Local talent lights up cathedral for Rosemere's concert by candlelight
Award-winning Lancashire soprano singer Grace O’Malley headlined the event at Blackburn Cathedral, alongside the Preston Cecilian Choral Society and jazz band of Lancaster’s Ripley St Thomas CE Academy.
The concert, which was part of the Preston-based charity’s month-long Valentine Appeal, helped raise more than £5,000.
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Hide AdNow in its fourth year, the Candlelight Concert is a major event in the charity’s fund-raising calendar.
It was the second successive year that Grace, whose musical heroine is Blackburn opera singer Kathleen Ferrier, had headlined for Rosemere.
On the evening the 17-year-old included a dedication of Cilla’s You’re My World to her parents as a thank you for their support and a Kathleen Ferrier medley before closing with Time to Say Goodbye, to a standing ovation.
Grace will now concentrate on her A-level exams this summer before taking up a place at London’s Royal College of Music to study opera.
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Hide AdAlso on the bill was the compere, BBC Radio Lancashire’s John Gilmore, the senior and junior jazz bands of Lancaster’s Ripley St Thomas Academy, the Preston Cecilian Choral Society and pianist Kyle Hutchings.
The event was sponsored by Bamber Bridge-based construction firm Eric Wright Group
Rosemere’s corporate fund-raising manager, Paula Richardson, said: “We are very grateful to Eric Wright Group for its continued support of our appeal concert.
“Its help makes a tremendous difference to the money the concert is able to raise for us.
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Hide Ad“It means the costs involved in the concert’s staging can all be taken care of so money raised through ticket sales can go directly to the Valentine’s Appeal account to be spent on projects and services to help local cancer patients.”
This year’s Valentine’s Appeal, which has a £50,000 target, had a “Love to” theme, whereby the charity asked people to show their support by doing something they love to help raise funds.
Rosemere Cancer Foundation fund-raises to bring world class cancer treatment and services to patients throughout Lancashire and South Cumbria via local hospitals and through the specialist Rosemere Cancer Centre at the Royal Preston Hospital.