Introducing Royston Choral Society

  • Posted on: 3 October 2016
  • By: admin

Royston Choral Society (RCS) is a friendly, unauditioned choir of around 70 singers from a wide range of backgrounds and singing abilities united by enjoying singing together to produce memorable concerts.

Follow this link to see details of our next concert.

Some recordings from recent concerts can be seen on this link

During the 2018-19 season we performed in 4 concerts.

In November 2018 we participated in a performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. Held at Haileybury College, it was in collaboration with the college choirs and Hertfordshire Philharmonia. Here is a photo of the performers:

We usually hold our Christmas concert in Royston Parish Church. In 2018, because of the dreadful fire that had taken place there, this picture shows us performing at the Meridian school instead:

A link to the review of the concert with more pictures and recordings is here.

In April 2019 we performed Bach's St John Passion in Ashwell Parish Church. Sung in the original German, the soloists included Daniel Joy as the Evangelist and Lukas Kargl as Jesus.
See more pictures and read the review here.

Our final concert of the season was in Barkway Parish church, which turned out to be a wonderfully cool location on what was one of the hottest days of the year.
Entitled Songs of Love, it included music by Schubert, Lauridsen, Alexander L'Estrange, Brahms and the society's own Richard Prince. You can read more about it and see further pictures here.

The choir usually also enjoys one or two social evenings a year, usually involving food and drink. We ended the season by having a barbecue on the Heath in Royston. It also turned out to be one of the more energetic social evenings with many members enjoying a fairly relaxed game of rounders. Some of the more competitive are seen here enjoying a game of croquet

Details of our plans for the 2019-20 are available here.

RCS rehearses on Tuesday evenings 7.45- 9.45 in Royston Methodist Church and performs around four times a year in Royston and surrounding villages. New singers are welcome to join RCS by coming along to an open rehearsal.

For more details about the society please contact the chair - Huw Jenkins - chair@roystonchoralsoc.org.uk

You the audience - Barkway June 2019

  • Posted on: 15 July 2019
  • By: huw

At recent concerts, we’ve distributed feedback cards to find out a bit about our audience members – to help us develop ways to reach beyond our existing core of loyal supporters.

At our Barkway concert on 29 June, 38 respondents travelled 672 miles to hear us. Two people travelled more than 50 miles (probably not just for the concert!) 60% travelled less than 10 miles.

Songs of Love

  • Posted on: 8 July 2019
  • By: huw

Royston Choral Society ‘Songs of Love’ at Barkway Parish Church 29th June 2019

On the hottest day of the year so far, a large and appreciative audience gathered in the coolness of Barkway Church for Royston Choral Society’s summer concert.

Singing Notes - Sue Pegram

  • Posted on: 26 May 2019
  • By: huw

Sue Pegram, our alto part rep, answers questions about her love of music.

What is your earliest memory of music in your life?

My first music memory is my father singing nursery rhymes to us as children (and later on, music hall songs and Gilbert & Sullivan!) He was always singing, and he was still singing at his nursing home until just before he died aged 89. 

What was your first 'public performance'?

My love affair with singing - Chris Lee

  • Posted on: 16 April 2019
  • By: huw

I’d love to be able to say that my Mum and Dad met through singing in a choir together. The latter is true - they both sang with the Liverpool Welsh Choral Union (where my Mum would apparently swoon over principal conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent) but they knew each other before that.

A lasting memory is of my Mum’s enthusiasm for Wednesday nights when us kids were put to bed by my Dad and she went off to choir rehearsal. ‘Me time’ was how she described it and she always said that having one night a week to sing in the choir saved her sanity as a mother with four children!

You the audience

  • Posted on: 16 April 2019
  • By: huw

We are trying to find out as much as we can about our audiences – to target our publicity and attract more concert-goers! Before our concert in Ashwell on 6th April, we distributed survey cards with very four simple questions. Despite someone saying “oh no, not another feedback request – I’m overwhelmed by them!” we had a fantastic 48 responses (of an estimated audience of 140). This is what we learned…

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