After the long Covid lockdown over the previous almost 2 years, most choir members and the audience were itching to be back at St Georges for another Renewal Choir Gospel Music Christmas Celebration event. On the night, we were treated to a special treat international vocalist Clinton Jordan who fill our cups to overflowing with some awesome singing and doubled up as fantastically engaging compere too. Starved of the “oxygen” of live performance, the choir’s enthusiasm to be back as a singing unit went from apprehension to potential covid from the physical
Kim, Renewal’s fabulously talented Choir Director was, as always, truly inspired to take the choir out of our comfort zones with the song selections, and with a couple weeks to go, event the soloist who feature on particular songs had mixed learning experiences where some individuals were able to “knock-it-out-of-the-park” in rehearsals and others were not. This all added to the suspense and tension with the pressure of just a few short days to get it right.
On event day the remarkably engaging compere for the night Pastor Robbie Howells invited the choir to the stage… all the anxiety seemed to melt away as choir members, fully suited and booted, stepped onto the stage visibly calm and collected taking up positions for an almost magical evening of Joyful noise: From the first note of the First Noel to the last note of Joyful Joyful, the journey of the night took us all to superlative highs and rousing depths oh what a night!
One piece of many bits of emerging written feedback seemed to capture the overall sentiment,
“Great show from the Renewal Choir. It always means the beginning of Christmas for me. So full of energy, and every year it becomes more professional.”
Everyone was simply blown away by the control and accomplished song delivery of Kori Campbell who exhibited a maturity of singing beyond his years and we were all given a masterclass in delivering superlative gospel “sanging” by the brilliance and creativity of Geraldine Latty who also led the audience in a up beat Bony – M version of Mary’s Boy Child.
