The NewQuay Singers

The NewQuay Singers is a group of amateurs of varying levels of singing experience who have in common, the desire to come together to make music. FPPC is delighted that this choir, established in 2006 as an early part of its ‘Arts in the Community’ Programme, has gone from strength to strength. Whilst they perform exclusively in Portaferry Presbyterian Church they are made up of people of all religious denominations. The repertoire concentrates on liturgical music and, now with Edwin Gray accompanying, has expanded significantly. Their annual Carol Service has become a major focal point in the community’s calendar and is attended by many from near and far.

Previous Orders of Service are given below and have included pieces by Stanford, Parry, Tavener, Mendelssohn, Bruckner, Handel and many others.

Harvest Order of Service
Christmas Order of Service

The following piece appeared in ‘The Link’, the Parish Magazine, just before Christmas 2009:

As Christmas nears I have been hearing from the NewQuay Singers that they are hard at work preparing for their now annual Carol Service in Portaferry. This will be on Sunday evening 20th December at 7.30pm. Neil McClure tells me that Choir members are travelling each week, for practices at his home in Holywood, from Portaferry in the South to Broughshane in the North. He says that the sense of fulfilment and fun and the camaraderie that has now been firmly established amongst these singers and performers makes their practice evenings such fun for all involved.

According to Neil the service this year will feature a number of old favourites with some apparently rather off-beat descants by Stephen Cleobury of Kings College, Cambridge (the NewQuay Singers apparently await a call to stand in should swine flu hit Cambridge at 3pm on Christmas Eve when they broadcast their service) and a number of choir items – established favourites like “Mary’s Magnificat” with its soaring treble solo (again taken by Izzy McClure) and Handel’s “Lord I Trust Thee”. However, there are new pieces – the tradition of opening with lights dimmed and a piece of plainsong will this year feature a piece by John Tavener composed to celebrate the marriage of HRH the Prince of Wales and HRH the Duchess of Cornwall. The service will also include “I Wonder as I Wander” which he says is no reflection on the tunefulness of the tenors and “No small wonder” (no reflection on the basses achieving the sustained bottom D of the Tavener). At the end of the service Lucy Cosbey and Izzy McClure will sing a piece from Humpledink’s Hansel and Gretel : it is possible there will not to be a dry eye in the house.

Our organist is to be Edwin Gray who showed us just what a great instrument we have when he accompanied the New Quay singers at the morning service for Harvest-thanksgiving. It would be hard to forget Mendelssohn’s ‘Hear My Prayer, Lord’ and ‘Oh for the Wings of a Dove’ that we were treated to that morning.

Readers are traditionally drawn from the congregation to represent the various aspects of our church life: this year will be no exception.

If you would like to join the NewQuay Singers, please contact us here