John Ward - Our previous Conductor and Musical Director

The Choir was formed in 1997 by our previous Conductor John Ward and Bill Patterson, the Minister of Chirnside Church at that time.

 The choir takes its name from the Merse, the name of the area where it operates.  The Collins Scots dictionary says  "In Southern Scotland and area of low lying fertile land near a river or shore is known as a merse."  The Merse is a region in the south east of The Scottish Borders between the Lammermuir hills, the river Tweed and the North Sea.  The word comes from Old English where it meant marsh.

 For the past four  years we have held a two day choral workshop with professional trainers followed by a choral concert with orchestra.  Works have included music by Mozart, Vivaldi and Handel.  We held our fourth choral workshop in June 2008, when we peforrmed  the Laudate Dominum byt Michael Corrette and Charpentier's Te Deum

 In October 2007 we gave an all Brahms concert in Paxton House (with supper).  The Choir sang the Leibes Leider Waltzes, and there were solos from Tamsin Hughes (Soprano) and Margaret Spence (Piano)

 A few years ago we were awarded a lottery grant which enabled us to buy a good selection of music, a Roland portable piano and some quality recording equipment.  So we have CDs of most of our recent performances.  Since then we have been able to add to our library.

We now rehearse in Paxton Village Hall on Mondays 7.15 to 9.30  (First Rehearsal 2008, Monday 8th September).  

Starting this September we have a new Conductor, Tamsin Davidson to whome we give a very warm welcome.

Website built by Bill Smith using Kompozer             -               This page updated  on  23 Au8ust 2010 by Bill            -          The Merse Singers is a Registered Scottish Charity SC030566