Music For You’s major milestone (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Music For You’s major milestone

2:38pm Wednesday 11th October 2006 in Music

HUNDREDS of flag-bearing music enthusiasts packed out Kidderminster Town Hall on Friday and Saturday to celebrate 25 years of Music For You concerts - bringing together the cream of musical talent in Wyre Forest.

Introduced by veteran compere and media personality Peter Tomlinson, Stourport Brass Band took to the stage to get the weekend's musical extravaganza off to a flying start.

Under the entertaining instruction of conductor David Maplestone, the band thrilled the packed audience with delights including Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus and Punchinello by Wiliam Rimmer but it was the arrangement of Cartoon Classics - ranging from the Pink Panther to The Simpsons - which resulted in thunderous applause and set the tone for the remainder of the evening.

The band's lively performance was matched when Kidderminster Male Choir stepped into the spotlight.

New musical director David Barclay led the choir and audience in an improvised rendition of Happy Birthday to mark the concerts' milestone anniversary, before launching into some beautifully sung old favourites including a lively performance of Alexander's Ragtime Band and ending on a high note with Jamaica Farewell.

The West Midland Light Orchestra's musical programme was boosted by vocalists Claire Worboys, Jonathan Darby and Garry Holloway who thrilled the audience with It Could Happen To You, Camelot, How To Handle A Woman and Luck Be A Lady Tonight.

In traditional style, the evening was brought to a close by the Wyre Forest Symphony Orchestra. Conducted by Martin Leigh, the orchestra performed a stirring rendition of the waltz from Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin.

They were joined for the finale by soloists Margaret Peters and Jonathan Darby who, following the ever popular Fantasia on British Sea Songs, joined forces for a medley of patriotic classics from Rule Britannia to Jerusalem and brought the house down through a sea of Union Flags with Land of Hope and Glory.

Over the past 24 years, Music For You has raised a staggering £126,000 for its nominated charities, with Kemp Hospice, Cancer Research UK and the Kidderminster Hospitals League of Friends being its 2006 beneficiaries.

As always, the audiences dug deep to swell the coffers with over £600 being generated over the two nights from the annual "Rosebowl" raffles.

The concerts were a fitting tribute to the 25 successful years of Music For You and, if the buzz of the foyer was anything to go by, the hordes of entertained concertgoers are already looking forward to what musical masterpieces 2007 will have to offer.