Out shopping on Saturday morning, I bumped into a member of the Paragon Singers putting up a poster among various other posters for musical events, and we had a short conversation. Thinking afterwards about forthcoming choral concerts, I realised that most of the concert-giving choirs in Bath have as far as I know had the same conductor for at least the last 15 years. (My own time in Bath doesn’t go this far back but I believe I’m right.)
What causes this stability (if that’s the right word for it)? Bristol choirs seem in general to have a higher turnover of musical directors. I think it must be that once people get here they aren’t in a hurry to leave. And apart from moving away there is little reason to stop conducting your choir until you finally become too old to do so. As an example of how long people can go on, Stephen Wilkinson is about to step down from the William Byrd Singers in Manchester at the age of 90.
A change is afoot. The Chantry Singers will disband after their Bach festival in autumn 2010. I’ll probably write about this in another item.