I am delighted to present this as my Musical Director’s report for season 2013/14.

As is tradition, I begin my report with a debrief of Friday’s Spring Concert. I was delighted by the professionalism of the choir in its stage presence and movement on and off the platform. This sets the tone of the evening and shows our audience that whilst we are an amateur choir we strive for excellence in both our performance and in our singing. The quality of singing was outstanding and much of the audience feedback suggested this was the best concert ever, in terms of choice of programme and quality of sound. I felt that ‘If the Way Be Full Of Trial’ was the most outstanding piece of the evening and was truly world class. Many thanks to all our members for making this concert so memorable for our audience and for the support you all give to me throughout the year.

Session 2013/14 began with our first concert of the Season The Scarecrow Festival. We are delighted to be invited annually to open and close this gala concert and to perform alongside such wonderful emerging talent.

The start of the season also saw us welcome many new members to the choir who have added so much to the social aspect of the Bothwell Philharmonic as well as vocally.

Within a few weeks of starting our new season 35 members and their families travelled to Malta for our fourth trip in 14 years. As you know Malta is the home of our accompanist Geoffrey and we owe him and his family a huge debt of gratitude for the warmth of welcome, their hospitality and for assisting with the organisation of transport and performances. All of us who travelled enjoyed some late autumn sunshine and mediterranean temperatures as well as wonderful concerts. Many new friendships were forged and we look forward to all coming together again for our next trip.

As usual, Christmas was an extraordinarily busy time for the choir and we kicked the festive season off with our now annual concert at Uddingston Old Parish Church. The highlight of the year was of course our Gala Charity Concert at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Two charities benefited from the generosity of our audience.

We were sorry to record a number of illnesses, injuries and family bereavements this session. All were recorded and recognised appropriately.

We are delighted to record that our sponsorship with Tunnocks has been renewed for a further two years.

It is important to record the immense and valuable contribution of our wonderful accompanist Geoffrey Tanti who not only rehearses with us but also provides his world class skills as our accompanist at our many concerts throughout the year. We must also offer our gratitude to our assistant MD Merle Craig for standing in on several occasions throughout the season.

I pay tribute to our wonderfully dedicated committee who work so hard on your behalf to ensure the smooth running of the choir in all aspects. It is important to record our thanks to Hazel Scott for all she does to develop and populate the website with all the information you need. I must also record thanks to the committee members responsible for sourcing material for the new gowns and for arranging for them to be designed and made.

We continue to support our two local primary schools and have continued our annual donation to the schools to be used to develop music within the schools. In addition we continue our sponsorship of Craigholme School’s Musician of the Year competition.

So as we move towards to our 15th season we look forward to continuing our charitable work, developing our social and choral events and to maintaining our very high standards of presentation and performance.

I wish you all well for a very happy and safe summer break and look forward to seeing you all again in August.