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 announce the appointment of 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!
Our 2025/26 EVENTS
Winter Concert
What better way to start the Christmas season than with Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, which he assembled from the series of six cantatas written in Leipzig for the Christmas feast-days in 1734/5. Together they make a compelling narrative, beginning with the dramatic chorus 'Christians be Joyful'. To bring out its baroque authenticity we have the renowned period orchestra Instruments of Time and Truth to play with us.
Spring Concert
Brahms’ German Requiem is a landmark work, both deeply personal after the death of his mother in 1865 and highly original in his own choice of biblical texts in his mother tongue, as far away from the traditional catholic Latin Requiem as you could imagine. The rich choral textures and harmonies are, we believe, best served in Dorchester Abbey by using Brahms’ original four-hand piano accompaniment – it will be a performance to remember!
Summer Concert
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.
LATEST NEWS
Spring Concert in Dorchester Abbey
Our Spring concert, a performance of Richard Blackford's Pieta and Faure's Requiem was a deeply moving ... Read more
