On 15 September 1999 Mid Wessex Singers held their inaugural meeting. Twenty-five years later, despite some bumpy times, the choir is still going strong and entering its twenty sixth year.
To illustrate a bumpy time, in January 2016, having lost several members, including three basses, to Millfield Choir, Mid Wessex Singers held an EGM. Having discussed options, including becoming just a female choir, it was agreed unanimously that we wanted to continue as a mixed choir performing choral music to a high standard. The committee then explored ways of strengthening our position including joining forces with another choir. Eventually we decided to appoint a more permanent Musical Director rather than having the annual change involved in using the services of the Senior Organ Scholar at Wells Cathedral.
After a search of several months, Elaine Thorneycroft-Gibb was appointed as Musical Director from September 2016. The choir managed to attract new members through two taster sessions at the beginning of the season, one in Langport and one is Somerton, with the result of increasing the membership to a healthy 33, singing at the Christmas concert at St Michael’s Church in Somerton on 10 December 2016. The concert was well attended and featured selected choruses from Handel’s ‘Messiah’ in the first half and readings and carols in the second part.
The plan was to hold a spring concert in April 2017, however learning and singing Chilcott’s ‘Little Jazz Mass’ and Rutter’s ‘Feel the Spirit’ proved too challenging for some members, so the concert was cancelled. We did receive some good publicity when, on 2 April 2017, BBC Radio Somerset ‘Clueless’ programme presenter visited at the end of their programme. The choir had gathered in the Parish Rooms in Somerton and a few members were interviewed by the BBC before the choir sang ‘Oh when the Saints’ live on air.
Sadly Elaine decided not to continue with the choir so we had to go through the recruitment process again. We were fortunate to acquire the services of Graham Coatman who had recently moved to the South West from Yorkshire where he had directed the Leeds Guild of Singers for 17 years, amongst his other national and international musical responsibilities. At his suggestion Mid Wessex Singers held their first ever Come and Sing Day on 17 October 2017 at Long Sutton Village Hall. Featuring music by Mozart, Monteverdi and Morten Lauridsen, it was a very successful and profitable day attended by 40 people.
Morten Lauridsen’s ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ featured at the Christmas concert in st Michael’s Church together with Graham’s own arrangement of ‘Gaudete’. The church was full with an audience appreciative of both the music and the free refreshments. ‘Celebrations in Spring’ was the title of the concert in April 2018, with music from renaissance to baroque, including a favourite of the choir, Faure’s ‘Cantique de Jean Racine’. The choir was accompanied by a baroque ensemble and welcomed a guest soprano, a student about to graduate from Bath Spa University.
Graham had been keen to hold a summer concert, but as the choir normally had a break after the spring concert until September, it was agreed to have a more informal summer term with a performance of lighter music to just invited family and friends at a ‘Summer Soiree’. This was held at Somerton Court, the beautiful home of one of our members. The medley of music was composed of songs by Sondheim, Gershwin and Berlin as well as spirituals and African chants. The Summer Soiree has since become an established and enjoyable addition to the choir’s programme of events.
During 2018 the choir updated its image with a new logo and website (complete with a members section giving access to scores and sound files to help with home practice), a Facebook page and a dedicated choir e-mail address.
Graham’s ambitions for the choir continued into his second and third years as Musical Director. The 2018/19 year started on 4 September 2018 with a free taster session for prospective new members followed by a Come and Sing Day on 29 September featuring music for the choir’s first ever Autumn concert. Under the title ‘Freedom, we died for you’, the concert on 10 November at St Andrew’s Church, Curry Rivel, commemorated 100 years since the end of the First World War with music by Vivaldi, Stanford, and Parry up to more modern composers including Rutter and a medley of songs from the Great War. We were joined by members of the local British Legion for this very special and memorable occasion.
The 2018 Christmas concert ‘A Great and Mighty Wonder’ was held at the smaller venue of West Street Church in Somerton on 15 December and attracted a good audience. ‘A Grand Viennese Soiree’ was the theme of the Spring concert on 6 April 2019, recreating the convivial and informal events of Viennese life through the 19th century. Featuring Brahms’ Liebslieder Waltzes, music by Schubert and Johann Strauss, the singers, dressed in their finery, were accompanied by a string sextet.
