Dear friends of Canterbury Cantata Trust,
We held the AGM on the 25th February at St. Paul's church with all trustees present and Grenville, Matt Shipton and Emily Renshaw-Kidd also. I presented the Chair's report and information on the sponsors and donations during 2022 as detailed in the newsletter.
There was a very low turnout but we were extremely pleased to be able to present the annotated accounts summary, prepared by Joanna Heath, and to announce that the position of Artistic Director will be passed to Emily Renshaw-Kidd, now that Grenville is standing down after his establishment of the trust and ten year guardianship of the position. We all believe that this offers wonderful continuity for the Trust due to the long established musical relationship between Grenville and Emily, and over the next few months they will work together to ensure a smooth handover. Emily is already truly embedded in the Trust, running both Skylarks Canterbury and Cantata, fully exemplifying the ethos of the Trust. The liaison between SImon Langton School for boys and the new PCFIT (Parkinson's Centre for Integrated Therapies) centre nearby will soon be cemented, offering further opportunities to extend the reach of the "Sing to Beat" programme to those with MS who use the centre.
Thanks as ever were given to all the facilitators, accompanists, trustees and volunteers who keep the wheels of the Trust turning to ensure singers can continue improving their wellbeing.
The accounts summary and newsletter will soon be uploaded to the CCT website to accompany the full accounts that are already there in the governance section.
Wishing you all a healthy spring and the rest of 2023,
Roshna Ahmad.
Our summer concert featuring the challenging Bach motets Singet dem Herrn and Jesu Meine Freude, contrasted with the serene Mawby Ave Verum Corpus and Shearing’s delightful collection of jazzy interpretation of Shakespeare Sonnets, Music to Hear, brought our choral year to an end.<
We were very lucky to be joined by pianist Helen Crayford, Emily Rossiter on cello and Robert Rawson on double bass to complete the ensemble under the baton of Emily Renshaw.
The concert also featured from within the choir, soprano, Anna Clare Bartlett as soloist in the Handel aria Meine Seel Hört im Sehen, Diana Gabriel on oboe and Stephen Barker performing the Stanford Prelude on the organ.
A French friend commented afterwards,” A beautiful evening by a very talented and generous choir”.
Do look out for our concerts next year, which will be featured on the website and our facebook pages… hope to see you there.
With thanks to Emily Renshaw for her direction and encouragement, the committee and Tim Kidd for the photographs.
Canterbury Cantata Trust 10 Year Anniversary
Canterbury Cantata Trust has been running a range of singing groups for the past 10 years. A strong focus of the charity’s work has been on Singing and Wellbeing, as exemplified by ‘Monday Music’ groups, open to anyone, that meet weekly in Canterbury and Folkestone, and are billed as a physical, psychological and spiritual workout through singing. The charity also operate a network of singing groups for people with Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions across the UK and beyond. Representative members from both a selection of groups in the Kent area and from the Trust’s flagship choral groups, Amici and Cantata Choirs, gathered the Colyer-Fergusson Hall at the University of Kent to demonstrate their vibrancy and the significance that coming together to sing means in their lives.
Canterbury Cantata Trust Newsletter - February 2022
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CCT Newsletter - Feb 2022