Elentone Singers Christmas Concert – 15th December – Cox Green School, Maidenhead

PRESS RELEASE
MAIDENHEAD, UK

The Elentone Singers will be holding their Christmas concert on Thursday, 15th December, at Cox Green School, Maidenhead. The concert, which starts at 8pm, will feature a varied programme of seasonal music from around the world, traditional carols and mulled wine, and proceeds will benefit the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice.

Choir director, Lyn Thomson, explains this year’s choice of charity saying, “We were delighted to discover that Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice, a much-needed facility for families throughout Berkshire, will be built a very short distance from our base at Cox Green School. When they heard that the charity had won planning permission for the building, choir members were keen to help out in any way they could.”

The choir welcomes members of all abilities, there are no auditions, no waiting lists and fees are just £40 per term. Lyn, who also teaches music to 0 to 11-year-olds, adds, “We’ve had people coming to us claiming to be tone deaf who were singing in tune within a short space of time. My aim is to help each one of our members to be the very best they can be – and it’s huge fun too.”

People who are interested in joining are invited to attend the concert, see what the choir is all about and then come along for a free trial session when rehearsals resume in January.

The concert will be held in the theatre of Cox Green School on Thursday, 15th December, from 8pm. Tickets are £5 on the door, or from members of the choir.

http://www.elentonesingers.com

01628 622651

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Music Matters, it Really Does!

I’m delighted that this PR was picked up by Maidenhead Advertiser, who sent a photographer and gave the event a lovely write-up.  And, as a result of the Advertiser article, BBC Berkshire will be interviewing Lyn live on 7th February!  To find out more, please check out the article on Lyn’s website. 

[tweetmeme source= “catherineosborn” only_single=false]Music Matters, the highly popular music class for 0-11 year olds, is celebrating its 10^th birthday this week and to mark the occasion, pupils have decided to don fancy dress to raise money for Rosie’s Rainbow Fund, a local charity that provides support to sick children and their families.  The charity is particularly special to Music Matters as it counts founder Carolyn Mayling’s son amongst its attendees and another of its pupils benefited from music therapy provided by the charity when he was in intensive care as a baby.

Established in January 2001 by qualified music teacher, Lyn Thomson, Music Matters’ aim was to give as many children as possible a good start in music. Since then, hundreds of children have improved not only their musical skills but their speech and language too.

Lyn says, “As well as being a music teacher I am also a qualified teacher of English as an Additional Language and am particularly interested in the direct connection between learning music and developing language and literacy.  Research shows that children who have a good music education from a young age have a huge advantage over their peers when they start school as learning music helps all areas of development – physical, social, emotional and intellectual – and this is what motivated me to start working with very young children.”

Feedback from parents shows that Lyn has succeeded in her aim.  She recalls one 4-year-old from a dual language home who had very limited speech.  By the end of the first lesson, she was singing songs and after two terms, she was speaking confidently.   Other parents report that people are often taken aback by their children’s precocious language skills.  It’s not just the children that benefit either, parents who thought they were tone deaf have found their voices after a term or two with Lyn.

Lyn’s most recent venture was to launch the Elentone Singers, a choir for adults that meets for two hours every Thursday evening at Cox Green school.  The original singers were parents and grandparents of Music Matters pupils but the choir is now recruiting members throughout the community.  No musical experience is required to join the choir and there are no auditions or waiting lists.

To find out more, please visit www.lynsmusicmatters.co.uk, elentonesingers.wordpress.com or contact Lyn on 01628 622651

Rosie’s Rainbow Fund – www.rosiesrainbowfund.co.uk

Announcing a New Blogsite – Music Matters

[tweetmeme source= “catherineosborn” only_single=false]I’ve been working with Lyn Thomson on her new blogsite/website and we’re both really pleased with the result!  I can’t claim responsibility for the excellent copy this time as the words are all hers, but I did put together the blogsite and the entry page.  The entry page will help her to maintain her current search engine rankings while the blog works its way up.

Please take a look and let me know what you think.  And if you live in Berkshire/Buckinghamshire and have children under 11, you should definitely check it out.  Lyn has been teaching my two since birth and I am delighted with the progress they are making!

Elentone Singers – A Summer Concert of Fun and Frivolity!

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAIDENHEAD, UK

A Summer Concert of Fun and Frivolity!

