Thursday, 30th June and, thanks to some great teamwork, we were all risered up to take our rehearsal  to the very impressive Tudor Room in Thornbury Castle as part of the Fringe Festival.  It was a ‘warts and all’ production in front of two separate and very appreciative audiences who had booked seats as we took them through the journey of tweaking, polishing and blending 4-part a cappella singing under the direction of Jo Dean, who also kept up a running commentary throughout.  During both sessions, members of the audience were invited to join the Chorus to have a go – and both times the brave participants were just brilliant.
Email comments from one of the organisers, Chris Saich:
“You will shortly receive a formal thank you from Ian Walker on behalf of the Friends of Thornbury Carnival Committee for the great performance you organised on Thurs 30 June, as part of Thornbury Carnival Fringe week.  However, I just wanted to add my personal thanks for your willing support for this community event and your suggestion to bring your rehearsal to Thornbury.  As anticipated, Thornbury Castle proved to be an ideal setting and we were very appreciative of you taking the trouble to join us, with the logistics of travel and the physical set-up required.  The chorus sounded tremendous, as witnessed by the great reception from our two audiences.
We hope your ladies enjoyed the evening as much as we did and please thank them all for giving of their time to support our community event.  It was great to meet you and we send our very best wishes to Jo Dean and the Chorus for your future engagements.”

Photographs courtesy of Garry Holden of G Holden Photography.  (gholdenphotography@hotmail.com)