Military Wives Choir celebrates first anniversary (From Salisbury Journal)

Military Wives Choir celebrates first anniversary

2:51pm Monday 14th January 2013 in News

THE Salisbury Plain Military Wives Choir is celebrating its first anniversary on Saturday.

The choir began as a community project for women attached to the military and a first meeting was held at Kiwi School in Bulford on January 19 last year.

One year on, there are now 120 members and the choir has performed at a huge number of events, including during the Queen’s visit to Salisbury in May.

“It’s been an extraordinary adventure,” said choir member Heidi Cox. “We’ve done so much and the support from the general public has been overwhelming. We as a group of women have formed a strong bond, all brought about by singing and a common sense of purpose – to raise a smile and give something back to our community.”

The choir was also chosen to perform to a crowd of 30,000 people for the Wiltshire 2012 Festival of Celebration at Hudson’s Field in July to celebrate the Olympics.

And other highlights include appearing on BBC1’s The One Show and ITV’s Surprise Surprise, performing at the Houses of Parliament, to a packed audience at Salisbury’s City Hall, and at a number of local community events including homecomings.

Musical director Susan Raeburn, who headteacher of Kiwi School in Bulford, said: “Our choir has had the most amazing opportunities to perform at very high profile events in the last 12 months. However, I feel the ones which have touched our hearts the most are those for our local community, regiments and charities, where our singing has brought much enjoyment to others as well as valuable charitable contributions.”

The women added their voices to the official Diamond Jubilee song, Sing, and some of the members went to the recording at Abbey Road Studios while others had the chance to sing at Buckingham Palace.

The Salisbury choir also have their own track on the Stronger Together album, which features 700 singers from military wives’ choirs across the country.

Member Carol Musgrove said: “This started off as a community project and it has turned into something so much bigger. It will always be there to create a community for the ladies.”

The choir is already looking forward to a busy year of concerts including at St Thomas’s Church, Salisbury, community events in Amesbury and Tidworth, City Hall, Leeds Castle and Winchester.