Arts / Surprise Christmas Day present for Shetland Community Choir
SHETLAND Community Choir were surprised and delighted to hear a clip from a recent concert played on BBC Radio 3 on Christmas Day.
Chris Horrix, the choir’s music director, said she was called about the selection while in Harry’s toy department with her grandchildren a week before Christmas.
“At first I thought it was a scam call, since it came from an unknown number, and it was difficult to hear with all the excited noise around me,” she said.
However it turned out to be from the producer of the programme, who asked if she would be happy to give a live interview on Christmas Day about how singing contributes to the winter festivities in Shetland.
“I still don’t know how they got my mobile number, but they had heard a recent interview on BBC Radio Shetland about our Christmas concert,” Horrix added.
The live interview was a linkup between a representative of one of the southernmost choirs in the UK, the Scilly Singers based in Tresco, and Horrix, representing one of the northernmost choirs, in Shetland.
It began with an audio clip of the Shetland Community Choir singing Child in a Manger by John Rutter, accompanied on the harp by Sunita Staneslow from Unst.
The interviewer asked each of them about the weather, and Horrix said she was delighted to be able to tell them that Shetland was probably the warmest place in the UK on Christmas Day morning, with a temperature of eight degrees.
She was able to tell the interviewer about the Shetland Community Choir’s Christmas concert, with members of the Shetland Community Orchestra, and give some brief details of how music was part of the fire festivals across the islands.
“It was such a surprise to be contacted, but also good to have our choir singing on national radio,” she said.
“They sing to such a high standard. I am so proud of them all.”
You can hear the choir singing Child in a Manger on the Shetland Community Choir Facebook page.
The Christmas Day programme on Radio 3 is available on BBC Sounds.
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