WARRINGTON Male Voice Choir is celebrating the news that their Patron Terry Waite CBE, as part of the King’s Birthday Honours 2023, becomes Knight Commander and will now be Sir Terry Waite, KCMG, CBE.
Sir Terry who has been appointed a Knighthood for services to charity, has been involved with the choir since 1993, when he accepted an invitation to become their Patron in recognition of the Choir’s efforts to promote peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, following the IRA bombings in Warrington town centre. Sir Terry has been on many tours with the choir over the years and attends as many of their major concerts as he can.
Choir Secretary, Amanda Davies, said ‘everyone at Warrington Male Voice Choir is beyond thrilled for Sir Terry, although we’ve all said it was long overdue. We’re truly honoured that Sir Terry is our Patron and even more proud of all he has achieved and all he does for so many charities.’
On receiving a congratulatory email from Choir Secretary, Sir Terry said ‘it’s an honour for me to be your supporter. See you all at Christmas.’
We’re delighted that Sir Terry has confirmed that he will be attending our Christmas Voices Christmas Brass concert on the 16th December 2023 at the Parr Hall.
Also, earlier this year at their AGM, the choir presented their annual ‘Higham Award’.
Founded by and named after the late Geoff Higham, who was a member of the choir for almost 62 years when he passed away in 2016, the award recognises the effort of a particular member, hopefully reflecting those characteristics shown by Geoff.
This year’s winner has shown nothing but commitment to the choir, he is extremely well liked and respected by everyone. Having joined the choir in the early 90’s, it was his innovative thinking that enabled the choir to move forwards in terms of choral excellence. His unique style and disarming sense of humour has endeared him to audiences both at home and overseas.
During his time with Warrington Male Voice Choir, the choir has enjoyed a period of considerable competition success, more recently, in November 2019, he led the choir to its latest victory, where they won first prize in the North Wales Choral Festival in Llandudno.
The winner of the Higham Award 2023 – is Musical Director, Russell Paterson.
