About Music at St Thomas's

Music plays a big part in the life of St Thomas's.

The present Director of Music, Andrew Fletcher (www.andrewfletcher.org.uk), has been here since 1994 and runs a very fine choir of some 16 boys and 12 men. The boys are recruited from the two primary schools in the parish, Greenfield and Beauty Bank, and receive a free musical education through the thorough and committed rehearsal of the Sunday music, their 'raison d'etre'.

Whilst there is much in the music programme to challenge the choir - two to three fully choral evensongs each month (2nd, 3rd and 4th Sunday), the occasional choral Eucharist (fifth Sundays and holy days such as Ash Wednesday and Ascension Day) - the congregation is also kept busy with the music for the Parish Eucharist Sunday by Sunday and two Parish Evensongs each month.

In addition to the 'daily round', the choir sings four carol services: Advent, Christmas (by candlelight), Epiphany and Candlemas, a Requiem Mass, as well as giving concerts both at home and away. They are also regular visitors to Symphony Hall in Birmingham for the Midlands Festival of Remembrance, and each summer spend a week providing the music at one of Britain's cathedrals. A CD of their Wells visit in 2001 is available.

Andrew Fletcher, Director of Music at St Thomas' www.andrewfletcher.org.uk

Music is a very expensive commodity and would be difficult to fund were it not for the Friends of the Music, an organisation set up in 1994 to promote music at St Thomas's through an annual concert series and to raise money for the choir and associated projects such as the organ. They also provide the finance for an organ scholar each year. A number of choristers have taken up choral or organ scholarships at cathedrals and universities, and there is within the programme a strong emphasis on the encouragement and development of the young musicians of tomorrow.

Perhaps most valuable of all to the success of the music department is the corporate support and encouragement of the clergy and congregation who see music as an essential aid to worship. This fact, together with a beautiful building and kind acoustics, makes the whole experience of music-making at St Thomas's extremely worthwhile and enviably rewarding !