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From Friday 6th December 2024 until Thursday 19th December 2024
Starts 19:30 until 22:00
Starts 19:30 until 22:00
‘Ring Out Christmas Bells!’
Ridgeway Singers & Band Christmas Concerts December 2024
Once again The Ridgeway Singers & Band invite you to join them for an evening of West Gallery carols, Dorset songs, dance tunes, and local poems and stories to celebrate the coming of midwinter and the festive season.
Formed in 2013 by Artsreach as part of the South Dorset Ridgeway project, the group specialises in performing Dorset music old and new, in the tradition made famous by Thomas Hardy in Under the Greenwood Tree. The singers are accompanied by musicians playing stringed and woodwind instruments, and the concerts evoke old-fashioned country Christmases when the entertainment was local and homemade.
The group is led by renowned serpent player and member of the Mellstock Band Phil Humphries, and the popular actor and folk musician Tim Laycock.
New to the repertoire is a Christmas Anthem from an old book found at a car boot sale in Bridport, and a setting by Phil Humphries of William Barnes’s poem Rustic Childhood, as well as arrangements for the band of more tunes by the late Nick Dunckley.
The concerts begin on 6 December at a new venue for the RS&B in Sturminster Marshall. There follows a return to St Mary’s in Bridport for a matinee performance on 15 December. The final concert will once again be at the Dorford Centre in Dorchester on Thursday 19 December.
Dates, Times and Venues:
Friday 6 December, 7.30 pm
Sturminster Marshall Village Hall, Churchill Close, Sturminster Marshall BH21 4BQ
Sunday 15 December, 4.00 pm
St Mary’s Church, South Street, Bridport DT6 3NW
Thursday 19 December, 7.30 pm
Dorford Centre, 2 Bridport Road, Dorchester DT1 1RR
Tickets via www.ridgewaysingersandband.org or call 01305 262159
Adults £12, Under 18s £6
Some comments after recent concerts
‘The quality was superb.’
‘Thank you for filling St Mary’s with such marvellous music and joy.’
‘Brilliant, uplifting singing and terrific readings – no wonder we all loved it in the audience.’
‘Fantastic! Will definitely come to see you again.’
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