7.30pm, Sunday 22 April, Festival Marquee

Singer, TV and radio presenter and musical theatre star Aled Jones will be heading an evening of grandstanding choral music on Sunday 22 April.

Aled will be our special guest vocalist with the Island’s own Newchurch Male Voice Choir and the Hart Male Voice Choir from Hampshire. He will be singing some of his favourite songs as well as joining each for the choirs for some numbers and taking part in our grand finale of massed voices.

Our first massed choir event in 2011, which featured guest soprano Lesley Garrett, was an exhilarating evening of song and a sell-out success. Teaming Aled with two powerful male voice choirs promises to be an equally spine-tingling event and we are really looking forward to it.

The Newchurch Male Voice Choir, led by musical director Roy Bevan and supported by accompanist Jenny Riddell, is driven by the enjoyment of singing, although they also do a great job helping to raise money for good causes. They have a varied musical repertoire, ranging from traditional male voice pieces, songs from the Swing era, musical theatre and pop.

The Hart Male Voice Choir, based in the village of Odiham, but drawn from across Hampshire, strives for the “tingle” factor in their performances, which span music from opera, musicals, films, folk songs and pop song arrangements. It has won honours at prestigious music competitions including the Cheltenham Music Festival. Their musical director David Smart is also the principal oboist of the Royal Marines Association Concert Band.

Aled Jones has been a star for most of his life, starting as a chorister at Bangor Cathedral aged nine. His treble voice ensured he was in great demand as a soloist on TV and radio. Most famously, he sang Walking in the Air for the animated film of The Snowman. Aled went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School before winning the role of Joseph in Andrew Lloyd Webbers’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Today, Aled has 27 albums to his name, selling over six million copies to date.