AGM on Zoom – members please look out for details soon. Once the business is over, join us and have your coffee and mince pie ready (or something stronger!) and enjoy the chance for a catch up.
Our Choir remains in Lockdown right now, no news yet about our Tuesday evening practices until there is some Government guidance forthcoming about this. You can read more about this on our ‘News’ page by clicking here.
We are now hopeful that we will begin again sometime in the spring of 2021. More details soon – watch this space.
We will keep you informed – don’t forget to watch for news on our Facebook page and here on the website “https://www.facebook.com/WithamCS”
In the meantime, take care of yourselves and look after each other.
With best wishes,
Witham Choral Committee.
LAST UPDATED: Saturday 4th December 2020
More details about joining the choir or becoming a Friend here
Usually we rehearse on Tuesday evenings in term time at Witham United Reformed Church in Newland Street, 7.45 to 9.45 p.m. We look forward to letting you know in due course when our rehearsals will resume. “This is a friendly, non-auditioned choir,” conductor Patrick McCarthy told us, “but some knowledge of music would be helpful.” To find directions to the church where we rehearse click here
For 60 years the Society has grown progressively under the leadership of seven Music Directors, with Patrick McCarthy joining us in 1995. Each has contributed enthusiastically to the Society’s musical life and development and, together with the warmth and passion for singing of the members, the Society has developed and maintained an integrity which has kept it in the fore of choral tradition in the area.
You can read about how Patrick stepped up to save the Prom at the Royal Albert Hall go to our Personnel Page(bottom right article) follow the link here to the page.
BACKGROUND OF WITHAM CHORAL:
The Society was formed in 1957. In the early years the members enjoyed singing madrigals and short choral pieces suitable for the small group, and occasionally joined with the Essex Musical Association and other societies, including the Ipswich Singers, to perform larger scale works. See a photo of the choir singing at the Public Hall in December 1974 by CLICKING HERE
SOME OF OUR MOST NOTABLE CHORAL CONTRIBUTIONS
have included a much praised performance of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius at the renowned Snape Maltings Concert Hall, when we combined with the Ipswich and Colchester Bach Choirs and the Colchester Philharmonic. In 2007 we celebrated our 50th Anniversary Year with a full programme of choral works. These included performances of the Verdi and Brahms Requiems and later in the year, in our exchange with the Evangelische Singgemeinde of Weinheim, two performances of Beethoven’s Mass in C and Christ on the Mount of Olives.
Other works performed include Handel’s Solomon and Israel in Egypt singing with the Ipswich Bach Choir & Dovercourt Choral Society, bringing together some 170 singers. As well as singing at Snape Maltings, we have appeared several times at the Harwich Festival, in G&S HMS Pinafore, Faure Requiem, Haydn Creation, Orf Carmina Burana and most recently peformed in a Last Night of the Proms.
Witham Choral Society is a registered charity No. 261704
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