A change at the helm:

 

The early part of 1995 saw the members searching for a new musical director. After a period of meeting informally in pubs ( purely to keep together until someone would take us on, you understand ), our then Secretary John Todd asked if the Music Director of the Baptist Church here in Westbury would consider the role. We were thus able to appoint Paul Seath as our new conductor. During the period before Paul was appointed we achieved one major feat and that was that almost all the existing choir membership stayed together whilst we were looking for a musical director.  During this period we were unable to put on any concerts.

 

Paul is a well-known local singer and church choirmaster and we eventually moved to Westbury on Trym Baptist Church for rehearsals.  Choir size and membership was growing fast. When Paul started, he had the basis of a choir to work with.  It was enthusiastic and membership was about 15. Paul encountered all sorts of new experiences including trying to take e rehearsal with a tap dancing class in the room above !

 

The early years from 1995 witnessed an immediate improvement in the singing quality.  Numbers and members started to increase and the structure of a committee was formed.  We commissioned a logo in our new name of Westbury Singers and which, as a “brand image”, has had much to do with the success of the choir. 

 

In 1996, we made our first major venture.  We auditioned for an HTV singing competition, open to all choirs.  This was held at St George’s, Brandon Hill and taxed us on two fronts. Firstly, the majority of the choir had not done anything like this before and secondly, the songs which we had chosen to sing had to be sung without music and from memory.  We did not win the competition, but it was good fun.  Many witnessed the nerves of hanging around both before and after….nervous smiles and not a lot to say.

 

The next few years were spent in consolidating what we had. We made many mistakes, such as turning up for one concert in Cotham, with only three people in the audience – and they were family of one of our singers.  There were obvious lessons to be learned and most of us took on board that this type of situation would not happen again.