Following a short break the choir had another informal summer term learning songs for the Summer Soiree. The theme for the 2019 Autumn concert was ‘Like a Singing Bird’ with music on the subject of our feathered friends. Long Sutton Village Hall was again the venue for the Come and Sing Day on 5 October to start learning Mozart’s ‘Sparrow Mass’, so named for the little chirruping figure heard in the violins in the Sanctus and Benedictus.
As this is not a piece much sung by choirs the day attracted new members keen to tackle an unfamiliar work. The concert itself, held in St Andrews Church, Curry Rivel, featured the Sparrow Mass plus other songs about birds, very much enjoyed by the choir, but sadly not attracting a full audience.
A more lighthearted Christmas concert ‘Christmas Spirit’ on 21 December was again in the cosy environment of West Street Church, with plenty of audience participation under Graham’s direction, bobbing up and down to ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’.
The year 2020 dawned with a full programme planned for the year. The choir members were particularly excited about learning and performing the Easter Messiah at the concert booked for 25 April. The Come and Sing ‘Easter Messiah’ Day attracted many singers and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Sadly we all know what happened in March 2020 and due to the pandemic the concert, along with other choir commitments such as singing at the VE Day celebration in Charlton Mackrell and at the Somerton Festival in July, was cancelled.
The committee decided to put the choir into ‘hibernation’ through 2020 awaiting such time as we could meet again to sing, but kept in regular contact with members. In September 2020 Graham and the choir committee agreed to part company. An AGM was held by Zoom in February 2021 and in the summer the committee secured the services of a new Musical Director, Alice Dicker, who was introduced to members at the Summer Soiree held in the grounds of Somerton Court.
The choir resumed on 7 September 2021 taking the precautions of spaced seating, good air flow and singing in visors or masks. The Christmas concert was held in St Michael’s Church to allow plenty of space for the choir and audience. On 7 May 2022, the Spring concert ‘Singing through Time’, held in Long Sutton Village Hall, started with a Gregorian chant from around 1050 and continued with songs through the centuries to the modern day with a medley of songs from ‘Les Miserables’. Alice encouraged members of the choir to sing solos and this has now become a feature of our concerts.
‘A Song for Christmas’, the concert in December 2022, contained a mixture of American pieces, such as ‘Rudolph’ and ‘Winter Wonderland’, the gorgeous ‘Adam Lay Ybounden’ and a festive poem, written by choir member, Julia, and set to music by Alice. Also featured was ‘Still, Still the Night’ written by Andrew and Patrick Hawes for the Self Isolation Choir (now Choir of the Earth), the on-line choir formed at the beginning of the Covid lockdown in 2020. A memorable reading was given by David, dressed as an angel and holding a giant mobile phone. Some of the choir sang at the Langport Christmas lights switch-on, with the audience joining in.
Animals were the theme of the Spring 2023 concert with ‘Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo’ as the main piece, choir members James as Noah and Trevor as God and others singing the narrator’s lines. The full audience at Long Sutton Village Hall enjoyed ‘cabaret acts’ by choir members including solos, poems written by singers and the rendition of ‘Crocodile Rock’ led and accompanied by our three ukulele players.
And so into our 25th year, our third with Alice as Musical Director. ‘A Christmas Journey’ on 16 December 2023, demonstrated the choir’s growing confidence under Alice’s leadership with solos, quartets and unaccompanied singing, some beautiful pieces such as ‘Psalite Unigenito’, Rutter’s ‘All Bells in Paradise’ and ending with an hilarious encore of ‘Jingle Bells, Hallelujah’.
Since the pandemic our audience size has increased and St Michael’s was packed for our very special ‘A Silver Celebration’ to commemorate our 25 years of singing. Amongst the audience were two former Musical Directors and former choir members. The concert featured Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’, first performed by the choir 20 years previously under the directorship of Gawain Glenton, at Christmas 2007 with Iain Macleod-Jones and in April 2013 with Owain Park. Also featured was the first public performance of ‘My Beloved Spake’, a recent composition by Dorset based Matthew Coleridge who came along to our afternoon rehearsal to conduct us.
Throughout these years, apart from the Covid interruption, the choir has continued with community singing, such as in care homes and memory cafes. The recent tradition of a more informal summer season culminating in our Summer Soiree has highlighted the social strength of our little choir and the amount of talent amongst our members, from solo singers, poets, instrumentalists, comedians and the artistic skills of our current Chairperson, Pauline who paints the artwork for our posters and programme covers.
We are fortunate to be now entering our 26th year and our fourth year with Alice as our MD and look forward to the next 25 years of singing!