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11th to 19th June

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FREE OF CHARGE

Tickets required

PHOTOS FROM LAST YEAR’S WATERLOOVILLE MUSIC FESTIVAL

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St George’s Church, Waterlooville, 7.30pm - licensed bar opens 7pm

TICKETS £6 IN ADVANCE, £7 ON THE DOOR - CONCERT SPONSORED BY LARCOMES SOLICITORS

PORTSTMOUTH MILITARY WIVES CHOIR

One of the five founder Military Wives Choirs, and probably the most prestigious of them all being based in the UK’s greatest military City of Portsmouth, their hit album In My Dreams shot to No 1 in the UK Charts in 2012.

With around 70 members, the Portsmouth Choir is one of the largest  of over 70 Military Wives Choirs in the UK.

Over the years the Choir has performed at many high profile events, including the 2015 D Day celebrations at the Royal Albert Hall, and some regular venues include The Kings Theatre, Southsea, Worthing Assembly Hall, Romsey Abbey and Guildford Cathedral. Performances have included television and radio appearances.

What a privilege it will be to enjoy this wonderful choir performing at the Waterlooville Music Festival in a special year as the Military Wives release a new album,  Remember,  to mark the centenary of the end of World War I.

Fierce heroism from the troops at the Front was matched by the country’s women who raised children alone, nursed, and worked tirelessly despite the loss of husbands, sons, fathers, brothers and friends.

The Military Wives Choirs can tell the story of these women like no one else can, as it is ours. So they are acknowledging this poignant occasion through a special commemorative project, coming together with military bands across all three services to create an album like no other, with Remembrance at its heart.

Music for the album centres on four exciting commissions where prestigious composers from the classical, pop and film worlds have sought input from choir members to help them write songs around the themes of remembrance, commemoration, patriotism and military life.

The album also encompasses music from ages past and present, referencing upbeat WW1 marching songs, iconic regimental and service marches, beautifully contemplative remembrance pieces and contemporary songs reflecting our choirs’ world, all with a fresh take through creative arrangements and collaboration with world-class military musicians from the three services.

dance floor

licensed real ale, wine & Pimm’s bar

Portsmouth Military Wives Choir at the Royal Albert Hall

LUNCHES SERVED from 12noon

12.30pm at St George’s Church:

PETER GOULD

Organ recital

Portsmouth Military Wives Choir:
Make you feel my love.
Ferneham Hall, Fareham.

Military Wives Choir:
Wherever you are.
Festival of Remembrance 2011, Royal Albert Hall.

Canon Peter Gould was born in Portsmouth, England. Musical education was at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he studied Organ, Piano and Cello. Whilst there he gained prizes for choir training, organ accompaniment and harmony and gained the following diplomas: G.R.S.M. (Lond). F.R.C.O., L.R.A.M. (piano teacher) and A.R.C.M. (organ performer) and has since been awarded the honorary A.R.A.M. He then went to Bretton Hall College in Yorkshire to gain a Diploma in Education.

In 1974 he was appointed Assistant Organist at Wakefield Cathedral and music teacher at Honley High School.  He eventually became Head of Music at the same school in Huddersfield, Yorkshire and also assistant chorus master to the Wakefield Festival Chorus and conductor of the Cawthorne Choral Society. During his time at Wakefield he was involved in many professional recordings and broadcasts with the choir.

In 1983 he became Master of the Music in Derby Cathedral. Initially this was a joint appointment with Derby City Council where he also taught for three days a week in local junior schools. Later this post was abolished and for many years then combined the post with part-time teaching in two secondary schools, Derby High & Derby Grammar. He also had a few piano and organ pupils. His job at the cathedral involved recruiting and training the choirs and playing the organ in services and concerts. He formed both treble lines from scratch, the boys on his arrival in 1983 & a ‘new treble line of girls’ voices’ in 1997. The choirs toured each year, sometimes in England but also in Germany, France & Italy.  The choir sang regularly on BBC radios 2,3 &4 and on television. It sang at least five services every week in Derby Cathedral and has made several C.D. recordings.

Peter has given organ recitals in London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral, Birmingham Town Hall, Kings College, Cambridge and York Minster and given at least one organ recital in Derby Cathedral in each of the 32 years that he was organist there. In his final two years in Derby he toured every Anglican church in the diocese giving short recitals on the 278 different organs. You can see more about this on youtube by going to ‘Peter’s pipe pilgrimage’  

Peter was accompanist to the Derby Bach Choir from 2009 - 2014 and was for 33 years an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. Examining venues have taken him around the world including Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Ireland and countless venues in England, Wales and Scotland.

He has collected further honorary degrees from the University of Derby in 2009 and in 2012 was made an honorary Lay Canon of Derby Cathedral. In 2013 he was awarded the FGCM by the Guild of Church Musicians and in 2015 the ARSCM.

Peter retired from Derby Cathedral on 6th January after 32 years in post and a total of 40 years of working in English Cathedrals. He is pleased to know that no less than four of his Derby Choristers currently have professional organist positions in English Cathedrals.

Peter now lives just north of Portsmouth and finds that he is doing more organ playing in services and recitals than he ever did in Derby! 12 Recitals played and planned for 2018 include three in English cathedrals and most weeks see him playing for services and choirs around Hampshire.

He has recently become the Chair of Portsmouth RSCM committee, the Vice President of the Portsmouth and District Organist’s Association and is on the council for the Friends of Cathedral Music. When not involved in music he enjoys rail travel and can sometimes be found issuing tickets in the Booking Office of Alresford Railway Station.

For the programme, click HERE