Member Groups > Stevenage Singers
Stevenage Choral Society is now called Stevenage Singers. We moved to a much lighter, easier listening style of music and so we rebranded ourselves. We still don't hold auditions and do provide support for non-music readers and you'll already know many of the pieces we sing. See rehearsal venue, time and location information at the foot of this page and in the sidebar to the right. You can see the Choral Society history in the paragraphs below.
There have been music societies in Stevenage for 60
years or more, but the present Choral Society has a
history dating from 1948. The Music Society (as it was
called in the early years) has presented concerts, both
by its own choral and orchestral groups, and by
professional performers. For many years the President
was the late Elizabeth Poston, the composer who lived at
Rooks Nest in Stevenage.
The Chorus was formed in 1967 as a large scale mixed
voice choir, mainly to perform choral works from the
classical repertoire. The Chorus has never had less than
40 members, and at times membership has been as high as
120. Current membership is around 75.
We pride ourselves on a varied and interesting musical
repertoire. For an idea of the general style of music we
perform, see below:
Classical concerts have included Brahm's German Requiem,
Mendelssohn's Elijah and Haydn's Creation and his Nelson
Mass as well as Duruflé's Requiem. In 2015 we performed
the Beethoven Mass in C and performed Vaughan William's
Dona Nobis Pacem in the summer as part of the Stevenage
Festival this year. In the 2016 season we will perform
the St. John Passion by J.S. Bach.
In terms of modern works we've performed The Armed Man
and The Peacemakers by Karl Jenkins, Rejoice in the Lamb
and Missa Brevis by Benjamin Britten, Zimbe and Ahoy!
Sing for the Mary Rose by Alexander L'Estrange in recent
years. In the summer of 2016 we will perform the Jazz
Mass in Blue by Will Todd.
The Choir performs with both amateur and professional
soloists and orchestras. We have also participated in
four concerts in the Royal Albert Hall in London,
together with 14 other Hertfordshire Choirs, performing
Britten's War Requiem in 1994, and Mahler's Symphony No.
8 in 1999, Verdi's Requiem in 2003 and the Grande Messe
des Morts by Hector Berlioz in 2007.
If you would like to come along to our rehearsals, we
would love to see you - they take place every Monday at
7.45pm in the Stevenage Music Centre, Mobbsbury Road,
Stevenage SG2 0HS - all voices welcome!