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Community choir musical director Fiona Clarke.

SALISBURY Community Choir is saying a sad farewell to musical director Fiona Clarke.

Fiona, under whose inspirational leadership membership has quadrupled to more than 160, will bow out on a high note after the choir's appearances at Salisbury International Arts Festival and the Wales Millennium Centre in June.

After ten years during which she has taken the choir to Germany, Paris, Poland, South Africa and New York, she hopes to pursue other interests and devote more time to her home life. Fiona joined the choir in 1998, five years after it was formed by a group who had met through an evening class called Singing for Non-Singers.

Former trustee John Elliott, one of the committee who worked closely with her on last year's Cape Town tour, recalled: "When I joined the choir the highlight of the year was singing outside Waitrose at Christmas.

"She has lifted it from relative obscurity to its present position as one of the leading choirs in the Salisbury area through a combination of enormous enthusiasm and a fundamental belief that the auditioning process simply deters the timid. She has opened up singing to people like myself who would never have done it otherwise.

"She has been absolutely amazing and we will be very sad to see her go."

The choir will now be looking for a new leader to tackle its next major project. Bob Chilcott has been commissioned to write a work which will receive its world premiere in the Cathedral as the opening event of next year's festival.

10:22am Thursday 1st May 2008

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