History
Earliest records of the Society show that it existed as choir and orchestra prior to 1929 when there is the first written evidence of a concert having taken place. In 1948 its name was changed to Swindon Musical Society and in 1985 the orchestra parted company from the singing group, with the choir becoming Swindon Choral Society under the directorship of Nicholas Riddle.
Musical Directors
Under the leadership of Nicholas Riddle, the society grew and performed many of the great choral works. Links with twin town, Salzgitter, were formed resulting in a number of joint concerts and a performance of Britten's War Requiem to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II was staged in the UK and USA. In April 1998 work commitments as MD at Peter's Edition resulted in the departure of Nicholas.
David Truslove, a lay vicar at Winchester and established Musical Director, succeeded Nicholas and brought his expertise as a professional chorister to the choir. He inspired the choir to take on increasingly complex and challenging works. David continued as Musical Director until 2002.
After an interregnum under the baton of Sir Peter Beale, who led us in a most successful performance of Handel's "Israel in Egypt", Robin Nelson, the recently retired Head of Music at Marlborough College, was appointed as our Musical Director.
Following a successful 20 year stay, Robin Nelson retired from the society - twice in fact as his farewell concert was postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic. Robin led the choir during COVID-19 zoom rehearsals - these may have been rather bizarre but were a great way to keep in contact with the choir during a difficult period.
After resuming rehearsals for Robin's final performance, we recruited our current Musical Director, Elinor Cooper, another established musician, who has brought new enthusiasm and approach to the choir. Elinor's first concert was in 2022 due to the cancellation of our 2021 Christmas concert, again due to COVID-19.
Repertoire
In over 90 years of its existence, the Society has performed most of the choral repertoire and many secular works too, the latter including Hiawatha's Wedding Feast and Carmina Burana. We enjoy opportunities to work with other local groups, including Swindon Pegasus Brass who invited us to perform at their rousing Last Night Of The Proms celebration in 2000 at the Wyvern Theatre. We were also very privileged to have sung with the London Mozart Players, under direcotr Jane Glover, in a performance of Mozart's Requiem at the Wyvern Theatre.
Memorable sacred works performed include the Requiems of Brahms, Verdi, Duruflé, Fauré and Mozart; Mendelssohn's Elijah, Haydn's Creation, Handel's Messiah and Elgar's Dream of Gerontius. Mozart's Great Mass in C Minor and Beethoven's Mass in C Major have been complemented by Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and Rossini's Stabat Mater. We have also performed Britten's War Requiem aided by choirs from Germany and the USA, then taking this work to Macon, Georgia USA together with the same two German and American choirs. Most recently we have given exciting performances of Bach's Magnificat and B Minor Mass.
Our friends overseas
The Society has had links with two choirs from Germany, namely St Michaelkirchenchor, Salzgitter, and the Altonaer Singakademie, Hamburg. We also, in 1995, exchanged with the Macon Civic Chorale, Georgia, USA to sing Britten's War Requiem in Swindon at the Oasis, and in November in Macon. The Macon Chorale also joined us for a concert at STEAM in Swindon in May 2019.
Tours
The Society has undertaken a number of tours in addition to exchanges with overseas choirs. Members have travelled to Tuscany, singing in Florence, San Gimigniano and Sienna, also to Lille, taking in Ghent, Bruges and, most memorably, the Menin Gate where they sang for the daily memorial service. There have also been tours to Budapest and Venice.
Most recently, the choir sang Choral Evensong at Salisbury Cathedral in March 2024
Recordings
Our first CD was a compilation of Christmas music recorded under the leadership of David Truslove. Not only was it odd to be singing Christmas carols in July, but we had to compete with the rumble of lorries passing by Marlborough College Chapel during recording sessions
Our most recent CD Lift Up Your Heads, 
was recorded in Marlborough College Chapel during the summer of 2010. To order your copy please email the Treasurer.
