About Benson Choral Society

 

We are a friendly, enthusiastic and thriving choir of over 100 singers, based in Wallingford in South Oxfordshire. Although we are a non-auditioned choir, we set ourselves high musical standards and are ambitious to improve to the full extent of our potential.

We are delighted to have Tom Neal as our new Music Director. Tom is Director of Music at New College School, Oxford, one of the UK’s leading preparatory schools and home of New College’s renowned boy choristers. Tom is also a very experienced and successful choral society director having worked, amongst others, with Cleveland Philarmonic Choir, Cambridge University Musical Society and Portsmouth Festival Choir. We look forward to an exciting future working together - you can read more about Tom here.

While the standard classics of the choral repertoire remain at our core, with recent performances of the great works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Verdi and Elgar, we always enjoy the challenges of less well-known music. Concerts in recent years have highlighted both the new - Sunrise Mass by Ola Gjeilo, Pietà by Richard Blackford - and the unusual - Rio Grande by Constant Lambert, Misa Criola by Ramirez and Dona Nobis Pacem by Vaughan Williams.

We rehearse on Tuesday evenings from 7.30 - 9.30 pm in St Mary's Church, Market Place, Wallingford, OX10 0EG, with a refreshment break at half time.


New members will always be welcome and can come and try us without obligation - you won't regret it!

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Our 2025/26 EVENTS

 
Bach’s Christmas Oratorio wowed a sell-out audience in Dorchester Abbey on 6 December 2025. We followed that with a memorable performance of Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem on 14 March. Conductor Tom Neal, the Society, pianists Anita D'Attelis and Richard Pearce, and soloists Anastasia Bevan and Benjamin Bevan, combined to deliver a stunning rendition of one of the greatest of all choral works.
 

Summer Concert, Saturday 20 June 2026

Handel’s gem of a mini-opera or masque, Acis and Galatea, is a simple tale of Acis, a shepherd, and Galatea, a sea nymph, whose happy romance is broken by the jealous monster Polyphemus who kills Acis, but Galatea uses her magical powers to turn Acis into a fountain in whose waters she can bathe forever. It has a fine libretto by John Gay and Alexander Pope. After a successful première in 1718 it was revived in the 1730s and was Handel’s most popular stage work in his lifetime.

 
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