Songsters to join Black Country Chorus for God’s People in Celebration – 16 May 2009
May 9, 2009 by Rob Westwood-Payne
Filed under Events, News
The songsters have been invited by Divisional Headquarters to join a Black Country Chorus, comprising of songsters from Cradley Heath, Dudley, Lye and Willenhall, to provide vocal music during the God’s People in Celebration event on 16 May 2009. The Chorus will be conducted by our Songster Leader, Rob Westwood-Payne.
The event takes place at Birmingham Citadel Salvation Army on St Chad’s Queensway, Birmingham at 7.00pm. It gives members and friends of The Salvation Army in the West Midlands the opportunity to thank God for all He is doing in our church. The guest speaker for the evening is the UK Salvation Army’s second-in-command, Colonel Bill Cochrane. West Midlands Divisional Youth Band will also be providing music.
The theme for the evening is Walk with Me, Work with Me, reflecting the UK Salvation Army’s focus on discipleship during 2009. In keeping with the celebratory nature of the event the Chorus will sing Richard Phillips’ “Sing for joy”. Our other contributions, in line with the theme, are “You can depend on me” (Andre Crouch, arr Len Ballantine), “Christ calls” (Yvonne Field) and “Come to me” (Barrie Gott).
Rob Westwood-Payne grew up in The Salvation Army at Norwich Citadel. He left Norwich to study at the University of Warwick and became fully involved in the music centre there culminating in his conducting Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue to a full house in Symphony Hall in Birmingham. He also transferred to The Salvation Army at Coventry City, where he became Songster Leader at the age of 21. He was made Songster Leader at Cradley Heath in April 1998 shortly before marrying Gail in the following October. He is a former leader of the West Midlands Divisional Youth Chorus and is currently Programme Director at the West Midlands Divisional Summer School for The Salvation Army. He is an Associate Solicitor in the Licensing Team of a national practice based in the south west.
