For many people a Male Voice Choir conjures up the sounds of Welsh miners singing hymns in English or Welsh.
Whilst the Solent Male Voice Choir has a Musical Director who is Welsh their repertoire has, in recent years, expanded to include a wider range of music, some of it very modern and especially arranged.
A popular piece for many male voice choirs is “An American Trilogy” made famous by Elvis Presley. SMVC now have their own Celtic Trilogy: All Through the Night, Danny Boy and The Skye Boat Song. More innovative are the arrangements of the Flying Pickets hit “Only You”, and Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird”. Soon SMVC will be adding Jeff Lynne’s “Mr. Blue Sky” to the list.
Songs from the shows are always popular with audiences. So new arrangements of “There is Nothin’ Like a Dame” from South Pacific and a medley from The Sound of Music are there to lighten any concert programme.
Dave McVittie, Chairman of the Solent Male Voice Choir says “We haven’t forgotten our roots. We do still sing many of the old MVC standards. We have several long term members and they would soon complain if we turned away from our old repertoire. However, these new songs, arranged specifically for us, are great fun. We are all enjoying the change, the variety and the challenge.”
The SMVC will be singing in many concerts this year: in St Faith’s, Havant; in St George’s, Portsea; at the Emsworth Show; in St Faith’s, Lee-on-the-Solent; in Portchester and back in St Faith’s, Havant at Christmas. Many opportunities to hear an excellent male voice choir singing something different.