Bella Acapella Honorary Members

The Bella Acapella Honorary Membership is the highest honour that the Board can give. It is bestowed on individuals, past or present, to recognise their outstanding contributions to our chorus. These honorary members have had a special impact on the chorus and have been key in its growing success. The following are the names of those who have been awarded Honorary Membership of Bella Acapella.
 

Corry de Moor (2025)

Of course everybody in the chorus knows Corry. But also many people outside Bella Acapella have met our hard working member. Corry was not the person to go quiet or to silently stay in a unseen corner. Her energy and focus were a driving force behind many of our activities. Corry has scheduled and prepared many sing outs and concerts, she hosted several coaching weekend with the full chorus in her home in São Bras and she even welcomed various coaches to stay and sleep in her guest quarters. Coaches celebrated her hospitality and generous breakfasts. In addition she was an active board member for many years and a reliable lead in the chorus. She even managed to have her husband Charles make new and portable risers for the whole chorus. This Honorary Membership is to recognize and celebrate her intense involvement in Bella Acapella for over 13 years. For now Corry has chosen to focus on other activities that require her attention, to travel more and spend more time with family and friends.

Paul Davies (2025)

 Paul Davies the legend of International Barbershop and coach extraordinaire, has been working with Bella Acapella for many, many years. Paul qualified as a musicality judge with the British Association of Barbershop Singers (BABS) over 30 years ago and was awarded a place in the society’s Hall of Fame and is currently involved in the Arts Council Making Music programme as a choral coach. He founded Cambridge Chord Company, which under his direction won in 2004 the Pavarotti Choir of the World at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod as well as six British and two European medal winning performances.

During our dress rehearsal performance in April 2025, we awarded Paul with the Bella Acapella Honorary Membership. Thereby we recognize and celebrate Paul´s intense coaching efforts over all these years. His warm hearted personality and professional guidance have contributed to the long-term success and artistic growth of Bella Acapella.

Emmy Wijsman-Veraar (2024)

 Emmy joined Bella Acapella in 2009, shortly after the chorus was founded. And ever since she joined the chorus, she has been a dedicated and hard working member. Not only was she a loyal and steady baritone but she was also a direct support for the consecutive MD´s. Her administrative skills have helped a lot and her weekly emails, full of information ánd inspiration have been essential in creating the Bella Acapella spirit of loyalty and enthusiasm. She even managed to contact the current MD who just arrived in the Algarve and made him enthusiastic to take over the ´baton´. She has been a board member until 2022 as the chorus secretary.  

As much as she loves the chorus, life brought Emmy and Dick back to the Netherlands where she now lives more relaxed and enjoys the happiness of having her children and grand children closer by.

Sylvy Hinton-Keenan (2016)

 Sylvy´s career was in the ambulance service and when she and her husband were made redundant they decided to move to Portugal. There she found out about the Choir based at the Museu do Traje in São Brás. There she met a lady who introduced her to four women who were looking for a new choir leader.  And so Bella A Cappella  (now Bella Acapella) was born in January 2008. In addition, Sylvy created in 2007 a quartet called Cleftomania in which she has sung lead.

Her incredible energy and drive made the the chorus an immediate success! She made the connection with SABS Barbershop Association in Spain and during the very first participation in Málaga, the Bellas won a Silver Medal in the Chorus Competition. 

Sylvy and Ralph returned to the UK in 2016. Bella Acapella awarded both of them the honorary membership and the chorus members still welcome them whenever they visited.
 

Ralph Keenan (2016)

When Ralph’s wife, Sylvy, started Bella A Cappella back in 2008, she invited Ralph to join them as a Bass. Ralph had never sung barbershop before and was hooked from day one. He became an accomplished bass singer and medal-winner both with Bella and his quartet, Cleftomania. 

Unfortunately Ralph passed away in 2024. We remember Ralph as a positive, fun spirit with a wicked sense of humour and a great voice! With his energetic presence, dry humour and musicality, he made quite an impact. Ralph will be missed as a singer and as a friend.