Caty Davis is a founder member of the choir. She has a strong musical background but had never conducted an adult choir before the Cholsey Community Choir was formed! She had her arm twisted at the first meeting of the choir and hasn't looked back since!
She works as a doctor at the Royal Berkshire Hospital so very occaisionally can't make a rehersal so Nick Griffin, the deputy musical director steps in and looks after things then!
Nick Griffin is also a founder member of the choir. He works as a secondary school teacher in Wheatley and his natural teaching ability shines through when he is in charge of rehersals! So no chatting at the back please!!!!
This was all Mark's great idea! After watching the BBC2 show "The Choir" with choir master Gareth Mallone, he decided that Cholsey needed it's own community choir. One notice in the parish magazine later and the Cholsey Community Choir was formed!!
With his superb organisational skills, Mark keeps us all on the straight and narrow and deals with the practicalities of the choir.
Cholsey Community Choir was formed in November 2009 when inspired by the BBC2 series, The Choir, Mark Gray (Choir Secretary) put a notice in the parish magazine inviting like minded potential singers to turn up to a metting at the scout hall! We were suprised when about 10 enthusiastic singers turned up and after singing our way through a few carols the Cholsey Community Choir was born! From these little acorns grew a twenty-strong community choir with members of all age groups. The choir has already had two well received public performances. Carols on the Forty in December and a recital at the Cholsey Free Church on the 24th April 2010.
The choir meets once a week, on Mondays at the Cholsey Free Church at 19.30. We ask for a £5 membership fee to put towards new sheet music and other expenses.
Our repertoire is wide-ranging and includes old favourites as well as new songs from all over the world. Although most pieces so far have been performed a cappella, we have recently twisted the arm of a village member to be our regular pianist! We started out singing in unison but are working on building our repertoire of 2 and 3 part harmony pieces.