PRESS RELEASE

22nd October 2006

IT will be a very special night for the members of Bath's newest choir when they sing for the first time in concert at the Guildhall, on Saturday, November 4th. And in the concert programme there are best wishes to founder conductor Grenville Jones from celebs Jamie Cullum and Katherine Jenkins.

The City of Bath Male Choir was started by Grenville back in January and tickets sold-out for this concert weeks ago. Grenville of course is best known as conductor of the famous Silver Ring Choir of Bath and it was whilst he was on tour with the Silver Ring in New Zealand last year that the decision to start a Male Choir in Bath was made.

He told me: " I have done a number of Silver Ring concerts with Male Voice Choirs and we had a concert in Auckland singing with a men's choir. That night I realised again that there is something special about mens voices singing together so on the coach home to the hotel from that concert, I decided to bite the bullet and start a Male group when I got back home to Bath.

" Quite a few people told me that I would never get the idea off of the ground and there would not be enough men who would be interested in a Male Choir. This has not certainly not been the case and two of my sons, Daniel and Laurie are in the choir. That makes it even more special!

"The Chronicle ran a super piece early in January inviting interested singers to contact me and it was a cold February evening when around 20 of us met for the first time.

"Philip Evry who lives in Timsbury and is a very experienced accompanist was there from the start and since that time singing numbers have steadily increased. We will be a choir of 60 voices this Saturday and as it is our first concert, it should be quite an emotional evening for everyone."

The Mayor of Bath, Cllr Carol Paradise is the Patron of the City of Bath Male Choir and she will be the guest of honour tomorrow night. Sharing the stage with the Choir will be Jeanette Ager. Jeanette is well known to local audiences and was last in Bath as one of the soloists at Bath Abbey for the memorable performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah with Sir Willard White as the soloist.

Grenville has his sights set on a membership of his Male Choir of 80 singers and he intends to be at that number by next Spring. His new choir have already accepted an invitation to visit Germany next October when they will be guests at a music festival.

Following Saturday, Grenville then switches his musical attention to Saturday Don stage this year for their annual Christmas show at the Bath Forum with Bath's own jazz queen, Clare Teal as guest. Last year it ws a full house for Katherine Jenkins pf course and the year before Jamie Cullum, whose parents are friends of Grenville.Tickets for Clare Teal are now available from the Bath Festival Box Office - 01225 463362.

Then Grenville been making the news lately with a new harmony girls group called Stockingtops. This is an an auditioned cabaret and concert group of 32 singers who met for the first time last week. To make his quartet of commitments, Grenville is the man behind the Bath and North East Somerset SHOWCASE, a big charity concert which will take place at The Bath Forum on Saturday May 5th 2007 , working alongside Loraine Morgan-Brinkhurst, the Chairman of Bath and North East Somerset.

This show will feature local music groups with a target of £15,000 which will be divided between local charities.

For now however, his concentration is solely on this Saturday and the first concert of his "special boy" in The City of Bath Male Choir on Saturday.