In September 2004 Ian MacLeod Jones became Musical Director.  This started a long association with musicians from Wells Cathedral as Musical Directors with access to accompanists, soloists and instrumentalists.  Founder member, Janet Hayter, remembers that time.  ‘The first Christmas Concert led by Ian Macleod Jones from Wells was on 4th December 2004 when we sang Fantasia on Christmas Carols by Vaughn Williams and Christmas excerpts from Handel’s Messiah.  This was when we first met Naomi Marshall the soprano soloist.’ Naomi and Ian were married a few years later.

The choir secured sponsorship from Somerton Community Association  towards the costs of one concert in a 2 year cycle.  This was used towards the costs of 7 professional soloists and the Pfretzner Quartet in the performance of Dido and Aeneas in May 2005.  Further funding was secured from Awards for All in 2005 to support professional instrumentalists and soloists  in two concert in 2006, one of which “An English Serenade’ featured music by Purcell, Warlock and Vaughn Williams.

Outside of concert, Mid Wessex Singers participated in community events, such as Christmas singing in the shopping precinct in Somerton.  At the Somerton Railway Centenary event members dressed in costume of the period to perform Edwardian songs.

The registration of Mid Wessex Singers as a charity in 2007 led to more community singing in care homes, sheltered accommodation and memory cafes.  Being a registered charity has helped with raising additional funds for the choir, through Gift Aid, more grants and other fundraising initiatives including sponsored walks, one member along Hadrian’s Wall and two the Parrett Trail.

Ian MacLeod Jones remained the Musical Director until December 2011.  There were many memorable highlights during that time ranging from classical choral works including Rossini’s ‘Petite Messe Solenelle’, Stainer’s ‘The Crucifixion’ and Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’ through to fun pieces such as ‘The Wind in the Willows’, Kenneth Grahame’s story set to music by John Rutter and ‘Summer Sunday’ by Joseph Horowitz all featuring an array of soloists with connections to music at Wells Cathedral.

Ian, on his departure, introduced Lucy Deakin, an associate of his at Wells Cathedral, as our next MD. The Spring concert on 31 March 2012 was in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee and featured Mozart’s ‘Coronation Mass’ and music from the Coronation.  

This was Lucy’s only concert with the choir as, following a summer term of fun singing she moved to Manchester.  We were pleased to welcome Lucy back as a guest at our Silver Celebration concert in May this year.  She has fond memories of the choir as a very happy group of singers.

The beneficial link with Wells Cathedral continued for a further four years when we were fortunate to secure the services of each of the Senior Organ Scholars for the academic year as our conductor.  This started with the immensely talented Owain Park, organist singer, conductor and composer and only 19 at the time.  The 2012 Christmas concert included one of Owain’s compositions ‘Let Christians all with Joyful Mirth’ and his arrangement of ‘While Shepherds Watched’.  The Spring concert the following year under Owain’s directorship, featuring Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’ and John Rutter’s ‘Requiem’ sung by the choir and Pachabel’s Canon played by the orchestra, was highly memorable. With structural alterations taking place at St Michael’s Church the concert was held in St Mary’s Church, Huish Episcopi.  We had never seen a venue so tightly packed with audience before – we do not know to this day whether it was the popularity of the music or the attraction of our young, dynamic Musical Director.

It was with regret we said farewell to Owain who left to take up his place at Trinity College, Cambridge.  In September 2013 we welcomed Jeremy Woodside from New Zealand who was the new Senior Organ Scholar at Wells Cathedral.  We had met Jeremy previously when he played the organ for us while he was Junior Organ Scholar at Wells.

Our Christmas concert, a mix of traditional and more modern secular pieces included the Advent Responsery set to music by Jeremy.  A couple of more light hearted readings recommended a Christmas cake recipe (with rather a lot of brandy involved) followed by ‘The Diet after Christmas’.

‘Music Ancient and Modern’ was the title of the concert in the Spring of 2014.  The ‘Ancient’ part of the repertoire demonstrated the wonderful world of Baroque music with Bach’s ‘Wachet aug, ruf uns die Stimme’ and Purcell’s ‘Come, ye sons of art’. Modern pieces were by Bob Chilcott and Eric Whitacre, whose five Hebrew love songs were quite a challenge in terms of wrapping our tongues around the Hebrew words.

In September Jeremy took up his new post as Senior Organ Scholar at Westminster Abbey.  Jeremy will be remembered for his quiet manner as well as his enthusiasm for the weekly wine raffle. We then welcomed Nicholas Freestone as our new MD, bringing with him a wealth of experience both as an organist and in training and conducting choirs.  

We appreciated his quiet, firm manner and his encouragement throughout his time with us.  The programme for the Christmas concert ranged from baroque to contemporary music, charting the passage from Advent to Epiphany.

In April 2015 we returned to the beautiful St Mary’s Church in Huish Episcopi for a very moving concert ‘War and Peace’, a commemoration of the centenary of the First  World War, featuring the choral suite form Sir Karl Jenkins’ ‘The Armed Man’ and Faure’s Requiem – a very special occasion that has stayed in our memories.

Having said our farewells at our Spring Social, Nicholas moved on at the end of his term in Wells to St Alban’s Cathedral and now is at Worcester Cathedral.

Bryan Anderson from the USA was, in September 2015, the final Wells Senior Organ Scholar to become our Musical Director. He brought with him not only his wealth of talent and experience but also the beautiful soprano voice of his wife Julia who boosted that section of the choir.  

Selections from Bach’s ‘Christmas Oratorio’ featured in the Christmas repertoire along with traditional carols and seasonal readings. Bryan introduced us to some traditional American music alongside British music for our Spring concert on 7 May 2016 in Huish Episcopi.  That was probably the first time many of us had sung the American National Anthem, but the most challenging piece was ‘Ching-a-ring Chaw’, a minstrel song adapted by Aaron Copland – the Ching-a-ring Chaw representing the strumming of a banjo.

With Bryan and Julia’s departure to Houston Texas came the end of the ‘Wells Cathedral era’.  Although we had benefited so much from the sequence of young, talented musicians as our directors over the years, it became increasingly difficult to negotiate their time with us away from their core duties at Wells and we usually only knew who would be our MD a month in advance of starting our Autumn term. Due to this uncertainty, member turnover was  becoming high, particularly in the tenors and basses, leaving us very thin on the ground in those sections.  We agreed we needed more stability and hence started searching for a more permanent Musical Director – but that is the next instalment!

Throughout this long era the Mid Wessex Singers remained a very friendly, welcoming choir with many social as well as musical events ranging from Christmas dinners, Spring socials through to guided summer walks.