In October, Wellington Rotary is holding a fundraising event featuring two local groups of musicians. A concert at All Saint’s Church in Wellington on Friday 18 October at 7.15pm will provide an evening of musical entertainment from the Wellington Brass Band and The Gallery Singers. The concert is raising funds to support the Ukrainian Cultural & Learning Centre in Wellington, and Rotary Charities. The Centre provides additional learning for Ukrainians in the local area, many of who are staying under the Homes for Ukraine scheme having moved here following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It provides learning for children covering the Ukrainian language and the culture of Ukraine. Understandably these topics are not covered in the children’s education at local schools.

Tickets for the concert cost £15 and are available from Wellington Rotary members and online at Ticketsource – follow this link and will also be available on the door on the night of the concert.

The Gallery Singers are an award winning Shropshire chamber choir. Formed in May 2009, they are essentially a group of friends who love singing together and sharing our music with others. They perform regularly across the county and further afield. They have an extensive repertoire spanning both sacred and secular music from the Renaissance to the present day. The singers perform a mixture of sacred and secular music. They enjoy singing in a variety of styles from folk to part songs, from madrigals to jazz, from church masses to pop and show tunes. The Gallery Singers also perform major works supported by professional instrumentalists. Recent works include Bernstein’s ‘Chichester Psalms’, Tippet’s, ‘Five Spirituals from A Child of Our Time’ and Missa Brevis’ by Palestrina and Will Todd. The multi award-winning group of friends, whose prestigious accolades include major successes at the North Wales International Choir Festival, the Bath and Mid Somerset Festival, and were awarded outstanding ‘Choir of the Day’ in a national BBC Choir of the Year contest.

Wellington (Telford) Brass Band was formed in 2000, having previously been known as ‘Dawley Band’ and ‘Telford Band’. There are approximately thirty members of the band led by Musical Director Ian Johnson. It is an active band that performs regularly throughout the local community at formal parades, garden fetes as well as playing carols over the Christmas period. It is a competing band and competes annually in the Midlands Regional Championships. The band’s most recent success was in March 2024 where the band was placed second overall in the third section competition. The Band recently competed in the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain which took place at Cheltenham Racecourse. The band is supported by sponsorship from Wellington Town Council, and in return the band plays at events organised by the Council including the annual civic service, community fun days and Remembrance service.

Recently, the band joined many others from around the country to join the Light the Lakes Massed Band Event, an annual event that brings together police officers, staff, retired officers and police friends to light up the Wainwright Peaks at 3am in memory of fallen officers and raise funds for the Care Of Police Survivors (COPS) charity. Band members played a Midnight Service at Rydal Cave, then climbed to the top of Wansfell Pike where they played hymns and set of flares at 3am. They later joined the Massed Band for a performance at Brathay Hall.

Tickets for the concert are available online at Ticketsource – follow this link and will be available on the door on the night of the concert.