Christ Church, Silloth

Sunday afternoon’s concert was a real treat for the sell-out audience. Dalston Male Voice Choir, conducted by professional musician Mike Deakin and ably accompanied on the piano by Lorraine Gash, proved their enormous talent and versatility with a programme that included traditional songs, sea shanties, pop rock standards, grand opera, and even songs in other languages.

The choir opened with an arrangement by Mike Deakin of Wild Rover, a traditional song that brought a smile to everyone’s faces. They then launched into a programme that embraced a wide variety of musical styles, from the exuberance and energy of Mambo Italiano by Bob Merril, to the tender lyricism of such numbers as The Rose by Amanda McBroom, Autumn Leaves by Joseph Kosma, and a beautiful setting of Laurence Binyon’s words We Will Remember Them by Jonathan Millican that held the audience spellbound.

Old favourites were included such as Bridge Over Troubled Water by Paul Simon and Imagine by John Lennon, and the choir also rose to the challenges of singing first in Ukrainian, in the traditional lullaby Oi Khodyt’ Son Kolo Vikon, and then in Welsh in the song Gwahoddiad by Lewis Hartsough, before rounding off the programme with the ever-popular Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Verdi’s Nabucco.

Interspersed with the choir numbers were two stunning performances by the hugely talented Gala Trio. Gabrielle Sanders (oboe) Anne Louise Rothwell (clarinet) and Angela Turner (flute) thrilled the audience with their warm and lively rendition of Haydn’s London Trio no. 3. They also played Divertimento by Graham Powning, showcasing their vivid, characterful playing in the virtuosic opening movement, through the soulful and meditative middle movement, and ending with the joyous and humorous finale.