part in workshops with Bob Chilcott, David Lawrence, Deborah Catterall and Mike Brewer.

Poco Amabile Musical Director: Rachel Little
Poco Amabile Pianist: Mike Critchlow

Concert Programme

Poco Amabile & Amabile Girls’ Choir:

All Things Bright and Beautiful, J.Rutter

Amabile Girls’ Choir:

Sound the Trumpet, H.Purcell
Iubilate Deo, G.P.Cima
Bourée for Bach, from 2nd English Suite, J. S. Bach, Transcribed by B.Williams
Cantique De Jean Racine, G.Fauré

Rebecca Larkin & Bethanne Barnett-Jones:

Night, M.Blower

Poco Amabile:

The tailor of Gloucester, C.Giebler
My Magic World, Sheila Hilton Johnson
Tears in Heaven, E.Clapton, Arr. R.Emerson
Hey, Mr Miller, Arr. David Machell (In the Mood, J.Garland & A.Razaf)

Poco Amabile & Amabile Girls’ Choir:

Can You Hear Me?, B.Chilcott

Interval

Amabile Girls’ Choir:

Earth Tide, M.Rowe

Summer Breeze
Autumns’ Cloak (Soloist: Hannah Marsden, Clarinet: Caroline Holden)
Winter Dawn
Spring Flight

Rosie Barber:

Wouldn’t It Be Loverly, from My Fair Lady, A.J.Lerner & F.Loewe

Hannah Marsden:

If I Loved You, from Carousel, R.Rodgers & O.Hammerstein

Amabile Girls’ Choir:

Dravidian Dithyramb, V.Paranjoti
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, K.Jenkins
It Was a Lover and His Lass, J.Rutter

Amabile Ensemble:

Angels, R.Williams & G.Chambers, Arr. D.Lawrence

Amabile Girls’ Choir:

Hold Me, Rock Me, B. Tate
Joyful, Joyful, L.W.Beethoven, Arr. M.Warren, Adpt. R.Emerson
(Soloists: Anneka Coleman & Danielle Holmes)

Poco Amabile
Photo: Christopher Holmes Photography, Kendal

Amabile Girls’ Choir
Photo: Christopher Holmes Photography, Kendal