Standing ovation for Sue Verity at final concert

Sue Verity and Chris Jolly

A "seemingly endless" standing ovation for Sue Verity, as she bowed out as Rochdale Youth Orchestra’s musical director, showed the appreciation for the 35 years of outstanding dedication Sue has given to the orchestra.

A night of thanks and celebration, the orchestra’s ‘Christmas Spectacular’ concert took place in the Gracie Fields Theatre on Saturday (5 December).

Special guests for the evening included the Mayor and Mayoress of Rochdale, Surinder and Cecile Biant, Simon Danczuk MP, RYO President Keith Swift, and dignitaries from Rochdale Childer (sponsors of Rochdale Youth Orchestra), President Maureen Cooper MBE and Chairman Keith Fairhurst.

Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Ken Davies MBE and guest performers were St Vincent’s RC School Choir, with musical director Chris Willis and pianist Judith Golding. The children sang "beautifully" and delighted the audience with their enthusiastic singing from their repertoire, which included ‘Christmas Lullaby’ and ‘One Bright Star’.

The programme from the orchestra included some of the children’s favourites such as ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ before they launched into Christmas music.

Katie Moore, Sue’s 13-year- old grand-daughter, sang a "perfect" ‘O Holy Night’ accompanied by the orchestra before the tempo was raised with lively songs including ‘Winter Wonderland’ and ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’.

RYO’s Jazz Ensemble, directed by Chris Jolly, presented a varied programme of music which highlighted a jazzy version of ‘We Three Kings’ and a "great" vocal solo by Grace Morris. This upbeat performance showed off the individual talents within the ensemble and was warmly received by the audience. This was Chris's final concert and before the close for the interval he offered his thanks to Sue stating that it was her inspiration that guided him to pursue a career in music.

The second half of the concert was opened with RYO President Keith Swift's rendition of the classic ‘White Christmas’. Past members of Rochdale Youth Orchestra, including Sue’s daughter Sally on French horn, joined all performers on stage for the grand finale that included a solo performance of 'Once in Royal David's City' by Kodie-Lee Booth from St Vincent’s.

The audience enjoyed singing along to the rousing finale of Christmas music and the concert ended with a celebratory rendition of Slade's ever popular ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’.

There followed seemingly endless standing ovation to Sue.

A great performance to bow out from after 35 years.