A Week in North Wales

Helen, Deb and Bethan (Deb'sdaughter)

A couple of weeks ago we had our first music week of the year.  This one was at St. Winifred's hotel in Rhos on Sea in North Wales.  The team for the week were Roger, Mary and Helen, with Helen's sister Deb taking part for the first couple of days and then the performance.  We always love travelling to Rhos, and are looked after so well by the hotel staff.  This year is sadly going to be the last as the hotel closes this summer.


Helen sent this email update half way through the week:

Hi EBRG and my family!

Just a quick update on how things are going here at Rhos.  We're doing the musical Wildfire, which is a very tricky thing to learn in a short space of time - it'd be fine if it was just choir, but the soloists are needing work too.  Please pray for my concentration levels during the rehearsals - they seem to be endless!  I had one before lunch, and then since lunch I've been working with all the soloists and then the basses (well, Barrie who is normally a tenor and a lovely chap called Alan who doesn't usually sing in choirs).

Roger's teaching has been well received so far too - they seem to be enjoying the worship times, and are very open.  In our team meetings we've been listening to God for words, and so far they have pretty much all been claimed.  This morning Mary had a picture of a woman in a blue scarf, and that it would be something to do with her husband. I had a picture of a trig point.  It turned out that the lady in the blue scarf this morning - her husband used to work for OS mapping!

Tonight we have yet another rehearsal, and I hope to go through the whole musical.  Tomorrow we have the last teaching session, and then a free time after coffee break before rehearsing at the URC just round the corner for the afternoon.  The performance is in the evening.

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Akshay, Karen and Paul

One of the joys of this week at Rhos was that we were joined by some local soloists - Karen, Akshay and Paul.  The three of them had taken part in the Two Sisters performance back in the autumn, and it was great to see them again.  They had put so much work into learning their parts.


The final performance went really well at the United Reformed Church.  Keith, one of their former ministers, played drums for us as always, Roger played piano and Deb played her viola.  For the song 'Knowing Him', which is entirely solo, Helen was able to step down from conducting and play the flute.

The Hotel Staff

We had a larger number of guests than usual, and together they formed a fantastic choir.  Barrie, Clyde, Alistair, Mark, Cheryl, Mavis, Margaret and Mary all sang solos, and Jackie and Alan narrated.


We are so sad not to be returning to St. Winifred's, but we hope this will not be our last visit to North Wales - some ideas are in the pipeline for next spring, so watch this space!