Community choir launched in villages

10 November 2009

A choir formed from residents of the six Woodbridge villages near Malmesbury gave its first performance on Saturday 7 November.

Its leader was Theresa Lowe, a music teacher who is part of Trinity's rural context group. Theresa (conducting the choir in Lea Church in the photo above) gathered and trained the 40-strong Woodbridge Festival Chorus, as well as children from the local primary school, for the performance of Graham Kendrick's 'worship musical' Crown Him. All six villages were represented in the Chorus; a quarter of the participants had never sung in a choir before. 

Theresa is training as a lay minister; her husband Jonathan is a Trinity ordinand. The musical was one event in a week of special activities organised by the students and church members to introduce local residents to the churches and to the Christian faith. 

Response to the musical from choir and audience was enthusiastic. One parent commented that her daughter had been ‘a little dubious at first but came home "buzzing" after each practice - not an easy thing to achieve in a teenager!' ‘Many congratulations to you for your tremendous energy, enthusiasm, effort and talent,' wrote another; ‘it was such a happy experience.'

‘People have come together, united by singing and enthusiasm and barriers have been broken down. There is a spirit of unity which was not there before the birth of The Woodbridge Festival Chorus,' says Jonathan.

They are keen to keep on singing. People have been asking, ‘Can we please carry on meeting after the concert? We don't want to stop singing together.'