Mary Evans ~ Alto

Joined Gwent Bach Choir in 2004
Started musical career as a conductor, being the only eight-year old in the school who could master 3/4 time.

Singing "career" started rather grandiosely in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, at the end-of-year school concerts/speech days, (performing such works, considered suitable for a couple of hundred schoolgirls, as "The Soldiers' Chorus" from Il Trovatore). Next Usher Hall appearances were much more satisfactory, with the Edinburgh University Choral Society, singing in Bach's B minor Mass, the Verdi Requiem and "The Damnation of Faust" by Berlioz..

After a long choral drought, sang for a few years with the Restoration singers (now disbanded), led by Janette Massocchi , based in Monmouth; a small choir which, despite its name, sang music from all periods, giving concerts for local charities and occasionally singing at choral church services.

Now play the harmonium, very unskilfully, on Sundays at St. Martin's Church in Cwmyoy, Monmouthshire; the church has a tower which leans at an angle greater than Pisa's; the tiny congregation remains vertical and sings enthusiastically, proving that willingness is just as important as numbers.