THE Woodside Choir has been in existence for 70 years now, established by the late Lynette Dolphin for the participation of the Bishops’ Girls.

The Woodside Choir have serenaded many nationwide with their beautiful choral singing.

The Pepperpot Magazine spoke with a senior member of the choir David H J Dewar, who shared his memorable moments since he has been in the choir

“In 1952, the Woodside attended the Youth festival, which was under the British system of festivals. The choir started with merely girls who were from The Bishop’s High School, which was an all-girls school back then. They took in boys into the choir after the then youth festival,” Dewar revealed, as he detailed the formation of the Woodside Choir.

According to Dewar, the choir needs more young people to keep the tradition alive. Dewar himself has been with the choir since he was age 20 and still holds that membership 55 years later.

Dewar made mention of the number of great musicians that were with the choir over the years

“ A name that comes to mind would be, of course, Bill Pilgrim. He wrote a lot of songs. We sang a lot of compositions. The choir still exists although we did have a break-off during the COVID period, but we restarted late last year with a concert,” Dewar noted during the interview.

Dewar shared that he hasn’t had any bad experiences since joining the Woodside Choir, except to say that he had the experience of burying old choir members since they have all gone to the great beyond.

He told of his good experiences with the choir, including being a critical part of music festivals.

“We restarted the music festivals in 1992 and I think we had about five of them. Every year we had one; the last one we had, had to be cancelled because of general and regional elections being held on the same date,” Dewar told Pepperpot Magazine.

Memorable moments
“For me personally, I went to Cuba for Carifesta in 1979 and in 1985, I headed for North Korea. It was not the whole choir just a few of us,“ he recalled. “The Woodside Choir has to continue, they have to get younger folks in and we have been there and done that, as the Guyanese saying goes.”

He continued by expressing that the choir has had some international experience.

“We have been to the twin-island Republic [Trinidad& Tobago], we have been to the West Indies and some other places,” Dewar told the Pepperpot Magazine.

He recalled that the choir’s 60th anniversary was a memorable moment, particularly for him.

Some members of the choir’s friends came into the country to celebrate the choir’s 60th anniversary and thus a workshop was held to mark the occasion.

The choir has received a national award for its sterling contribution over the years in the arts industry.

In an article published in the Stabroek News on August 14, 2012, the Woodside Choir benefitted from a long and distinguished line of conductors, including Ruby McGreggor, William “Billy” Pilgrim, Deryck Bernard, Aubrey Joseph, the brothers (WJ and J) Simmonds) and Reginald McDavid. Ms. Pollard further said each conductor brought his own style to the Woodside Choir.