Memories from some of our singers


Annie Woodward – Former Chair, Secretary and second soprano

I joined WCFC in 1993, and until about 1995 we rehearsed in the music department of Winchester College under the directorship of Francis Wells.  We were ‘expelled’ from the Music School I think when they began to refurbish it.  Our next rehearsal space was in St. Michael’s Church.  This church, which belongs to Winchester College, provided many challenges, such as broken windows, virtually non-existent heating, uncomfortable pews and-……an awful piano!

Eventually, this too came to an end when Francis retired from Winchester College and we were obliged to find an alternative rehearsal space.  This gave the committee huge headaches as we were a large choir of around 80-90 singers and, apart from schools, there were no places large enough to rehearse.  After stints at King’s. School and later at Henry Beaufort School ,we settled on Littleton Millennium Hall, where we have been rehearsing comfortably for many years.

Winchester had twinned with Laon in France and Giessen in Germany and the Twinning Society encouraged our choir to connect with choirs in both these towns.  Shortly after I arrived in Winchester, the Laon choir, La Villanelle were being welcomed and hosted by members of WCFC who had visited Laon previously.  I remember a lavish reception in the Guildhall with the Mayor and much wine flowing!  In 1994 we visited Laon and were generously hosted by La Villanelle choir with a reception including dancing (!) and much singing and sight-seeing.  Other notable events were singing competitions in Jersey, Southampton and Portsmouth with ‘The Winchester Singers’ (the touring concert group of the WCFC) who also performed at many weddings and funerals, and the occasional charity event.

During my time at WCFC I found it an extremely sociable choir and a pleasure to sing with.  Everyone knew everyone and the ‘new member welcome party’ every October helped enormously, as did the AGM each year, which became more and more of a party!  Of course, things and people change but I’m sure WCFC will go forward with joy and singing for many years to come.

Tony Wootten – first tenor

I joined the WCFC in 2002, which means I have been a member for 20 years, or about 20% of the Choir’s existence.  There are a number of members whose length of service exceeds mine, some of them by considerable amounts, but I am the longest serving tenor.

So, in those twenty years – what have I seen?

Five Musical Directors, eighteen to twenty concerts, eighteen to twenty concerts combining with the other choirs that make up the Winchester and County Music Festival [now the Hampshire Choral Festival] (Don’t forget that Covid put paid to some), a dozen or so carol concerts, about a dozen Summer Sings, something like 800 rehearsals and two singing trips to Europe.

And what did I get from this?

Twenty years of one of the best aerobic exercises that exist; countless weekly sessions of mental and emotional stimulus; friendships in abundance, and the enormous joy and satisfaction gained from working as a member of a group, on a series of joint endeavours to try and reach an acceptable level in the reproduction and understanding of some of the greatest brainchildren produced by some of the greatest minds of the last five or six hundred years.

Any memorable moments?

Well of course there have been.  Many.  Too many to list but one stands out.  In one of the earliest concerts that I sang in, there was a particularly difficult entry for us to make, for which the conductor solemnly undertook to bring us in without fail.  On the night, lost in the complexities of the moment, he omitted to do so. In a quite staggering example of collective thought and discipline the choir recognized his omission one beat after the entry should have been made, remained silent for the first phrase, and came in with absolute precision and unanimity at the beginning of the second phrase.  A triumph, which probably only a choral singer can fully appreciate.  Not a soul in the audience knew anything was amiss.  And if they did, they didn’t let on!

Clare Shorter – first alto

I joined the choir in 1995 and these are some of my personal impressions of the history of the choir.

Francis Wells, in his role of Festival Chairman, gave us the opportunity of singing great choral works such as Dvorák’s Stabat Mater and Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius in the wonderful setting of Winchester Cathedral, in the May Festival concerts.  Francis’s last concert was a performance in New Hall, Winchester College, of Messiah in January 2002.  I was responsible for selling the tickets at the time and I have a distinct memory of worrying that we had sold more tickets than there were seats available.  I remember the number of 700 being passed!!  Luckily there were enough seats – just.

Our next conductor, Robert Fielding, embraced modern music, to my delight, and we sang a wider range of music which included John Rutter.  In 2008 the concert consisted of – apart from Vaughan Williams – music composed entirely by living composers!

Graham Kidd took over as conductor in 2011.  He further developed the singing ability of the choir and trained to sing a capella in concert!  Graham started informal “Summer Sing” programmes to enable us to explore music outside our usual repertoire, such as opera choruses, West Side Story, Africa origin music, madrigals and a host of other music. The newly established tradition of a Christmas concert in Littleton Hall, which is so popular with our member was developed, to the delight of the audience.  Year on year, he surprised us with how many people could play a keyboard at the same time thanks to the hands of Gilly Slot, our new regular accompanist, and their friends.  Graham created concert programmes from a wide range of music, sometimes with a smaller setting, requiring interesting instrumental ensembles.  In 2019 we performed a Baroque concert complete with a theorbo!

Ian Thompson – second bass

I joined the choir in September 1983, over 40 years ago. 

Throughout that time I have sung in more than 80 concerts both in the UK and Winchester’s twin towns, Giessen in Germany and Laon in France.  It has given me enormous pleasure, happy memories and enriched my life.  Some of us also sang in Jersey in an international competition.  Though we were not very successful, we had good parties!

My singing days are just about over though I wish the choir every future success.