A man who once read the shipping forecast to more than a billion people has joined a local choir.
Zeb Soanes, a radio presenter born and bred in Lowestoft, has been announced as the new patron of Pakefield Singers.
Mr Soanes has a distinguished career on both radio and television and for more than 20 years was a newsreader and the voice of the Shipping Forecast to millions of listeners on BBC Radio 4.
Currently, he presents the evening show, Smooth Classics at Seven, on Classic FM, and performs with the UK’s leading orchestras and ensembles, narrating family classics such as Peter and the Wolf.
He is also the author of the acclaimed Gaspard the Fox stories.
Mr Soanes said: "I am delighted to be the Pakefield Singers first patron. My Lowestoft ancestors were all good Methodists, so singing runs in our family and it is so good for the soul: for singers and audience members alike.
"I look forward to attending as many performances as I can."
He will be joining the choir for their next concert on Saturday, December 2, when he will read his latest story, Gaspard’s Christmas, with its carol by Jonathan Dove and live illustration by James Mayhew.
He will also present the concert in aid of the Britten as a Boy community project, which aims to honour Lowestoft’s famous son with a statue of the young composer to be placed facing out to sea opposite his boyhood home on Kirkley cliff in South Lowestoft.
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Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, with harp accompaniment, will be the centrepiece. The concert will take place in Kirkley Church and start at 7pm.
Vetta Wise, the Pakefield Singers' conductor, said: "With his extensive knowledge and love of classical music he is the ideal patron for Pakefield Singers and we were very pleased when Zeb agreed so readily to be associated with the choir as he shares the same philosophy as Pakefield Singers – music is for everyone, music is for sharing."
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