As a mezzo soprano, Maureen Lehane enjoyed a distinguished career both on the concert platform and in the opera house. She made her stage debut at Glyndebourne in 1967 in Cavalli's L'Ormindo before going on to perform worldwide, not least in Carnegie Hall and at such prestigious events as the legendary Göttingen Handel Festival. Her recordings embrace such composers as Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Purcell and more than one Bach. Always though, there has been an interest in music education - for example, the giving of Handel inter­pretation courses at venues both in the UK and abroad.
Never enquire as to a woman's age, but let's just say that in her seventies Maureen Lehane Wishart (as she's now known) continues to pursue her musico-educational goals with apparently boundless ener­gy and unquestioned enthusiasm. From the Jackdaws Music Education Trust's drop-dead-gorgeous base at Great Elm near Frome in Somer­set's VaIlis Vale, with the river gently lapping alongside, she and her team run all manner of courses. These attract a wide range of distinguished tutors, from pianists David Owen Norris and Philip Fowke to singers Teresa Cahill and Laura Sarti; from oboist Sarah Francis and viola player Elizabeth Turnbull to lutenist Dorothy Linell and recorder play­er Pamela Thorby. Then there are the various musical outreach projects and programmes that see Jackdaws making an impact in schools in the local area, plus the concerts that grace local venues.
We want to see people progressing their musical skills: says Lehane Wishart, from enthusiastic amateurs to experienced professionals; from the youngest musicians to the oldest. We're one of the few organisations that offer classical music in this rural area offering both training and performance in an informal, intimate setting.
Not surprisingly, the singing component to the Jackdaw Music Edu­cation Trust's activities is especially prominent - and there's even a reference library of vocal music that's accessible online. And the Great Elm Vocal Awards, which began life in 1992, have everything to do with Lehane Wishart’s determination to demonstrate that a top-quality event could happen in a tiny village - independent of towns, independ­ent of London.
The creation of the awards is tied up with the history of the devel­opment of Jackdaws. I'd been running a small annual music festival here since 1987, dedicated to the memory of my husband, Peter Wishart who died unexpectedly in 1984. Lehane Wishart recalls: This con­sisted of 21 fully professional events, spread over three weekends and held in small local venues - churches, gardens, private homes ... even my own kitchen, which holds 75!
I was always looking for money, of course. At one point someone gave me the name of a lady in Bristol, Rosemary Bugden, who was interested in music and might support us financially. I wrote to her, and it turned out she knew my name as a singer. She invited me to lunch, during which she offered me £10,000 towards the Festival.  And when I said I was wanting to run music workshops and that there was a house at the bottom of my garden which would be ideal as an HQ, she bought that for me too! In fact, I decided to invest the £10,000 and use it as prize money for a vocal awards event based at Great Elm.
I planned from the start to make the compulsory elements for the competing singers to be one of Peter's songs and also an aria by Han­del. Handel is so good for the voice: he knew just what it could do. As a singer I sort of specialised in Handel - I always said I was the leading female castrato! And Peter and I met when I was singing in Xerxes - he was playing the harpsichord.
Peter's music is quite difficult ... and not immediately "obvious", if you see what I mean. I always enjoyed singing his songs, but found them tricky. Recently one of the Jackdaws tutors, Mark Tanner, really fell in love with Peter's piano music. He's brought out a CD which had excel­lent reviews, both for his playing and for Peter's music. I don't really know what the Great Elm Vocal Awards participants feel about the songs, but they're always very complimentary. I think maybe some would rather be singing Puccini, though!'

