Special music to their ears

A song from the young to the old as the clubhouse at Riverside Manor Retirement held a captive audience.

The residents of the Riverside Manor Retirement Village got a very special visit on 14 June when members of the St Peter’s College Choir, who are located just down the road from the retirement village, visited the elderly and performed a number of beautiful numbers. The event was organised by the Riverside lifestyle committee, who wanted to support young local talent in honour of Youth Month while entertaining residents.

“About 40 children are here today to perform,” explained Vaughan van Zyl, the choirmaster for the school for the last eight years and who introduced each performance.

“It was such a pleasure to perform for the residents and we were so happy with the attendance.”

The learners performed 10 songs in total, some were performed in large groups and others were performed by individual musicians. As a group, the choir started out their visit with a rendition of Gloria in Excelsis Deo which was written by a South African.

Later on during the hour-long visit, Paige Schmidt performed Always Remember Us This Way on her saxophone, Akrithi Bhimma performed Someone You Loved on piano and Angelina Seymour sang her heart out during her rendition of Girl in 14G.

“The visit was a wonderful way to build a relationship with Riverside,” added van Zyl.

“It’s so important to reach out to our local community.” The residents of the village also enjoyed the experience.

“This [was] a chance to have the residents enjoy some music,” explained Maureen Gravell of the lifestyle committee. “We also wanted to bring the youth out and support them in honour of Youth Month.”

The day had an extra special twist when Van Zyl revealed that one of his singers, Emma Girdlestone, was actually celebrating her birthday on the same day, which was made even more special by the fact that Emma’s granny Joan Burrell lives at Riverside and was in the audience.

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