Bath choir leader, concert promoter and PR man Grenville Jones has announced that he standing down from one of his Choirs, the Silver Ring Choir and launching two new music ventures in 2009 !
Grenville who lives at Peasedown has conducted the Silver Ring Choir of Bath for the past 11 years. During that time he has taken the choir from 35 to 90 singers and put it on stage with some of the biggest names in popular music including Katherine Jenkins, Alfie Boe, Hayley Westenra and Aled Jones. There have been recordings and TV appearances as well as highly successful tours to Europe, Canada twice and New Zealand.
Says Grenville:
" I have enjoyed many special musical moments with the Silver Ring and hopefully entertained thousands across the World, but there are only so many hours in the day. I wish the Choir good contented singing in the future, I made so many friends around the World with the Choir concerts and tours. "
Grenville will concentrate his enthusiasm on the City of Bath Male Choir20that he founded in 2006. In a short time they have become one of the most popular choirs in the UK reaching top five in the recent ‘ Last Choir Standing ‘ series on BBC TV and with over 90 singers now on the=2 0books .
As well as the Male Choir he also has his auditioned girls group - the 30 voice Stockingtops girls swing singers as well as the Golden- Oldies Charity he launched last year which is having such a profound effect on the lives of hundreds of elderly people across the West of England.
Goldies, as it has become known, has attracted world-wide publicity being featured on the national BBC 6 O’clock news as well as on Canadian, German and Australian TV. Grenville was the special guest of Aled Jones in September on his Radio Three programme ‘The Choir’. Aled’s interview centred on Grenville’s reputation for getting people singing and the success of the Golden-Oldies.
Grenville has also produced two highly successful charity showcase variety shows for the last 2 years at the Bath Forum raising over £30,000 for local organisations. In 2009 he will extend the Showcase theme to a whole weekend of music called Bathsingforlife from May 1-4. Local companies have pledged over £20,000 in sponsorship support and the weekend will again raise money for local Charities.
New projects from Grenville in 2009 will include a new auditioned Monday night rehearsal concert choir call ed THE Bath Chorus. Grenville wants to hear from talented singers who would like to join this new group who will sing in May at the BathsingforLife weekend.
A choir of 30 voices under this name sang at the first Golden-Oldies carol service at St Mary Bathwick last week. with Grenville as Music Director and delighted the packed congregation. A new mixed voice choir for Bath was born !
He also plans to launch a Good Afternoon Choir in the Spring, an idea he has been nurturing for the past few months. He explains;
“There are so many people who are retired but to still love to sing in a proper choir. Attending evening rehearsals is a chore, especially in the winter months. The Good Afternoon Choir will be just that, an afternoon social group who are not auditioned so anyone can join but who will sing in four parts and enjoy making friends and music.
"They will rehearse in the centre of Bath so Park and Ride will be an easy option to get into Bath and I will be introducing new young conductors for this group as well as working with University music students.
“I want to take the idea of the Good Afternoon Choirs across the UK in the years ahead.”
Find out more about Grenville’s projects on www.grenvillejones.biz20or call Nikki or Rosie at his office on 0176 472468.