In Memoriam

In Memoriam: Pam Aynesworth

Christine Wright bids farewell to Pam Aynesworth, Mary's Bursar from the 70s.

Pam Aynesworth was St Mary's College Bursar from 1971 to 1997. She worked particularly with Joan Kenworthy (Principal 1977-1999) who wrote these warm words on Pam's retirement in the 1997 SMCS Newsletter: "Pam has been a wonderful friend to students throughout the years, kind, ready to listen, always rational and thoughtful in her responses. She has taken particular pleasure in providing for special occasions. Members of the University Estates and Buildings Department enjoyed working with her - and she saw through many structural and other changes to the College... She has been held in high esteem and has been a splendid colleague with whom to work" . She retired to Hexham in 1997 but, always welcome, she maintained links with the College. One of her most recent visits was to the St Mary's College Society 2019 Reunion dinner, celebrating the centenary of the granting of collegiate status to St Mary's in 1919.

The Alumni Editor has fond memories of Pam, who was very kind to her. “After an accident in my first term in the Autumn of 1975, which landed me in hospital with a head injury, Pam was so kind to me when I was released. She sent staff to check on me several times a day, and ensured that all my meals were delivered to my room until I was well enough to get up. That was when I first realised that College was not like Halls of Residence; there were people there for me who really cared, and a lot of the care was organised by Pam.

She died on 17th November 2021; her funeral was on 2nd December. She is much missed by all who knew her.

St Mary's College CHAPEL CHOIR

Matthew Warren

St Mary ’ s Chapel Choir has been part of my life since 2011, when I joined as a chorister. Now, ten years later I’ ve just finished my third year as musical director of this wonderful group. Every time I’ ve returned to the job it has been a new and glorious experience working with singers with all kinds of previous musical experience who come together to develop their abilities and grow to create an outstanding sound.

The development over this year has been marvellous. Many in college will remember the choir ’ s performance at the carol service alongside the enthusiastic singing of some few hundred Marians. This was a night to remember and I imagine any of you who know a choir member may still hear the rollicking tune of “Hail! smiling morn ” whilst they ’ re washing up!

This year also saw some innovations in the choir ’ s performances. With the chapel off limits for most of the year due to poor ventilation, we decided to explore other venues and formats.

Particularly memorable have been the Compline (night prayer) under the moonlight in the college cloisters. Another successful experiment has been the Words and Music evenings, which have combined selections of literary readings from

Milton to Eavan Boland with musical contributions from the choir, pianists Tom Milnes and Ziqing Wang MARY'S 37

(the choir ’ s Assistant Musical Director), as well as our own Maggi Dawn. These developments have brought the choir ’ s music out of the chapel and into College and allowed the choir to grow from its pandemic-induced dormancy into a confident choir with an outstanding sound.

To cap the year off, the choir resumed the old tradition of going on a June tour, this year, to Edinburgh. The four night trip brought everything from a performance in St Mary ’ s Episcopal Cathedral to an impromptu performance in the sea. The choir sounded fantastic (watch out for forthcoming posts on the Choir ’ s Instagram!) and no-one got swept off the top of Arthur ’ s Seat. All in all, it was a success!

Every note the choir produces is the result of the efforts of numerous excellent and dedicated people. The college ’ s choristers have shown extraordinary dedication and enthusiasm and are at the root of making this year so excellent for the choir. But others too have been instrumental in their support: our Assistant Director of Music, Ziqing Wang and choral scholars Hannah Tunnicliffe, Lizzie Howe, Peter Nielan, and Ben Lee; our Chaplain, Peter Kashouris; and the support in many different ways from the College and particularly Maggi Dawn and Emma Gray.

St Mary's College MARY’S MIXED VOICES

Lydie Logan (Liberal Arts, 2nd Year), Olivia Kennington (Psychology, 2nd Year), Henry Alexander (Music, 2nd Year)

How long have you been involved with MMV? About a year and a half or whenever rehearsals were allowed to start last year!

How is the club run? Are there regular meetings and sessions? We rehearse at Mary ’ s every Tuesday evening in either the JCR or a music room. The rehearsals are very relaxed yet productive too as Henry, our Musical Director, leads us through the pieces, keeping us on the straight and narrow! We ’ ve had several socials throughout the year as well.

Why did you join MMV? For Liv and Lydie - we missed a creative outlet during lockdown. We realised we spent a lot of time messing around singing together and so we both agreed to join MMV! We liked that MMV was a relaxed group with a varied repertoire. For Henry - I saw a vacancy for Musical Director in the Music course group chat and thought it would be a good experience as I would like to be a Choral Director in the future.

How has it been being co-presidents of MMV? What sort of responsibilities does this entail? It’ s been really rewarding to be in charge of something we enjoy and feel passionate about. It’ s been nice working together as well to split the load! Responsibilities mainly include organising and leading rehearsals and spreading the word about MMV across social media. Please could you tell us about one of MMV’s successes? We think the return of the social aspect of MMV postCOVID is our biggest success this year. Members have been able to meet others interested in music across various year groups and we ’ ve shown it’ s not just sports societies that know how to have a good time!

How has MMV added to your sense of the college community? We ’ ve been able to meet lots of people across year groups and coming back to Mary ’ s every week has made us feel we are still part of College despite living out.

What would you say to those considering joining MMV? Do it! Don ’t feel nervous as there ’ s nothing to lose there ’ s a group of people already laughing at their own mistakes too!

What is your favourite MMV memory? Anytime Henry belts out (successfully) the soprano part and when we all dressed up as High School Musical characters, most notably when Gabriel D’Souza wore a stunning brown wig!

How do you hope the club will progress in upcoming years? We want it to remain an inclusive space for those who haven ’t had as much music experience yet enjoy performing. It’ s been really nice post-COVID to see the social side of MMV revived as well as the increase in male voices, which we hope to see continue.