Open Rehearsal

St Matthew Passion in Marlborough College Chapel, March 24 2018

About Us
We are a society of about one hundred and ten amateur singers who stage, on average, four choral concerts in and around Swindon each year, and in our 80 year history have performed most of the major choral repertoire, as well as a number of specially-commissioned works.

Most Recent BIG Concert
The March 2018 concert in Marlborough College Chapel was a rare chance to tackle JS Bach's glorious St Matthew Passion. Combining with Bracknell Choral Society and their conductor Greg Hallam who also conducted the final performance, we thrilled to the sound of the six professional soloists accompanied by the double orchestra Musica Poetica, as well as singing many of the chorales unaccompanied. The double choir Thundered and Lightninged with gusto and demanded the release of Barabbas with an appropriate crescendo of sound. The undoubted highlight, however, was the heart-stopping bass/cor anglais aria Make me clean. With the chorus taking up fully one third of the Chapel seating, the other two thirds were sold out to a packed audience. This was one that none of us will ever forget.

Atlantic Odyssey
Our 2013 world premier of Atlantic Odyssey, played to a full house, was filmed and recorded live, and a clip of the start of the performance may be seen at Vimeo

Fundraising
Like all amateur organisations, we work hard at fundraising and our efforts will be boosted when you use our EasyFundraising link for your online shopping. A very big Thank You to all who do so!

Past performances include the Passions of Bach, Requiems from Mozart to Rutter by way of Howard Goodall's Eternal Light, Britten's War Requiem, and many familiar oratorios, notably, A Child Of Our Time and The Dream of Gerontius, and most recently the first half of The Christmas Oratorio. The Armed Man, by Karl Jenkins has also featured. For a complete list of our concerts, please visit our Concerts pages.

We enjoy performing with professional orchestras and soloists. We have worked with The London Mozart Players (under Jane Glover), the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, the West Forest Sinfonia, the Chameleon Arts Orchestra and, very recently, the Reading Symphony Orchestra.

The Society also incorporates the Swindon Chorale, an increasingly active and dedicated group providing sacred and secular music by request for weddings, funerals, fund-raising concerts for ourselves and others, together with other events.