2010 will be the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Chagford Singers.
In 1990 the local parish church choir was augmented by ‘singing friends’ at a concert on Saturday 27/10/1990, with Donald Cashmore directing from the organ. The concert consisted of excerpts from Haydn’s Creation, 3 Mozart pieces, an organ piece, two Pie Jesu (Faure and Andrew Lloyd Webber) and Mendelssohn’s Hear my prayer. After a short interval it concluded with Vivaldi’s Gloria. It was noted the singers came from various nearby locations.
Some months later (Jan 1991) the Chagford Singers had officially become a separate entity. The plan was for two concerts per year, each to be done once in Chagford and once in Moretonhampstead or another venue.
Even then the choir was looking for extra members, especially tenors and basses, as always.
There are a small number of the original singers who still sing in the choir.
Some programmes engaged professional soloists (one of these is still a wonderful soloist, whom we invite from time to time) and some used soloists from within the choir.
Another longstanding associate, our rehearsal accompanist, Jonathan Watts, first joined us as an organ soloist early in 1995.
There has always been a balance between lesser known and well-known pieces, to maintain the audience’s interest.
Concerts then seemed to be planned for May and November, whereas nowadays we plan for three (Nov / December, Easter and Summer).
Within the first year the concert programme included adverts for various local businesses: some no longer exist, but others are still flourishing. Their continued support is very valuable to us, and much appreciated.
From its earliest days the Singers have held fundraising coffee mornings in Endecott House. This is very important and enables us to have more orchestral concerts.
The range of music covered has always been wide, from Bach, through Baroque and Romantic through to 20th century music, not only church or sacred music but also folksongs or ballads. Indeed it had the honour of giving the WORLD premiere of ‘A procession of Carols’ by Philip Lane.
The Singers have joined with other groups such as the Torbay Singers and Sinfonia, as well as singing as part of the Two Moors Festival.
The first Musical Director resigned and left the choir late in 1995, saying ‘any singer should be proud to belong to the choir’. Our next conductor was Ron Smith who stayed for about 8 years, presiding over a number of recorded concerts, including the world premiere.
The current conductor, Christopher Fletcher, joined just in time for the December 2003 concert. He has widened our repertoire and is planning for our anniversary concert next year, already.
Newspaper articles (kept by one of our current singers, also a founding member, Liz Cheeseman) show that Chagford Singers were noted for their standard of excellence and had attracted a large and loyal following at concerts.
Looking back over these 20 years it seems there are some things, which have changed little, as we are still keen to maintain or improve on a high standard of performance and to communicate with the audience.
Come and see and hear for yourselves.
We plan to hold all our next season concerts in Chagford, so watch out for the local publicity.
For more information contact:
Jane Saunders (Chairman) 01647 432195 Frances Spencer (Membership Secretary) 01822 613279 We start rehearsals again after the summer on Wed. 2/9/09
