Linden Choir in Bay to celebrate with song

THE award-winning Linden Choir is celebrating its 21st birthday this year, and will be performing at several Port Elizabeth venues this week. This choir from Hoërskool Linden in Johannesburg is touring the Eastern Cape and apart from a number of formal concerts, they will also be performing at various retirement homes as part of ploughing back into the community.

The choir will perform tomorrow at 1pm at St Mary's Cathedral, St Mary's Terrace in town with an entrance fee of R20 payable at the door.

On Saturday at 3pm, the choir can be heard in the hall of Walton Park in Admiralty Way, Summerstrand.

This performance will be free of charge. And on Sunday, they give their last performance in Port Elizabeth during the church service of the Dutch Reformed Church Summerstrand in Louis Botha Crescent at 9am.

The choir performs an extensive repertoire of music.

When they burst into song, you can expect anything from Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah to the Gloria of Vivaldi.

Favourites from well-known musicals such as Les Miserables, Afrikaans folk songs and ballads, African-American spirituals, and even Bohemian Rhapsody are all regularly included in their concert programmes.

The choir consists of 92 members, of whom more than half are boys.

They are in the capable hands of Duncan Fourie, their choirmaster, and are accompanied by the talented pianist Gert Potgieter.

In the past 21 years, the choir has won many prestigious national and provincial awards and also shown their mettle on international platforms.

This year, they were the only choir to progress to the final round of the National Eisteddfod Association. In 2007 and 2012, Linden Choir won gold and silver medals at international choir competitions in Preveza, Greece and Prague, Czech Republic respectively.

Their musical talent has also been displayed on television programmes such as Geraas, Villa Rosa and the popular magazine show Pasella.

They have released 15 albums, both on their own and in collaboration with various talented names in the musical business.