Concert is music to the ears of young singers

The Fron Male Voice Choir, Oswestry, will be performing at St Oswald's Parish Church on December 9 and has invited the children’s choir formed by local music charity, Music MOB to take part in the evening.

The children from Holy Trinity and Bryn Offa primary schools have been practising a nativity cantata, ‘Star!’ to present during the evening. At the end, the children will join with the Fron choir to sing ‘Sleigh Ride,’ complete with sleigh bells coconut hooves and a whip crack!

Each school choir is firstly being coached separately by Music MOB Trustee, Sue Turner, with joint rehearsals along with a rehearsal with the Fron choir.

Sue said the children were practising hard and the excitement was building.

"It is an enormous privilege for the Music MOB choir to sing with such an illustrious choir. The Fron choir was formed in 1947, since when it has toured a lot of the world and sold well over 1 million of the Voices of the Valley series of albums.

"The Fron is a concert choir but is also still active in the competition world and in the past few years has won major competitions such as the Cornwall International Male Choral Festival and a fourth win of the Male Voice Choir Competition at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod."

Fron choir’s Chairman, Roger Williams, said, “The Fron Choir has always encouraged young musicians and are very pleased to be supporting and performing alongside the children of the Music MOB choir in support of this fabulous local charity working hard to bring the joy of music, playing and performing into the lives of youngsters. The force of music has a very strong influence on young peoples’ development, helping in all forms of learning, from maths to languages as well as building confidence and camaraderie, and we look forward to a wonderful evening.”

Tickets priced at £15, £12.50 (concession) or £6.00 (U16) are available from Rowanthorn in Old Chapel Court and online at musicmob.co.uk or cutt.ly/FronMVC-Oswestry.

MusicMOB - Music Matters in Oswestry and the Borderland - is the brainchild of business owner, Mike Coppock, who is on the Committee for the Oswestry Youth Music Festival. He could not help noticing that the proportion of entries in the festival from children in local State Schools was diminishing year on year.

"It is widely accepted that art and music departments are much more likely than sports departments to have their value questioned and their budgets limited but there is much research which points to the fact that whilst sport and music share many benefits such as teamwork, discipline, focus, and fun, music will also improve your child's thinking, language and reasoning skills. Music should, at the very least, be on an equal footing with sport," he said.

The charity is fundraising to ensure children have the chance to sing in choirs or play musical instruments.