Competing in the awards is open to aspiring young professional singers between the ages of 22 and 30, who battle it out for cash prizes: currently £2,000 for the winner, £1.000 for second place and £500 for third. (There's also an accompanist's prize of £750). I've always felt that youngsters often - very often! - start too young; Lehane Wishart observes. Their bodies aren't formed and quite fre­quently they have nothing to say in their singing. So originally I wanted the upper age limit as high as feasible - 32. However, there seems to be no question that today the young are maturing more quickly, and if you're still going in for competitions at the age of 32 then you probably aren't going to get anywhere. So I brought the age limit down to 30.'
On the roll-call of past Great Elm prize winners are the likes of Sarah Fox, Kate Royal, Christopher Maltman and Andrew Kennedy, who says his victory in 1999 gave him “the confidence and encourage­ment needed at a critical time in my training. The competition is unique as it recognises potential alongside technical excellence and an overall polished performance, making it an important stepping stone for sing­ers at the start of their career. I was offered invaluable advice about appropriate repertoire choices that I've taken into account in every competition and audition since”.
Kennedy went on to win the Lieder prize at the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2005, and indeed Great Elm winners are to be found in the lists of successful participants at a string of prominent international contests. Former second prize winner, Belinda Evans, even went on to the dizzy heights of singing the National Anthem before each of England's 2003 rugby union World Cup matches (which didn't do the team any harm at all) and competed in television's How do you solve a problem like Maria?, famously geared to finding a Maria for the West End Sound of Music production.
Lehane Wishart’s view on the multiplicity of singing competitions is simply a pragmatic and practical one. “All these competitions are useful for aspiring performers as long as they are taken in the right way. In other words, as experience, not first and foremost as prize winning exercises”.
Participants in the awards tend to come from the UK, although foreign singers at UK conservatoires are always in evidence - and the international contingent has provided many Great Elm prize-winners, such as South Africans Amanda Echalaz and Erica Eloff, and New Zea­lander Anna Leese. The most recent first prize winner, soprano Madeleine Pierard, likewise hails from New Zealand. “We advertise the awards as much as we can afford says Lehane Wishart. For example, we send fliers to all the conservatoires. But Jackdaws and the Great Elm awards are very well known now, so word gets around easily. Aspiring competitors can always contact us via our website, www. jackdaws.org.uk”.
Details of how to enter the 2008 Great Elm Vocal Awards are available on the Jackdaws website. But the basic formula is now well-established. The first round of competition involves the assess­ment of CDs of entrants singing talents: Far from ideal, but practical; says Lehane Wishart. 'For many years we held the preliminary round in Great Elm Village Hall. Likewise the finals, which the locals loved. They would all place bets on their favourites! I was very sad that things had to change, as travelling down to Great Elm was proving too much for participants. Having introduced the CD stage, the finals are now at the Wigmore Hall. What was all that I was saying about a village-based competition?! What an admission of defeat!'
One attraction to entrants is the fact that Dame Joan Sutherland is prominently displayed as the Jackdaws Music Trust's Patron, accompa­nied by Vice-Patrons the Earl of Oxford and Asquith, Sir Charles Mack­erras and James Bowman. “Dame Joan has always been very supportive; observes Lehane Wishart; there's no question that she's helped our image enormously. In fact, she came and adjudicated the awards one year - and proved herself quite a tough nut! Rightly so!'
Lehane Wishart always sits as one of three adjudicators at the Great Elm finals. Among her partners have been the likes of soprano Ludmilla Andrew, baritone Neal Davies and the above-mentioned David Owen Norris. If being an adjudicator is one of the perks of running such an event, then it's just reward for the grind involved in keeping the show on the road. That original financial support from Rosemary Bugden has disappeared over the years. “I somehow thought it would last for ever, but of course it didn't! I was delighted that Rosemary's family decided very generously to continue funding the vocal awards, but alas a few years ago they had to withdraw. So now we have to find £6,000 each year. Ludmilla Andrew has been abso­lutely wonderful in sponsoring us for several years but we're never quite sure overall where the future monies are coming from. I write a lot of begging letters!”
In truth, the Great Elm awards remain just one element in the Jackdaws empire, in which singing continues to play a central role.
Quite apart from all those courses for adults, schools projects have embraced everything from Wagner's Ring and The Flying Dutchman to The Magic Flute and Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. And nothing is more impressive than the ongoing Songbird project. Begun in 1996, this involves all the primary schools in Frome, teaching musicianship via the voice, using the Kodaly method. Tony Nicholas, headmaster of one school recently to benefit - St Benedict’s Catholic Primary - reckons the Songbird project shows how “virtually the whole music curriculum can be delivered through singing. Songbird also allowed us to explore different cultures, and had cross-curricular links with many subjects. The benefits will be long-lasting”.

Lehane Wishart is clearly not one to be cowed by the continuing challenge of nailing down funds for all this: one current project is to raise £32,000 for a new Steinway. As you would expect, the Jackdaws website does its own bit of merchandising - you can acquire a Jack­daws mug or two, a Jackdaws gift voucher or a book of Jackdaws recipes. And make a date for the Jackdaws Open Day, at which cream teas will aid your progress around a multiplicity of stalls and other attractions. Or take in one of the regular fund-raising concerts at the local Rook Lane Chapel.
What does Lehane Wishart continue to get out of the whole exercise after so long? You might well ask! A lot of sleepless nights and a very low bank account' But I feel so passionate about so  ­called "classical" music”. It's an endangered species, and I'll do all I can to promote it.'

This article from “The Singer” is reproduced by kind permission of Antonia Couling (editor)