Wiltshire community comes alive through song (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Wiltshire community comes alive through song

12:01pm Thursday 4th February 2010

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)

A hundred people from across the county who never thought they would sing in public are lifting their voices in song thanks to community choir organisation Sing Alive.

Sian Penlington, a former head of communications for Wiltshire County Council, has found a new career running the choirs, which operate without musical scores or an accompanist.

Miss Penlington, 47, from Winsley, has two choirs operating in Devizes, one in Westbury and one in Bradford on Avon. The choirs have a wide mix of ages and, although there are more women members, men also turn up.

Miss Penlington said: “I was looking for a career change when I saw an advert for a community choir leaders’ training course. As soon as I started on the course, I thought, this is it. This brings together everything I can do.”

She started her first choirs in September 2008 and her network of four choirs now involve over 100 singers, whom she brings together two or three times a year for a concert.

The daytime Devizes choir was so popular she was urged to start an evening one, which rehearses at St Andrew’s Church hall on Thursdays.

I was inveigled into joining in last Thursday evening with the 22 local people who had shelled out £36 for the six-week course, and it was an eye opener.

As there is no sheet music or accompanist, Miss Penlington uses a rotary pitch pipe around her neck to give everyone their starting note.

She patiently and painstakingly takes each section – soprano, alto, tenor and bass – through their musical part, which they learn by ear.

The result was quite stunning and the smiles on the faces at the end of the music reflected the joy of being part of that all-embracing sound.

Terry Krill of Devizes is one of those who signed up for the course. He said: “We don’t read music, there’s no audition so you don’t have that embarrassment of failure. You all start off the same.”

Jane Scorer, a member of Devizes Festival committee and the parochial church council at St John’s, has never sung in a choir before. She said: “If someone had told me I would be standing up and singing in public as we did before Christmas, I wouldn’t have believed them.”

Miss Penlington took us through the stirring Welsh anthem When The Coal Comes From the Rhondda, the haunting Irish Blessing, the Zulu work song Schoscholoza, the sadly beautiful Lowlands and finished off with Sister Tharp’s Gospel rocker Up Above My Head.

Sing Alive’s new term begins on February 25. Details at www.singalive.org, email info@singalive.org or ring 07809 566021.

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(0)