Welcome to Royston Choral Society

Submitted by admin on Thu, 01/26/2023 - 11:30

We are a friendly, non-auditioned choir that  generally performs 4 concerts to a high standard each year in Royston and the surrounding villages. Our musical director is Andrew O'Brien and he is assisted by Jonathan Lilley. 

Formed in 1973 we have been celebrating our first 50 years over the last couple of seasons and are now looking forward to our next 50 years of music making in the area. The choir numbers nearly 100 singers.

We engage fine professional soloists for our major concerts and are able to call on an excellent pool of orchestral players. 

Our 2024-25 season kicked off with a concert marking the centenary of Fauré's death. The choir sang his sublime Requiem, as well as the beautiful Cantique de Jean Racine. We were fortunate to be joined by a couple of excellent soloists from St Edmund's college, one of who played the Fantasie for flute by Fauré. Also in the program was Rejoice in the Lamb, by Britten and Parry's Blest pair of sirens.

Our Christmas concert will as usual be a mixture of Christmas music sung by the choir, combined with well-known carols for everyone to join in - all accompanied by our wonderfull accompanist Jonathan Lilley on the organ. Tickets are available from: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/royston-choral-society   

In recent years we have performed two of Bach's momentous choral works - the St John Passion and Mass in B minor. This year we turn our attention to the wonderful St Matthew Passion which will be performed with first class soloists and orchestra at the beginning of April 2025. One of the greatest choral works, from the sounding of its first e minor chord, a dramatic and heart wrenching musical journey ensues. The chorus is central to the drama and sets the mood throughout. Tickets are available from: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/royston-choral-society   

Our final concert this season will be in early July 2025. The programme will be announced in due course.

We enjoyed excellent audiences in the last couple of seasons with many of our concerts being sold out. We hope to continue that pattern and so early purchase of tickets is advised!

There are some videos of parts of some of our recent concerts available by following this link.

For more information about the society please contact the chair - Huw Jenkins (email: [email protected] or tel: 07855 311192)    
 

Charity Registration number:  1090459