Crowborough Choral Society was founded in 1967 by Colin Moore. Following Colin’s retirement after the choir’s 50th anniversary concert, Mark Beesley took up the baton as Music Director in April 2017. Our accompanist is Chris Harris.
Every year the choir stages two major concerts with professional soloists and orchestras. The choir has performed more than 200 works spanning the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and 20th century periods and has sung to audiences in six countries and in seven languages.
In the summer the choir often presents a less formal concert. In recent years these have included an Evening of Gilbert & Sullivan, and A Night on Broadway. With refreshments afterwards, these summer concerts are always very popular. At Christmas, the choir generally sings at a number of seasonal services and events.
Crowborough Choral Society has been twinned with the Rellinger Kantorei from Rellingen (near Hamburg in northern Germany) for many years and this has led to some excellent joint performances in both countries. In April 2017 the Kantorei joined us in Crowborough for our 50th Anniversary performance of the Bach St John Passion. In October 2015, some members of the choir travelled to Rellingen to join them in singing Mozart’s Requiem under the baton of the Kantorei’s Oliver Schmidt. The Kantorei also sang with us at the Assembly Hall Theatre in Tunbridge Wells for our 40th Anniversary Concert to perform Brahms’ German Requiem in 2007 and the following year we enjoyed a repeat performance of this work in Rellingen at the farewell concert for their retiring Director of Music, Wolfgang Zilcher.
We warmly welcome new members to this classical choir so if you are interested in choral singing why not come along to a rehearsal and give us a try? While previous choral experience is valuable, a love of singing and a desire to learn are more important. An ability to read music is not essential, but it does help to have a good ear. We don’t have formal auditions and no one will ask you to sing on your own!
The annual subscription is currently £125 per year, payable after the AGM in the Autumn term. If you’d like to purchase music, this is a small extra cost but most scores are available for hire at a small charge.