Many thanks to Alexandra Stapleton and her colleagues at WINOL for this news item about our appearance on the performance stage at Winchester's Christmas Market. It was a chilly, last Tuesday in November.
Winchester News Online (WINOL) is a media outlet produced by students of the BA (Hons) Journalism at the University of Winchester.
Next up....
Rivers & Roads
Sunday, 4 February 2024
2:00pm 'til 5:00pm
at The Theatre Royal, Winchester
The Sarah Morgan Foundation is presenting a concert at the Theatre Royal in Winchester on Sunday 4 February 2024, 2pm ‘til 5pm. The concert celebrates the lives and work of Sarah Morgan and Paul Sartin and it features Winchester Community Choir and five other choirs from Hampshire.
​
If you're a choir member and perform on the day, admission is free.
​
If you're not performing and would like to be in the audience for this upbeat celebration, click the button below to go to the Box Office
Christmas Carols and Owls by Moonlight
The Hawk Conservancy Trust is a charity with a mission to conserve birds of prey and their habitats. The Trust's annual Christmas Carols and Owls by Moonlight is one of the Trust's most popular and important fundraising events of the year. Winchester Community Choir will be singing carols in the open air alongside the Trust's free-flying owls in the moonlight. Tom Morath from the Trust says, 'We have the most beautiful backdrop to this show in one of our three flying arenas at the Trust. It really is magical.'
​
Tuesday, 19 December 2023 from 7:00pm
at the Hawk Conservancy's Bird of Prey Centre, Sarson Lane, Andover, SP11 8DY
This is a two-day event. Winchester Community Choir performs on the Tuesday. Our friends from Salisbury Community Choir are there on Monday.
Tickets sold out
for this event
Memorial concert
4 February 2024 from 2:00pm to 5:00pm
at the Theatre Royal, Winchester
presented by THE SARAH MORGAN FOUNDATION
​
A concert featuring community choirs in and around Hampshire, to celebrate the lives of two fine musicians - Sarah Morgan, who co-founded Winchester Community Choir, and Paul Sartin leader of the Andover Museum Loft Singers. WCC will be performing.
More details will be announced soon.
Those people who like planning early for Christmas will want to get a festive choir concert in the diary now - before it's too late!
So, amongst other things, we've fixed dates for our 2023 Christmas Concert in Winchester and for Christmas Carols and Owls by Moonlight at the Bird of Prey Centre near Andover.
Here's a list of the key dates for the autum term 2023.
​
01
This is a title. Click here to edit.
01
01
01
01
This is a title. Click here to edit and add your own text.
02
01
01
01
This is a title. Click here to edit and add your own text.
03
01
01
01
This is an extra long title. Click here to edit and add your own text. It's easy.
04
01
01
Choir members can view the complete calendar of events in the MEMBERS area
June 2023
Thank you, Frank
If the poster image for our summer concert has a familiar look, it's because the artist Frank Parkinson Newbould created a style of poster design that is still fresh and imitated today. He worked for railway companies like the Great Western and cruise lines like Cunard in the inter-war years, producing works with a characteristic use of bold shapes and colours. He joined the War Office in 1942, where he produced the image we're using here. It's all about love of country and the pressing need to protect it as a safe haven for its people and those who sought refuge here. 'Worth fighting for' was the poster slogan.
​
Our summer concert lingers for a short while in this idyllic English landscape with songs from Orlando Gibbons, Sting and Ralph Vaughan Williams. But we quickly travel further afield, fittingly to the United States on 4 July, Independence Day. There will be blues, hymnody, shanties and a classic Elvis number from Blue Hawaii.
​
Here's a link to our Box Office...
Over the years, the choir has raised more than £40k for local causes. This summer we're raising funds for the Southampton & Winchester Visitors Group - volunteers who support refugees and asylum seekers.
These are links to our weekly emails to choir members. You're welcome to browse but the main purpose is to give rehearsal feedback and event arrangements for current members.
Carolyn Robson, our Music Director, spent January in New Zealand. She, and husband Paul Tabbush, were tutors at a six-day music summer school in Te Awamutu, near Hamilton on North Island. Then they went travelling down to South Island. Why wouldn't you?
Back at home in Farnham, Carolyn is busy refining the repertoire for the choir's spring and summer terms. We have a long lead time to our concert on 4 July. That's plenty of time to rehearse an eclectic mix of songs like the bluesy When I walk down the street, Fields of Gold from Sting, at least one sea shanty (no concert complete without one), and a reprise of traditional songs from the choir's 2017 album Come walk with me.
February 2023
If you're viiewing this page on a wide screen, you'll catch a glimpse of the lovely Doubtful Sound in the Fiordland region of New Zealand's South Island. Doubtful Sound is Carolyn's favourite NZ location and not a commentary on the choir's performance.
January 2023
Our spring term rehearsals kick off on Tuesday 17 January 2023, 7:30pm at the United Church
​
Our Music Director, Carolyn Robson, is working in New Zealand this month, but we have some talented and experienced choir leader standing in for her.
Ysanne Bonner is our choir leader on 17 January. We had a wonderful time with her last May when she led a rehearsal for us. The choir had never sung in so many different languages in a single rehearsal before. Maori, Ukrainian, Ghanaian and a (not defined) native American tongue. We didn’t get round to Da doo ron-ron (in English, partly!). That will have to wait for another session.
​
This time she'll tackle two very different songs with us: Bring me Little Water Silvy (attributed to Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter) and a pop song from the 60s, Happy Together, first recorded by American rock band The Turtles
On 24 and 31 January it will be the turn of Freya Tabbush to lead our rehearsals. Freya was a founding Music Director of Winchester Community Choir together with the late, great Sarah Morgan. That was back in 2005. Long-standing members of the choir are in for a bit of time travel. Newer members are in for a treat...
Freya Tabbush caught mid-song during
a lockdown performance on-line.
.jpeg)
December 2022
WCC’s Christmas concert on 13 December 2022 was called Sing out for Christmas.
The concert was a fundraiser for Trinity Winchester, which is one of the Mayor’s charity’s this year. Amelia Ashton, Trinity’s Vice Chair, was there to tell us about the work her organisation does in the city to provide vital practical and emotional support to over 650 people each year who are experiencing the effects of homelessness or vulnerability.
Amelia Ashton, skydiving to raise funds for Trinity. We gave her an easier gig!
The choir is delighted to tell you that our generous audience gave over £500 in the retiring collection, and we were able to top that up to a grand total of £750 from concert ticket sales. Many thanks!
​
Over the years the choir has raised more than £43,000 for local charities.