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The
Fair City Singers is an eighty strong independent choir for
11–18 year olds from Perthshire in Scotland. Their musical
director is Marion Neilson and their accompanist is Martin
Neilson. They aim to encourage choral music while giving children
as varied a vocal experience as possible.
The
Fair City Singers regularly stage their own concerts and stage
shows, broadcast on radio and TV, undertake overseas summer
tours and give concerts for charity.
Training
the choir involves weekly rehearsals
from 6.30 to 8.30 pm every Tuesday during school terms
at Viewlands School in Perth. In addition there are occasional
weekends away spent concentrating on performance and choreography.
Here are some photos taken at the latest weekend camp at Nethybridge
last November.
Musical
instrument tuition has a strong tradition in Perthshire schools
and
some of the Singers played their string instruments for part
of a concert in Dunkeld Cathedral. For shows and some concerts
Martin Neilson is also often joined by talented musical parents
and ex-members of the choir.
The
Fair City Singers' joy of singing never ceases to delight
their audiences. Most performances are for charities, and
countless organisations have benefited from the commitment
of Marion and Martin Neilson and their enthusiastic young
singers. They have now recorded four albums of favourite songs
- FCS Gold, Rise Up Singing, Celebration and When I Sing
which are on sale at concerts, at Perth Theatre box office
and by mail order. Go to the CDs page on this site to find
out more and hear Real Audio clips from the CDs.
The distinctive choir uniform consists of gold blouse and
black skirt for the girls and black shirt and trousers with
black/gold waistcoat and gold bow-tie for the boys.
Tartan
sashes are often worn when the Scottish theme comes to the
fore e.g. at the Scone Palace Pageant or when being Scottish
ambassadors overseas.
Thanks to the generosity of Macnaughton’s of Perth and the
Guildry Incorporated the choir now have stunning Wallace tartan
waistcoats for that extra Scottish touch..
Fundraising
for tours and day to day music expenses is an ongoing event.
Keen and willing parents form the mainstay of this. Some grants
are given from local organisations (e.g. the Gannochy Trust)
for specific purposes.
The
Fair City Singers also raise funds from the sales of their
CDs and tapes. To help raise funds for their ambitious tour
to Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany and Austria in 1997, the
Fair City Singers ran a charity bag pack at the ASDA superstore
in Perth.
Want
to join? Look at the info on the right side of this page.
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