Moscow Mellow Divas Summer Concert
John Harrison
On June 5 at St. Andrews Church, Moscow, the 9th Moscow Mellow Divas summer concert was held. The concert was a stunning musical collage of different musical cultures from all over the world, performed professionally with a panache that only hard work and enthusiasm can produce.
The choir took us on a musical world tour, starting with negro spirituals, ‘Didn’t my Lord Deliver Daniel’, followed by ‘Shine On me’ and ‘Ride my Chariot’. The evening was studded with various folk songs, such as: ‘The Sailor and Young Nancy’, and the Irish ‘The Lark in the Clear Air’. The first half of the concert was rounded off by a rendition of Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The 59th St. Bridge Song’, and ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’.
The second half of the evening was an adventurous journey into forms of music not immediately associated with an expat choir: the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas ‘The Yeoman of the Guard’, and the ‘Pirates of Penzance’. A rendition the theme tune ‘Speak Softly Love’ from the 1972 film, The Godfather, followed these stalwart performances. Latin American songs followed, then classics from the world of jazz, even ‘All I Have to Do Is dream’ by the Everly Brothers. The evening was completed by a medley of numbers from the stage show and film, Brigadoon.
The sheer variety of musical styles surprised the uninitiated, like me, unused to the high standards maintained by the Moscow Mellow Divas choir. Hats off to the choir’s organizer and musical director Sharon Wilson.
All proceeds raised during the evening went to the charities: Preodelenie, Nastenka and the ARK Open Arts Theater, three extremely worthwhile children’s charities working in Moscow.
Nine members of the Mellow Divas choir are soon to leave Moscow, and the choir is seeking musically-minded people who may not have previously performed on the world stage [joke]. For further details, please contact Sharon Wilson: swsmw52@gmail.com
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