Once upon a time….(as all good stories start):
Westbury Singers started out as The Top Note Adult Choir in 1989. Its genesis is connected with the children’s singing lessons, which were given by Teresa Williams.
Teresa was playing the piano for a Dancing School in Westbury. She was soon also giving piano and singing lessons in her own right. As it was difficult to find suitable premises, Jane Beazer offered her piano and dining room as a facility. A girls’ choir was soon started and the parents of the children got to know each other whist waiting to collect their offspring. These parents requested Teresa to form a singing group for adults. There were some 15 members that formed the basis of that adult choir which was the start of what would become Westbury Singers.
Teresa Williams, the conductor was a very accomplished musician, in singing and piano, but at the time she had never been a conductor or musical director of an adult choir. She created her own atmosphere and could only be “one of us.”
Teresa played on a portable keyboard and the conditions for the choir were cramped. The aim of The Top Notes was to put on several concerts each year and give the money to charity. The Top Note adult choir contributed to these concerts as required. Christmas Carol singing, concerts at Christmas and Easter became the basis of the calendar. In the Summer, the Junior Choir generally undertook a full-scale production of a musical and so the Adult Choir were not required.
The parents soon supported the adult choir in its own right, often joining the choir. Socially we were very good, and BBQs at the houses of Jane Beazer and John Stringer did no harm to the bonding process. There was always a Christmas social function as well, usually in January.
Times moved on and after about three years, the choir outgrew Jane’s dining room and a room in the Westbury on Trym Methodist Church Hall was rented for its practices. We had started to develop our own following but we were still part of the bigger choir set-up until we started performing our own concerts. At this point we invited some of the children to perform along side the adult choir as soloists.
In 1994, Teresa announced that she was to leave the choir. She and her family returned to her roots in America and we wished her well. We now understand that she teaches singing in Salt Lake City. However, the members decided that they wanted the choir to carry on.