Steeton Male Voice Choir – King’s Hall

STEETON Male Voice Choir, with guests Otley Brass Band, filled the King’s Hall in Ilkley with joyous music.

No surprise that the choir again invited this band to guest at their annual concert. The band chose a repertoire not of technical competition pieces but one aimed at pleasing the audience and complementing the choir.

Led by musical director Sam Watson, it was something they did in splendid style, with a range from Joyce Eilers’ Irish Blessing to John Williams’ Jurassic Park.

The choir’s master of ceremonies Tim Bastow said it was the new musical director Catherine Sweet’s first annual concert.

Of course, much hasn’t changed: the splendid venue, and that happy conjunction of brass band, choir and big, enthusiastic audience best exemplified when the audience rose to its feet, waved its Union Jacks and rendered full voice to Land of Hope and Glory in the finale.

Elsewhere was fresh handwriting: a new presentation of choir and band; soloists fronting the choir, David Barraclough in The Longest Time and Ian McDonald in Today; full band accompaniment for the first number, You Raise Me Up; with a less traditional programme to follow.

John Roland