A LANDMARK year for the oldest choir in Helensburgh reaches a high point next month.

The Helensburgh Dorian Choir’s spring concert takes place at the United Reformed Church in West Princes Street on Friday, May 10 at 7.30pm.

The concert celebrates the 70th anniversary of the choir, and the programme will reflect the choir’s history, with songs from each decade, including a Lennon and McCartney medley, Abba, songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats and Sondheim’s Into The Woods, and ending with a concert version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial By Jury.

And afterwards there will be a chance for the audience to join the choir in the URC hall for celebratory refreshments.

The Dorian is the oldest choir in Helensburgh, having been set up in 1949 by James MacTaggart, who was blinded as the result of a childhood injury but went on to become an organist, a teacher of piano and singing and a choral conductor and arranger.

The choir’s early repertoire consisted mainly of Scots songs, sacred music and part-songs.

Later it extended its repertoire to include classical works with accompanying musicians and soloists.

For some time now the choir has ‘specialised’ in singing a broad-ranging repertoire to appeal to a wide audience, which contributes in turn to a high standard of performance and a high level of personal satisfaction of members.

The Dorian has been led since August 2017 by Sian Winstanley, who graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2009, and has sung with leading orchestras and opera companies in the UK and several European countries.

Sian has featured in TV’s ‘Proms in the Park’, on BBC Radio Wales, Radio 3, Radio France and Radio Nacionale de Espagna. She has performed in Britten’s ‘Les Illuminations’ in Granada with the Granada Symphony Orchestra.

More recently she appeared with Scottish Opera where she sang Mabel in Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘The Pirates of Penzance’.

Tickets for next month’s concert (£10 adults, £5 for under 16s) are available from 1st Class in West Princes Street, choir members or at the door.