On the 14th of February 2014, St Peter’s Parkstone Church Choir, Poole with support from The Poole Passion hosted a fundraising concert raising money for Operation Elliot. Elliot is a 6 year old boy from Southbourne who suffers from Cerebral Palsy and severe Haemophilia A. To read more about him and to donate to his cause, please visit www.operationelliot.org.

The evening started off with St Peter’s Church Choir performing The Lord’s My Shepherd by Howard Goodall, directed by Richard McLester (www.richardmclester.com), followed by the pianist David Parry, who performed Scriabin’s Op 8, No. 12. Alexandra Wehlau (www.alexandrawehlau.com) then gave a moving and powerful performance of Pie Jesu by Darufle, accompanied by Richard McLester.

4 actors from The Poole Passion then performed a short extract from Through The Eyes Of A Child, which will be performed this coming Easter.

Finally, young talented artists Luka Gadeliya (www.lukagadeliya.net) (organ) and Christina Eshba (soprano) from Abkhazia have took the audience by storm, exceeding all expectations. They created a magical atmosphere and their remarkable performances were much appreciated. Among comments from the audience were: “outstanding performances”, “absolutely amazing”, “fantastic talents”, “the best organist in years”, and “I loved every minute, it was so moving” .

All of this despite the severe weather, which was bringing lots of serious disruption in the region! In the moments of silence between the pieces one could hear the storm trying to compete with the strength of the organ…

The whole concert was professionally recorded and will be available shortly.