John Chamberlain was a member of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society for over 20 years. Members who remember John are invited to book a place at a concert in his memory at St Mary's Church Hall in Harefield, UB9 6BX, on 23 March 2024 by emailing [email protected]
The concert will be accompanied by Steven Lethbridge, with Mike Stephens as Master of Ceremonies. John's friends will contribute solos and ensembles, and members of the audience will join in all the choruses, conducted by Zena Wigram. Please see below for the full programme.
All the G&S scores can be downloaded free from IMSLP https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Sullivan,_Arthur
John Chamberlain 12 December 1954 – 11 July 2023
John was a lifelong Gilbert and Sullivan enthusiast – collecting music and memorabilia, performing and generally enjoying being part of the G&S world. Attendance at many of the G&S festivals in Buxton was his idea of the best holiday!
His performing career began when he was at school in Kilburn. They put on Pirates of Penzance with the local girl’s school – he was cast as the Pirate King. This progressed to joining Kingsbury Amateur Operatic Society where he did may of the operas along with many other shows. He also performed much of the repertoire, including Tit Willow and A Policeman's Lot, in solo concerts.
He performed with several west London companies including Young Savoyards (based in Ealing), Hounslow Operatic Society, White Knight, and Radlett Light Opera Society (now Radlett Musical Theatre Company). This progressed to regularly performing in the chorus of Grims Dyke Opera – performing all of the operas. In more recent years his loss of mobility limited performance and he finally finished on stage as a Ruddigore ancestor in 2020, singing his last Grims Dyke opera in 2023.
Concert programme:
- Hark the Hour of Ten is Sounding (Trial by Jury) all
- A tale of cock and bull (Yeomen of the Guard) Mike Stevens and John Silverstone
- Were I Thy Bride (Yeomen of the Guard) Emma Stratton
- Cachuca (The Gondoliers) all
- Madrigal (The Mikado) Juliet Edgar, Mary-Ann Allison, John Silverstone, Ian Archer
- Act I finale (The Mikado) Bill Penketh, Richard Kessel, David Atkins, Zena Wigram, Melanie Riseam, Emma Stratton, Clare Henderson Roe
- Things are seldom what they seem (HMS Pinafore) Mike Stevens and Dorothy Lawson
- Peers’ chorus (Iolanthe) all tenors & basses
- Poor Wandering One (The Pirates of Penzance) Lesley Ann Tompkins and all sops & altos
- Hail Poetry (The Pirates of Penzance) Clive Bebee and all
- 'Then Frederic, let your escort’ chorus (The Pirates of Penzance) John Silverstone, David Atkins, Gareth Bevan, Hilary Pearce, Melanie Riseam
- Roses of Picardy - Daphne Rice
- Medley (Oliver!) Kingsbury Amateur Operatic Society
- Do you love me? (Fiddler on the Roof) Clive Bebee and Rebecca Wernick Binstock
- Sunrise, Sunset (Fiddler on the Roof) Radlett Musical Theatre Company
- Brush up your Shakespeare (Kiss Me Kate) Bill Penketh and Richard Kessel
- So in Love (Kiss Me Kate) Hilary Pearce
- Black Hills of Dakota (Calamity Jane) all
- I could have danced all night (My Fair Lady) Paula Tompkins
- Edelweiss (The Sound of Music) all
- Take back your mink (Guys and Dolls) Trish Lewis, Dorothy Lawson, Melanie Riseam, Jill Gillam
- She had a letter from her love (Merrie England) Victoria Olphin
- The Yeomen of England (Merrie England) Clive Bebee and all
- You’ll never walk alone (Carousel) all
MC: Mike Stevens
Pianist: Steven Lethbridge
Concert arrangers: Elizabeth Chamberlain, Jem Day, Zena Wigram