hago concerts - 2005

We were delighted to be invited to share a Concert with Highbury Area Band, organised by Cosham Inner Wheel with the aims of raising money for The Rowans Hospice and to provide a horse for the Fort Widley Equestrian Centre at the Peter Ashley Activity Centre, on Portsdown Hill, just north of Portsmouth.

Highbury Area Band have a well-deserved reputation for musical prowess and their Musical Director, Steve Tanner, produced some searing crescendi and some poignantly beautiful reflective moments in an invigorating and thoroughly enjoyable programme.

Cosham Inner Wheel write as follows

Dear Derek

We just wanted to write and thank you very much for being part of the Inner Wheel Highbury Area Band Concert last Saturday. I think you must know from the enthusiastic applause that everyone enjoyed your spot in the programme immensely. You will be pleased to hear that some of us will definitely try and be at one of your Concerts soon.

On that evening we raised £1030 for our charities this year. We are very pleased as you can imagine.

Best wishes for your continued success.

We were invited to play as part of Havant Borough Council's "Nine Days in May - Making Waves" event. The concert was at St Faith's Church Havant, and the proceeds were in aid of their Restoration Appeal. St Faith's, along with many historic buildings, faces a constant challenge to maintain the fabric of the Church and to protect it from the ravages that weather and the passage of time inflict upon it. The Parish of St Faith's faces the additional, and what should be totally unnecessary, task of repairing the Church after mindless and gratuitous acts of vandalism, committed by those with no respect for the present, let alone the past.

We headed back to Cambridge for our biennial concert as guests of Cambridge Guitar Orchestra.

See photos from the event in our Cambridge Guitar Orchestra Gallery.

A return visit to The Rowans Hospice saw us give our third Rehearsital to raise funds for the Hospice.

Their Director of Fund-Raising, Geoff Page, writes

Last night was great, a lovely atmosphere created by hago once again. I think what works so well for the audience is the relaxed feel for the evening, a varied programme and your informative and witty banter, it even gets them singing.

I really meant it when I said that hago just gets better and better, sitting in the audience all of the parts so carefully arranged came over very well to me.

We were invited at short notice to play a concert at the large and impressive Church of St James, Emsworth, in aid of the Refurbishment of their Parish Hall. Well over 100 people attended the concert which was supported by a fund-raising raffle. The event raised £580 for their fund.

Their organiser writes :

Please thank all the members of hago for a wonderful evening. It's good when fundraising can be enjoyable.
...
Thank you again for a wonderful evening...

It was a great thrill to welcome New Zealand guitarist Bruce Paine to England and to a wonderful concert at the wonderful St Agatha's Church.

There are photos and a video in our Bruce Paine Gallery.

Classical Guitar Magazine wrote

... I was to witness a fine solo performance for the first half, followed by a riotously good piece of ensemble playing from the Hampshire Area Guitar Orchestra ... more...

We were thrilled to be invited to be part of the Birdman of Bognor event.

You'd better visit our Birdman of Bognor Gallery, where all will be revealed!

This concert was organised by St. Mary Magdalen, Sheet, in aid of Cecily's Fund, a hard-working charity set up in the memory of Cecily Eastwood.

Cecily was just 19 when she took a gap year before going up to university. Not for Cecily a year in the UK earning money to pay for Uni life - instead left her home in Oxfordshire to spend a year teaching in Zambia. When she arrived in the Zambian town of Kitwe, she found an organisation called CINDI, which helps AIDS orphans.

The sadness in the story is that Cecily died months later, in a Zambian road accident. Her parents, Basil and Alison Eastwood set up Cecily’s Fund in her memory.

To paraphrase a certain football commentator, this was a concert of three halves.

Following a first half with 25 acts put on by members of the congregation, there was a supper and a presentation about the charity. hago played the second half of the Concert.

The concert raised over £1000 for Cecily's Fund. Read a review here...

The flint church at the top of Portsdown Hill - a couple of hundred metres from a stunning view over Portsea Island - was home to our main Christmas concert 2005, and was in aid of two local charity projects...

• The Rowans Hospice day-to-day running costs
• Christ Church's Parish Centre Project

Held on a crisp Christmassy evening, with fantastic views from the top of Portsdown Hill looking south over Portsea Island, the evening raised £397.60 for charity.

We played an evening of Carols and Music for Christmas at St Johns Court Sheltered Housing, in Portsmouth, in aid of the John Pounds Charity.

Less than 12 hours later, the Centre Manager had written

"Lovely to see you last night, the residents are full of compliments, they really enjoyed the music and have asked for you to do it again"