Christmas cheer for Rotherham

HUNDREDS of people packed into Rotherham Minster as the annual Advertiser Schools’ Christmas Carol Concert clocked up a decade.

And there can hardly have been a dry eye in the house on Saturday night as soloist Sophia Guy, a Year 5 pupil at Wickersley St Albans CofE Primary School, faultlessly sang the well-loved words of the first verse of Away in a Manger.

The 350 people present were also treated to festive musical offerings from the Rotherham Youth Orchestra, conducted by David Lever, the Wickersley St Albans choir, conducted by Ann Marie Carroll and Fiona Brotherton, and the St Pius X Catholic High School Gospel Choir, with conductor Kathryn Hinton, accompanist Gareth Taylor and several soloists.

The service started with a welcome and reading from the Rev Anesia Cook and the evening featured carols, including O Come All Ye Faithful and The First Nowell, and traditional seasonal music, such as White Christmas—performed by the youth orchestra—as well as more modern offerings such as Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, beautifully sung by the St Pius choir, and Wickersley St Albans’ tuneful rendition of Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.

The evening was compered by Nicholas Alexander, chief executive of the Garnett Dickinson Group, the Advertiser’s parent company, and Radio Nightingale, the radio service for Rotherham General Hospital, were on hand to record the event.

Mr Alexander praised David Lever for his hard work in organising the concerts each year and described him as “the rock of this whole concert.”

The event, enthralled the audience for nigh on two hours.

Those present included the Mayor and Mayoress of Rotherham, Cllr Shaukat Ali and Miss Wajida Naseem; John Hinchcliffe, vice-chairman of Rotherham Hospice and Catharine Kinsella, one of the senior directors of Rotherham Borough Council’s Children and Young People’s Services.

The service ended with a prayer said by Mrs Cook, who added: “Thank you for coming to the concert to make the evening extra special.”

As well as the talented human stars of the show, special mention should go to the newly-floodlit Minster, which had been decorated by children from the borough to mark the new floodlighting.

Money raised on the night will be donated to the Rotherham Hospice.