Waverley Singers

Ahead of this concert, the following article appeared in The Herald newspaper on 3 November 1972:

Combined performance

 Farnborough's Waverley Singers are part of a truly jumbo-sized body of performers being presented by the Farnborough Music Society in a Vaughan Williams Centenary Celebration on Saturday week, November 11, at Silesian College Hall, Farnborough, at 7:30 pm. The RAE Symphony Orchestra is being joined by the Waverley Singers and by the Grange Choral Society from Bournemouth. The latter choir was formed by Geoffrey Stark, who will be remembered for his close association with music in the Farnham and Farnborough districts before he left the area to live in Bournemouth some 12 years ago.

Altogether, well over 200 performers will be taking part in this concert to celebrate Vaughan Williams' birth 100 years ago. The main work will be his Dona Nobis Pacem, so appropriate for the concert's proximity to Remembrance Day, and this will be preceded by his beautiful setting of the Benedicite and his Folk Song Suite. Also, the orchestra will play Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Haydn (St Anthony Chorale). Soloists will be Sandra Wilks (soprano) and Robert Bateman (baritone).

The concert will be conducted by John Cotterill, who is the present conductor of the Waverley Singers and of the RAE Symphony Orchestra, and who conceived the idea of this large link-up of forces. The orchestra and the Waverley Singers will be travelling to join the Grange Choral Society in Bournemouth tomorrow to give a performance of the same programme under Geoffrey Stark. 

On 10 November, The Herald gave further coverage of this initiative with a photograph captioned: "Members of the Waverley Singers photographed in The Hart car park on Saturday morning before they left by coach for Bournemouth to take part in the Vaughan Williams Centenary Celebration concert." See below: they looked a cheerful lot!

Ursula Vaughan Williams

The concert programme on this page shows a (beautifully handwritten) note from Vaughan Williams' widow, Ursula, saying:

"It is a great pleasure to know that The Farnborough Music Society are celebrating the centenary of RVW's birth with a concert that brings amateur and professional musicians together in a performance of some of his works. 
I send my greetings and best wishes to all.
Ursula Vaughan Williams"