Paamoa Community Choir holds concert at Mount Alvernia

Paamoa Community Choir gave an emotional and very moving concert for the residents of Mount Alvernia on Wednesday evening. Being senior citizens themselves, it felt very special singing to the residents there with many choir members, including the three choir directors, recognising many of those who attended.

They began by singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to choir member, Dinah Ferro, whilst waiting to begin, and there was audience interaction immediately with two residents deciding it was their birthday too, (one had a birthday a few days previously and one was a few days away!) and they were so appreciative, standing up to thank the choir, with beaming faces, for their birthday song!

The wonderful Activities coordinators, Jordana Hendrick, Gianna Lopez and Davinia Lopez were on hand to ensure that many more residents than usual were brought down to the concert and choir member, Marissa Stoner, who also knew many residents helped bring a few down, even helping one lady with an oxygen mask change her dress, comb her hair and match her lipstick to the colour of her dress, for this very special occasion!

There were three soloists for the first three songs. The evening began with ‘Amazing Grace’, accompanied by May Clinton on piano, and Jimmy Perez stepping up to sing solo for the first time, projecting a lovely warm tone, before the choir joined in with the other verses. John Cruz, the choir’s veteran soloist, sang the verses of ‘Yesterday’, accompanied by Cathy Batchelor on piano, and he was moved to notice a resident joining in, “this lady in front of me singing ‘Yesterday’ with me, I loved it, so satisfying, God Bless”.

Guest Soloist, Fiona Perera, was emotionally moved when she saw a familiar face in the audience, musician Charlie Facio. In her younger days she would go to Charlie’s house many evenings to sing with Charlie’s wife Tere Facio, who was a wonderful singer, and Charlie would accompany them on the piano. They sang for numerous weddings in Gibraltar and Spain and one of the many songs that comes to mind is ‘Panis Angelicus’ with the two voices. Fiona noticed that at first he didn’t recognise her, but after her singing Ave Maria, (by William Gomez) accompanied by her mother Pamela Honeyman on piano, he was able to say a few words with tears in his eyes, “too many memories” – he recognised her voice and knew who she was and it was very emotional for Fiona, Charlie, and Charlie’s daughters Christiane and Angelica.

Christiane sent this beautiful heartfelt message to the choir after the concert, “What an uplifting and emotional evening for myself and my sister and especially our dad. The other residents enjoyed it all so much. Dementia hasn’t taken away the appreciation of music and our dad was very moved yesterday. What lovely voices and happy faces! Please come back soon. It brought back a lot of memories and especially hearing Fiona’s beautiful voice once again (almost like having our mum back in the room) and the sound of dad’s piano being played. Well done all of you!!! Keep singing, you are all amazing”. All three choir directors felt honoured and very emotional accompanying the choir on Charlie’s piano too.

After the sentimental and very moving opening songs the choir moved on to three familiar Abba songs, ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Dancing Queen’ and then ‘Thank You For The Music’ with Annabelle Mauro, the soloist, singing very confidently, with a strong, rich tone. It was noticed that the audience were joining in with the dance moves to ‘Dancing Queen’ with some even getting to their feet and being twirled around by the helpers. The choir weren’t allowed to leave without finding an encore, so they ended the concert with one of their favourite, but tricky songs, ‘I Will Follow Him’. A wonderful end to the evening.

Many, many choir members commented afterwards on how rewarding it was to see the residents enjoying their songs and having a good time. They found it emotional and very moving to see them singing and clapping along. They noticed some with tears in their eyes listening to the ‘Ave Maria’, then singing and even dancing along to the Abba songs.

Jordana sent the choir a message after the concert, “We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the Paamoa Choir for their beautiful performance for our residents at Mount Alvernia. It was a truly delightful evening, and the joy on our residents’ faces said it all. We are already looking forward to welcoming you back again soon.”
Paamoa Community Choir are very much looking forward to returning too, to sing to such a warm appreciative audience.