noteworthy.
The Newsletter of Stirling City Choir
October 2009
Sad News
Although most people connected with the choir will know by now, it is with great sadness that we announce the death of our chairman, Maxwell Craig, on Saturday 26th September 2009. Ian Richardson became acting Chairman until our AGM on Tuesday 6th October, and agreed to continue in the post for a further year at the AGM.
Chairmans Message
At Maxwell’s memorial service I was struck again by just what a remarkable man he was. The list of his activities and concerns was long, but it was the character of the man that shone through all that the various speakers said of him. The enthusiastic, kind and gently humorous man they described fitted well with my own limited experience of him as a member, and chairman, of Stirling City Choir. We will miss him. Thanks to all who came to sing and especially to Jill for coming through from Fife. We sang well and made a significant contribution to a very moving service.
Excellent rehearsals of our Christmas music are ongoing under Jill, with Flora at the piano. I can tell by the happy faces and good attendance that the choir is settled and content. It’s a good base on which to build as we move into a new era of the choir’s history. Jill’s plan for the Spring Concert is Mozart’s Trinity Mass KV167, Durufle’s Requiem and perhaps Haydn’s In Sanae et Vanae Curae - a short, but dramatic work lasting about seven minutes. This will depend, I expect, on how hard we work learning the music!
With the AGM over, your new committee is now in place. I say new, but there are too many familiar faces on it. We must have new blood and in particular, someone to assist with the secretarial work. Anne is now going into her fifth year! As David Aitken said at the AGM, we should remember Maxwell’s example. Hands on involvement is what keeps clubs and organisations going. Our music and our singing together gives all great pleasure, but it needs some more involvement to keep it going week to week.
Remember, keep watching the conductor and enjoy your singing!
Ian Richardson
Hello from our new Conductor
Firstly, many thanks to you all for your kindness in these early weeks of my appointment and for being so welcoming. I am so happy to be working with you and look forward to a really successful and rewarding year of music-making together. Some of you have been asking what I do with the rest of my life apart from Tuesday evenings?!...
Much of my time is spent in the Music Centre at St. Andrews University where I am music consultant; I also teach clarinet and saxophone there, teach on the academic modules and am co-director of the the student opera group.
Outwith the university I conduct a small a capella choir ‘The Priory Singers’ in the East Neuk of Fife on Monday evenings. Conducting my own orchestra ‘The Heisenberg Ensemble’ takes a lot of preparation for three concerts a year.
In my spare time I love to travel around Scotland, visiting the areas I haven’t been to before. I live in the country just outside Wormit in Fife on a building site which Alan and I have been renovating for the last ten years. We are hoping that one year it will cease to be a building site and become a real home, like most people have! Watch this space…
Jill Craig
Committee Members 2009/2010
Chairman - Ian Richardson
Secretary - Anne Montgomerie
Treasurer - Anne Massie
Assistant Treasurer - Sarah Lamont
Concert Secretary - Ian Richardson
Librarian - Claire Whewell
Soprano Reps - Gill Nunn and Ann Lees
Alto Reps - Eleanor Phillips and Mairi Russell
Tenor and Bass Reps - Stuart Anderson and Graham Reed
A Project In The Making…
Peter Sutherland is researching the history of the choir, looking at Stirling Observer archives, library references and our own programmes. He would be particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has knowledge of the choir before 1986, and can be contacted on 822912 or by email.
A NOTE ABOUT Noteworthy
Suggestions, comments, or articles are welcome, though contributions may have to be edited. Any items for the next edition should be submitted to Sarah Lamont by 31st December2009
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