30/01/2023
Today marks a special milestone event for The Annesley Hall and Newcastle Glees.
🎭20 YEARS AGO🎭
A special tribute by Edna Howard.
20 years ago today on 30/1/2003 The Gleesingers held an event to celebrate the reopening of a renovated and refurbished Annesley Hall .
It was attended by around 120 invited guests, including funding representatives, patrons and other dignitaries. After a few speeches, there followed some choral pieces from the Glees finishing with buffet style refreshments and some presentations and I can tell you it was one of the proudest days of my life.
The following 2 evenings, we held a Celebration Concert which was a sell out on both nights.
This event was an important milestone in the history of the Glees and was the end result of over five years hard work and determination of the committee of that time - to raise enough funding to purchase and refurbish the hall, which by the way is a listed building, and that sometimes complicated and then at other times helped our progress.
It was a privilege to be part of this project, and one that I will never forget. Whilst they were exciting and extremely challenging times for the Glees, for there were plenty of highs and lows and bumps along the road, but with our stubbornness and sheer hard work we got there in the end!
Who would have that a group of singers could have pulled this venture off!
During this time we moved our shows to the Newcastle Centre, six shows in all, plus our Junior Glees annual pantomimes.
We used the Annesley Hall for as long as we could for rehearsals, but once the renovations started, we had to source rehearsal space elsewhere.
This really drives home to me how lucky the Glees are to own their own hall.
The first show back in the hall was ‘The King & I’ in May 2003.
Since then the Glees have gone from strength to strength winning nominations and awards for their high quality performances.
The membership is healthy, the audience base is growing, the future is bright and in safe hands, but I will never forget those ‘heady’ days of trying to raise the funds , other words that come to mind are ’scary’ and ‘crazy’, but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.
Upwards and onwards the Glees.
Edna 😘 xx
