“St Andrew's Church was built by Ernest McDonald on land donated by a Scottish mine owner, George Houston.  The first recorded service was in mid-December 1913 with 33 people present,” so says history and was recited by Jaqueline Harris. It was a very nice idea to have a presenter to tie the knots between the decades, the different waves of music, snapshots of musical events, composers in the times of two wars determining life in Europe and around the world, when entertainment was written in capital letters to keep up morale and courage.

Music of the past 100 years beautifully presented by the 27 members of the choir with solos sung by choir members, some of them for the first time but I found them better than so many professionals because of their touching enthusiasm. Linda Smith sang her part in the 1916 piece by Gustav Holst ‘Let all mortal flesh’; Keith Lloyd the 1927 Old Man river from Showboat; Ann Iverson was supposed to sing The White Cliffs of Dover but her voice was gone and so we heard Sue Carling who did a great job. Budding soloists were also Bridget Kerr,  Maxene Shailer and Jo Black with Boogie Woogie and ‘Love changes everything’; I know how excited they were. A big surprise for me was also Jan d’Oliveira Parkinson – guitar and vocal – with a song by Dylan/Baez. The trained sopranist Lynette Oruc brought two pieces: Lullaby from the Consul by Menotti and a piece from ‘The Peacemakers by Karl Jenkins. Piano Solos were also included: Rauf Kasimov delighted the audience with a Jazz Medley from the 1920s-30’s. and Fikri Toros brought Passaggio and Questa Notte by Einaudi.

In the audience I could feel waves of emotion stirred up by famous songs of their youth and twice we were invited to sing along with the choir which tied a strong bond, the one being: The White Cliffs of Dover’ which was a famous WWII song and composed/written in 1941 by Walter Kent and Nat Burton; the other final piece Silent Night translated into English in 1859 from the original ‘Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht’ written/composed by the Austrians Franz Xaver Gruber/Joseph Mohr in 1818.

An evening of retrospect on conflicts, wars, scandals in one century accompanied by currents of music going along with them and thanks to the Kyrenia Chamber Choir we have been made aware of it.

Happy Birthday, St. Andrew Church, said Jacqueline Harris and invited all the concert guests to join in for a toast to the next century. Here is to friendship and peace.