Registered Charity Number 119561
A friendly, welcoming, non-auditioned choir based in Warminster, Wiltshire.*
*
Nigel Perrin - Honorary President
We have around sixty members who rehearse each Tuesday evening. We perform two major concerts each year, usually featuring the main choral classics but also including lesser known byways of the choral repertoire. We also perform contemporary music, including world premiers of commissioned works. In our concerts we are supported by professional soloists and instrumentalists.
Thomas Mottershead - Director of Music
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Rehearsals take place on Tuesday evenings 7.30 at Christ Church, Weymouth Street, Warminster BA12 9NS
Come and try choral singing with us. You can attend three rehearsals before your subscription is due so you have nothing to lose! Contact membership@athenaeumsingers.com
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"Singing in a choir is the most life-affirming experience. It gives you that fire in your belly that makes you want to do more" Elton John.
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Bob Chilcott with our M D Thomas Mottershead at our Chilcott Fest
We're on the box!
A small group of the choir were involved in recording for an episode of Escape to the Country. This was aired on BBC 1 on Tuesday 28th March at 3.00pm and is available on iplayer.
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* Concert Review 26th November Concert 'A Feast of Mozart and Schubert'
* Air Ambulance Press Release with Photographs
* Concert Review for our Haydn / Vaughan Williams performance - available here
Jubilee Gems Programme:
Music to celebrate from
Handel’s Coronation Anthems,
Geilo’s Evening Prayer
and Thomas Hewitt Jones’, ’In our Service’
composed specifically for the Platinum Jubilee.
Then Flanders and Horovitz’s witty and entertaining
‘Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo’
Members of The Athenaeum Singers committee were treated to a fascinating insight into the workings of The Wiltshire Air Ambulance at their base in Semington last week. They were shown the Bell 429 helicopter used by the service with a paramedic explaining the equipment carried to perform their life saving interventions and one of the pilots revealing some of the technology involved in flying the machine.
The visit was an opportunity for the Singers to present a cheque for £417.42 which was raised as a retiring collection from the Carol Concert performed in December at Christ Church, Warminster. Community fund raising is an important source of funding for the Air Ambulance which does not receive any direct government funding but requires around £11,000 a day to operate - £4 million
annually. The service is tailor made to the needs of Wiltshire and Bath and the helicopter can reach anywhere in the county within 11 minutes flying time. It can deliver patients to the major trauma centres of Bristol, Southampton and Oxford within 15 minutes.
The paramedic explained that equipment, such as anaesthesia, a ventilator and a defibrillator, is carried in a portable backpack, ready to be carried to the patient’s side to commence treatment. The paramedics are not only specially trained in critical care skills but also have to provide navigation and in flight support to the pilot. The pilot displayed the specialist equipment of the helicopter including navigation and night flying capacity to cope with most eventualities, but explained that the biggest danger they face is from people flying drones and using lasers who do not understand the dangers they pose to the Air Ambulance.
The crew comprises the pilot and either two paramedics or a single paramedic and a critical care consultant doctor, depending on the nature of the incident. On average it is called to three incidents every day, attended by either helicopter or two rapid response vehicles which are based at the site. It is operational for up to 19 hours a day, every day of the year. This is an outstanding resource serving the needs of our county and one we are proud to support.
DEC appeal fund for Ukraine.
The retiring collection after our April concert raised £599.45 for this appeal. Around half of this was from donations from choir and orchestra for the yellow and blue ribbons we wore. Thank you to everyone.
Fauré Concert 16th October 2021 - Click to enlarge
Charles covered the 68 miles to complete the flight on Thursday 6th June. What an achievement!
Click here to go to Charles' page.
To hear Charles Style's BBC Wiltshire inview re his flight, or click on this link: https://youtu.be/FP6KyyOwW6c
Click on the spaces below to see photographs of Charles on the last leg of his flight.