Kentwood Show Choir's president, jazz star Cleo Laine, was given an update following the success of the Swindon singers' annual summer concert.

Cleo is the only female performer to have received Grammy nominations in the jazz, popular and classical music categories. She is the widow of composer John Dankworth and is best known for her scat music style of jazz.

Founder and musical director of Kentwood, Sheila Harrod, paid a visit to Cleo Laine's home in Wavendon, near Milton Keynes, with members of the choir Yvonne Walker and Sue Allen to take tea and chat about the concert, which Cleo was unfortunately unable to attend this year.

John and Cleo founded The Stables Theatre in 1970 in what was the old stables block in the grounds of their home and the Swindon choir have performed there on a number of occasions.

The show at Swindon's Wyvern Theatre on Saturday, May 12 raised £600 in a bucket collection for this year's chosen choir charity Hearing Dogs. The charity trains dogs who transform deaf people’s lives. The hearing dogs alert deaf people to sounds they would otherwise miss – simple sounds that many people take for granted like the doorbell, alarm clock and even danger signals like the fire alarm.

The summer concert showcased the choir, accompanied by Paul Maguire and The Little Big Band. Paul has worked on a number of West End shows. There were full scale numbers from both Senior and Junior Kentwood singers, solos, duets and a mix of musical genres.

One of the soloists, Natalie Fortie said: "Saturday was an amazing evening. There is nothing like being on the Wyvern stage, singing as part of a musical family, seeing all our hard word come to life and doing what we all love most. To hear that we raised £600 for this years chosen charity is the icing on the cake."

The Kentwood Show Choir are always on the look out for new members so anyone wanting to join should visit http://www.kentwoodshowchoir.org/ for more details.