Stroud Choral Society is singing again!
Welcome to the home page for Stroud Choral Society. We’re one of the oldest amateur choirs in the country and have been performing in front of audiences in Stroud and beyond since 1834.
With around 100 members, we aim to present at least four concerts a year, and rehearse in the music block at Marling School on Monday evenings. We’re friendly, welcoming, and love our social events almost as much as our singing! If you are interested in joining us, please contact us, we are currently looking for members in all voice parts.
After many months of rehearsals on zoom, we are delighted that rehearsals started fully on Monday 27th September. The choir meets on Mondays at 7.30pm at Marling School in Stroud, and we are working towards a performance of Haydn’s oratorio, The Creation, at 7pm on Saturday 20 November at Tewkesbury Abbey.
This season, we will be also performing a concert of Christmas favourites at St Laurence’s Church, Stroud, on Friday 17 December, with our children’s choir The Minpins also taking part. The Lent term’s project is Handel’s wonderful oratorio Judas Maccabeaus, which we will be performing at Cirencester Parish Church on Saturday 26 March 2022, and a summer concert will take place on Saturday 18 June at Minchinhampton.
Listen to one of our recordings of the lovely
Cantique de Jean Racine by Fauré
Autumn Concert - Haydn, The Creation
Tewkesbury Abbey
Saturday 20th November 2021 7pm
With the Bristol Ensemble
Conductor: Simon Bell
Emma Brain-Gabbott Soprano
Sam Dressel Tenor
Philip Tebb Bass
Buy tickets here.
Easter Concert - Mozart's Requiem
Earlier this year, we performed a virtual concert using Zoom together with our fabulous soloists. All our recordings are available on our YouTube channel.
There hadn’t been much in the way of opportunity for our soloists to perform during the last 12 months or so. Being able to have them sing for and ‘with’ us for our Easter concert was therefore doubly special.
Amy Porter, soprano, is a former pupil at Dean Close School in Cheltenham, and recently graduated from Durham University.
Ben Sawyer took the countertenor role. Ben is a well-known local conductor based in Gloucestershire. A colleague of SCS conductor and musical director Simon Bell at Dean Close School, he sings in Tewkesbury Abbey’s Schola Cantorum.
Our tenor was Tomasz Holownia, known to everyone as Tom. Tom was a choral scholar at Dean Close School / Tewkesbury Abbey last year. He returned to Australia at the start of the pandemic to be with his family, where he has been living ever since!
And finally, our bass soloist was Alan Fairs - who is also Stroud Choral Society’s president.
Youth choirs show us how it should be done!
Watch our talented youngsters performing a variety of songs in their summer concert recorded earlier this year on YouTube. This 30 minute concert is sure to lift your heart and soul!
The children have all worked so hard to produce this concert and normally this would be our main fundraiser of the year with people paying £10 a ticket to watch. If you feel you are able to make a donation to secure the future of the choir we would be very grateful. Thank you.
Tour to Normandy - July 2019
In the past, we have had some very successful tours. Some members of the choir took our repertoire across the channel in July 2019. The tour was a great success, attracting good audiences, visiting some beautiful places and venues.
Here is a glimpse of SCS on tour:
Stroud Choral Society
Stroud Choral Society was founded in 1834 and therefore is one of the oldest choral societies in Britain. However, we are always moving with the times and in recent years have formed a childrens choir - The Minpins - and a youth choir. Both groups sing with us occasionally and also have their own concert programme.
Typically we perform four major concerts throughout the year, singing in venues such as Tewkesbury Abbey, Cirencester Parish Church of St John Baptist and Minchinhampton Church.
Our repertoire in recent years has included Beethoven's Mass in C, Dvorak requiem, Bach's St John Passion The German Requiem by Brahms and The Chichester Psalms by Leonard Berstein.
Want to know more or possibly sing with us? Please visit the Contact Details page.
The Next Generation
Stroud Choral Society are proud to have under their umberella The Minpins - our childrens choir and the Stroud Choral Youth Choir.
The Minpins sing with the main choir at our Christmas concert and the Youth Choir with us at our summer concert. Meanwhile, they have many concerts in their own right locally during the rest of the year.
Rehearsals are on a Tuesday evening in Nailsworth. If you would like more information, take a look at their dedicated page or follow the link below.