Rochdale Music Society Concert: Nicola Mills and Maria King

Nicola Mills

Soprano Nicola Mills was the guest performer at the Rochdale Music Society concert held at St. Michael, Bamford on Saturday 21 October.

St. Michael's is the venue for all the society's concerts this season, and provides a sympathetic acoustic platform for musical performance of all kinds. On this occasion the wide-ranging sonorities of Nicola's voice reverberated with precision and poise throughout an evening of well-chosen operatic arias and songs from the shows to the delight of an audience which showed its warm appreciation by its enthusiastic applause.

There was Mozart and Puccini, Dvöŕak and Richard Rodgers - to mention just a few of the composers whose songs Nicola used to illustrate how her passion for singing and encouraging others to sing grew and continues to grow. She reminisced about her life from her childhood in the North West of England and on through her training years. These led to her performing all over Europe and North America in concert halls and in the streets of towns, which she continues to do to much acclaim.

A highlight of her performance on this occasion was a selection of songs made famous on stage and in film by Julie Andrews.

Nicola was not alone. Accomplished accompanist Maria King was at the piano when karaoke backgrounds were not being used, and perfectly matched Nicola’s presentation. She surfaced twice as a spectacular concert pianist herself, playing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in the first half of the concert and Variations on Chopsticks by Liberace in the second. Both rightly earned her great applause for her technical and interpretative skills.

All in all this was an unusual concert occasion for the Rochdale Music Society, but one that was most enjoyable and well worth promoting.

The society’s next concert will be on Saturday 18 November and feature Jill Crossland, pianist, playing music by Scarlatti, Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. Details on the website: www.rochdalemusicsociety.org.

Graham Marshall