23rd December - Opera at Bearwood outside Dollshouse Boutique

The penultimate night of the Wokingham Living Advent Calendar saw us embracing a little light opera in front of Dollshouse Boutique. 

Bearwood Redam Opera was established in 1993 and performs concerts & grand opera at Bearwood Theatre, Wokingham. Our performers are male & female and of all ages; we hope you enjoy our performance.

They performed a selection from some famous operas and operettas including the Waltz scene from Eugene Onegin, the Anvil Chorus from Verdi’s Il Trovatore and the chorus of the Hebrew slaves.

The audience obviously enjoyed the music, with some singing along to the bits they knew and generally absorbing the music, a real change from the other choral music we have had this year.

Tonight the final performance for 2015 is at Wokingham Baptist Church and will be a short service of carols and a retelling of the Christmas story.

Merry Christmas

Good Afternoon,

I hope everyone is having a lovely Christmas Eve. Don’t forget we have one final performance this evening at Wokingham Baptist a traditional choral service. But as it is Christmas Day tomorrow I will be with friends and family so the video may have to wait until the New Year. 

So in lieu of that here is a very short Merry Christmas from the Wokingham Living Advent Calendar. Ably assisted by the night of 15^th performer Reading Accordion Group and audience. 

22nd December - Pauly Zarb at the Dukes Head

There was a taste of Christmas from the other side of the world when Wokingham resident and Australian Pauly Zarb performed in the Dukes Head last night. 

Pauly Zarb grew up in a musical family west of Sydney Australia; 6 boys, Mum & Dad.  Pauly started performing at the early age of 4.  Throughout his career so far, he has toured Australia, the USA, Europe & the UK.  He won best folk album with his brother Matt in 2001 & has opened shows for Willie Nelson, Keith Urban and many more.  Now living in Wokingham, he has now for two years running brought the 'International Street Concert' to the Wokingham community with the support of the Town Council; a concept he started in Kentucky in 2003.  Pauly's ambition is to connect more people to music universally.

Pauly performed a number of seasonal songs including White Christmas (with a few choice Aussie inspired variations), O holy night and Jingle Bell Rock. He was also joined by his family for a rendition of “You raise me up”.

There’s lots of photos from the evening over at the Wokingham Paper’s article so do take a look.

http://www.wokinghampaper.com/wokingham-living-advent-calendar-day-22-the-dukes-head/

See you tonight for performance 23, Opera at Bearwood outside Dollshouse Boutique.