The Elentone Singers, Cox Green Community Choir, announces its second performance

Cox Green Community Choir, The Elentone Singers, will be holding its summer concert on 15^th July, 8-10pm, at its new home, Cox Green School.

The choir, formed in October 2009, will offer a varied programme of traditional music from around the world, which will include an English mining song, North American spirituals, foreign language lullabies and there will be one huge surprise!

The concert is open to all and there is no entrance fee.  There will be a collection and raffle for the Slough branch of Women’s Aid, a charity that helps all victims of domestic violence.

People who are interested in joining for the Autumn term are invited to come along, see what the choir is about and chat to its members during the interval.  The choir is open to people of all abilities and locations, not just Cox Green, and there are no auditions or waiting lists.

Musical Director, Lyn Thomson, says, “The Elentone Singers is a relatively new choir and I’m delighted with the progress we’ve made in such a short time.  People who claimed not to be able to sing a note soon found their voices and the resulting sound is amazing.”

For further information, please call Lyn on 01628 622651 or visit www.elentonesingers.com.

ENDS

About The Elentone Singers

The Elentone Singers was founded by Maidenhead-based music teacher, Lyn Thomson, in October 2009.  The choir is named after the ancient settlement of Elentone that was located in the North Town area of Maidenhead.  In January 2010, the choir moved to its new home in Cox Green School to the west of the town. 

The ethos of the choir is that given the right encouragement, anybody can sing.  There are, therefore, no auditions or waiting lists.

Contact

Lyn Thomson     01628 622651
Rebecca Bond   01628 820069
www.elentonesingers.com

Photographs attached, please acknowledge Ana Taylor.

  

MAIDENHEAD MAN IN URGENT BONE MARROW APPEAL

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAIDENHEAD, UK

Father-of-Two Appeals to the Mauritian Community for a Donor

Maidenhead father-of-two, Chris Maury, and his family have issued an urgent appeal for a bone marrow donor after the thirty-eight-year-old software engineer was diagnosed with a difficult-to-treat form of leukaemia. His search is complicated by the fact that he needs to find somebody with a similar Anglo-Mauritian ethnic background.

Potential donors need to be aged 18-40 and have a Mauritian father of Indian origin and a European, preferably British, mother. Volunteers in the UK can apply directly to the Anthony Nolan Trust and if there is a match, Chris’s consultant will be informed. Overseas volunteers should apply to their local tissue bank or GP. Alternative methods for acquiring bone marrow mean that the process no longer needs to be invasive or painful and people should not be put off by the upper age limit either; once a person is accepted by the register, they will be eligible to donate until they are 60.

When Chris started to suffer deep muscle pains, he initially thought he’d overdone it at the gym. But when the pains got worse, he visited his GP for a blood test. Almost immediately, he was summoned to his local hospital, where he was given the news that he was suffering from Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and within days, he was travelling to Oxford for intensive chemotherapy. Chris says, “When I got my diagnosis, the first emotion I felt was relief – I finally had a reason for the niggling ailments that I had been suffering, and a plan of action. However, the relief soon changed to concern for my wife and children, who were having to deal with the enormity of the situation.”

Doctors told Chris that he has a complication known as Philadelphia Chromosome Positive Leukaemia, which is resistant to most conventional forms of treatment, and his best hope now is an urgent bone marrow transplant. Straight away, the Anthony Nolan Trust, the UK-based donor register, started to search for a potential donor, but he was advised that given his ethnic background, his chances of finding a match would be significantly reduced.

After tests on close relatives drew a blank, Chris’s father, Marc, decided to launch a global search for a volunteer, a quest that took him to Mauritius while his son celebrated his 38th birthday. “I was really disappointed not to be with Chris for his birthday,” says Marc, “but if I can find him a donor, that will be the best present ever.”

Chris’s wife, Sarah, says, “It’s really difficult to watch somebody you love going through an ordeal like this. I would urge everyone to consider joining the register because even if they can’t help us, they may be able to save another family from the heartbreak that we are experiencing.”

Anthony Nolan Trust
http://www.anthonynolan.org.uk
020 7284 1234
#ENDS
Information for editors:
Philadelphia Chromosome Positive Leukaemia occurs when two chromosomes in the affected cells get “swapped over” and it is resistant to most conventional forms of treatment.