There is always a slightly bare-boned feel to the beginning of an autumn term. Summer lingers on but its light is drowsy and pale. The bright colours of autumn eventually appear but do so at the price of barer and emptier branches. It is against this backdrop, however, that we have to somehow bring Christmas instantly to life from the very first rehearsal of term, when the nights are not yet dark enough to be cosy nor for Christmas lights to twinkle and glow.
And yet, week by week, we have been slowly cultivating an ever brighter and more vibrant Christmas in our rehearsal hall. What began as competently sung choruses of familiar chords has become a Christmas celebration proper, as George and Andy H have meticulously brought out all the jubilance and wonder in Bach’s celebratory Oratorio with their attention to the smallest details of phrasing, dynamics and tempo. Our Bach began the term as a beautiful bright evergreen but each week it has been adorned with more and more Christmas colour and festive sparkle, and there is no doubt that when we finally come to perform it in the Cathedral on a dark December night it will be a beautifully and spectacularly illuminated Christmas highlight.
And what do you know- there has already been a gift for us under the tree: a fantastic Duruflé Requiem workshop with Katherine Dienes-Williams at the helm! A special treat indeed and a wonderful glimpse of what’s in store for the Wayns in the future.
New members
We have been lucky enough this half term to add some new lights to the tree in form of some new members! We wish them our customary warm Wayns welcome!
Here they are to introduce themselves:
Jane Sherriff S1
Thank you all for your warm welcome. For those of you who do not know me, I first enjoyed singing with the Wayns in the eighties, under the direction of the late Martin Neary. I then pursued a career as a freelance soprano: - singing with professional choirs; a chorister for many years on the London Church Circuit; a consort singer and recitalist; and a soloist with choral societies throughout the South. A treasured choral memory is singing in a run of eight Fauré Requiems, joining the orchestra in the pit of the Royal Opera House, while the then new Kenneth MacMillan ballet was performed on stage. I stopped singing in London ten years ago, but for a while continued part time with diverse, self-accompanied recitals in local Care Homes. I continue to live in Winchester and, having brushed up my technique, hope I may once again find pleasure contributing to Waynflete concerts!
Amanda Wilson A1
I have spent my career working in music education, firstly as a secondary school teacher and latterly as a violin teacher for Hampshire Music Service. During my 15 years in Winchester I have played violin and viola in several local orchestras and chamber groups, but am relatively new to choral singing. I had a brief stint in Oxford Bach Choir in the late 1980’s and after a 35 year gap, I took the plunge and joined Winchester Philharmonic Choir in 2025.
I’ve heard the Wayns perform on many occasions and am delighted to have the opportunity to finally sing with the choir.
Thank you for the warm welcome.
Sophia Wheeler S2
I currently work as a full-time research chemist and live in Soberton. At school and university I played the oboe and was an enthusiastic member of a recorder consort, early music ensemble and various choral groups. Sadly work and family commitments put paid to hobby-music until 2020 when, encouraged my her son's music teacher, I returned to oboe lessons and started to seek out local ad hoc choral opportunities. Now that my son has reached the end of his choristership at Winchester Cathedral, I am ready to focus on a more regular choral opportunity and am very excited to embrace the challenge.
Oliver Morrell T1
I have been living in Winchester since September 2024, working at the Cathedral as one of the Sub-Organists. Although normally found in the organ loft, I do enjoy deputising in the Cathedral Choir from time to time!
I was a chorister at the King’s Chapel of the Savoy in London. Then, when I left school, I moved to Gloucester to sing in the Cathedral Choir for a year. I also had my first taste of performing in large choruses there, singing in the Three Choirs Festival Chorus and Gloucester Choral Society.
Since then, I have spent several years as an organ scholar — first at Durham Cathedral (whilst studying music at the University), and then at St Albans Cathedral. I also used to accompany the St Albans Bach Choir, so it's quite refreshing to be sat amongst the tenors for a change!
Bryony Banfield S1
I have been interested in singing since a very young girl where I would record hours of me singing onto tape cassettes for my own radio show that I would share with family members. I attended stage school as a teen, joined a gospel choir at university and then have been a member of 4 different military wives choirs through my employment as a Nursing Officer in the British Army. I am looking forward to being a part of the Wayns!
