“You’re never too old to learn,” says a woman who has led a junior choir for almost five decades.
Moira Gray has been in charge of the Kilbarchan Junior Choir since the summer of 1978 - a mammoth 46-year stint at the helm. Such is her longevity that there are kids in the choir now whose grandparents were once Moira’s pupils.
“I call them my grand-choiristors,” said Moira, a former headteacher at Queen Margaret Academy in Ayr. “It’s lovely to have that continuity across generations in the village.”
Despite leading the choir for close to fifty years, Moira says that the kids haven’t changed all that much - though other things certainly have.
“When I first started, you had to go into the library and book out the parish church in the village diary - that doesn’t happen anymore!” Moira said.
“And children’s interests have changed over the years, so we’ve had to keep up with that. But the children themselves haven’t really changed.
“Kids are kids. Inside every child is the soul of a performer - every child has a desire to perform.
“My attitude towards children has changed though. It was much more rigid when I was younger. Whereas now, my sons say to me ‘you weren’t that soft when we were young.’ And that’s probably true!”
Moira says music has been a “lifelong fascination” ever since she joined Glasgow Youth Choir at the age of seven, and that there are many benefits to being part of a musical community.
“For one, there’s the social aspect,” she said. “I still see friends that I made in the choir when I was eight years old.
“But you’re learning how to perform, which gives you an inner confidence. When I was going for interviews - even though I was absolutely quaking at the door - I still had that confidence.
“I knew how to control my voice, how to control my nerves, because I’d done it in front of hundreds of people on a stage throughout my life.
“There are so many different aspects of life that involve some kind of performing. So the benefits are not just musical.”
Moira is now assisted in rehearsals by her daughter-in-law Pamela, whose love of music was also sparked by a spell in the Glasgow Youth Choir.
Pamela says that Moira is a “huge” part of the Kilbarchan community.
“The whole village knows Moira,” she said. “And to know Moira is to like her.
“She’s such a selfless person, she gives up so much of her time. Even when she was a headteacher in Ayr, she’d be working all weekend and every evening, but she never missed a session.
“Moira has such a brilliant way with the kids. She can stand in front of a crowd or a room full of people, and talk to everyone at the same time as if she’s speaking to them individually.
“She’s so warm and so kind. She’s really well-loved within Kilbarchan.”
At 72 years young, Moira is still having music lessons and has no intention of stepping back from the choir anytime soon.
“I still take lessons in singing and piano,” she said. “You’re never too old to learn. And if you don’t keep it going, you lose it.
“My old choir teacher kept going into her mid-80s, and she’s my role model. So I’ve got a way to go yet!”
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