Funke Akiboye A2
I’m living in Hyde and returning to the Wayns after almost 20 years. In the interim I have continued my singing journey from choral singing to musical theatre with some solo performances, competitions and collaborative composition.
Music has been interspersed and at times incorporated into a career in medicine and research in Diabetes.
I look forward to making some friends in the group as I come full circle singing with the Wayns.
Roland’s Sponsored Walk for Ukraine
During this half term some of us supported our bass Roland Matthews in his sponsored walk with Romsey Ukraine Support Group in aid of their Generator Appeal. Roland himself helped to set up the support group after hosting a young mother and her daughter from Odesa, who were part of the first wave of Ukranian refugees in 2022. The Group put on various events promoting Ukraine and its culture. “Our most prominent activity to date has been to make trench candles from old food tins and recycled cardboard and candle wax, which are a valued source of light and warmth in the long Ukrainian winters,” says Roland. “To date we have made around 4000 candles which are sent out to Ukraine on one of the regular overland transports organised by New Forest for Ukraine.”
Here is a photo of Roland and his walking compatriots and a poster which gives a little more information about the Generator Appeal.
If you missed donating, the JustGiving page remains open at https://justgiving.com/team/generators-for-ukraine
Kate’s Choral Summer
Many of us will have returned to rehearsals after the summer with some rather well rested vocal chords. Not so our intrepid choir secretary, Kate Spencer, who took the opportunity in the summer to attend a course with the Cambridge Choral Academy!
Here she is to tell us all about this amazing experience:
So there I was one late May day thinking about no singing through the summer. I just decided to look up Choral Courses on the internet and found one in Cambridge. It was already full but said one could still apply. I did and then, before I knew it, I had been accepted!
That is how I found myself at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge on 26th July. I was joining the Cambridge Choral Academy for 7 hectic days of singing, training and fun. It was led by Edward Wickham, Director of Music at St Catharine’s. We had at least two 2- hour rehearsals a day, daily 45-minute voice training, an individual ‘lesson’ (she got me down to a bottom F and up to a top C# - not sure about the quality though) and over the week we sang 3 complins and 2 evensongs in 4 different college chapels, led by their distinguished directors, each having a different style and approach to what we were singing – it certainly kept us on our toes. The hardest part for me was trying to decipher the plainsong chanting – should I go up or down when one note was on top of another……? There was an end-of-course ‘concert’ followed by a party with some very accomplished musicians performing all sorts of party pieces from show music to opera. I sat quietly and admired the talent.
Explanation of the discovery of a 'new' Purcell work and how it was reimagined from the scraps that were available
The food was plentiful as was the wine in the evenings. It wasn’t all ‘work’ though. We had a punt on the Cam, stopping outside King’s and singing madrigals – one per punt. We had a wine tasting evening, a tour of a library to look at some original scores, a talk on a newly discovered piece of music by Purcell and a formal dinner.
Punting and madrigals on the banks of Kings College, umbrellas for the heat, not the rain!
The week was one of the hottest of the summer and accommodation was in student rooms so sleep was a little challenging. The 47 other participants were all very nice. For some this was their second or third visit to the course. Over half were from the USA which added a certain ‘liveliness’ to the week (lots of vocal whooping!) – so un-English!
What did I take away from the week? New skills and an appreciation of different types of music; great memories; friends and, above all, a renewed confidence in my singing and in my ability to do something on my own. Ian beware; I might get a taste for that!
Would I recommend it? Yes, I would!
Kate with her Choral Academy colleagues
Want to know more? https://cambridgechoral.com/
And finally- Read All About It!
Thanks to our programme notes writer Duncan Eves, we have some great half term-holiday reading in the form of these fascinating notes on Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. However many times you’ve sung this piece there will definitely be at least one gem of information in about it in Duncan’s notes that you didn’t know before (and for those less familiar, his notes are a veritable gold mine!) You can read Duncan’s notes here: Bach Christmas Oratorio choir note
Remember, remember, see you on 5th November- ready to start rehearsals with a bang!
