Chepstow Choral Society
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Musical Director: Graham Bull Assistant Musical Director: Marjorie Duerden Chairman: Eric Taylor Secretary: Sarah Whitehead Treasurer: Douglas Lawrence Patrons/Membership: Jean Parkes The Society's Musical Director is Graham Bull, who is Director of Music and Head of Performing Arts at a leading school in Gloucestershire. The Society's accompanist is Marjorie Duerden. The choir currently numbers approx. 75 members, and is delighted at the number of male singing members during 2008 - now larger than at any time during the past 16 years. There is also a steadily growing Patrons membership. The Mozart Anniversary Concert in April 2006 attracted the maximum audience now possible in the church, with 300 tickets sold. It was the third largest audience in the Society's recent history (the other two being for the two Charity events some years previously) but the Society takes great heart that in 2004 the two major concerts that year (Messiah and Petite Messe Solennelle) attracted 250 and 292 respectively, and the 2005 performances also generated good audiences, with the Christmas Music, now presented on a Sunday afternoon, achieving one of the largest attendances enjoyed for a December Choral Society programme. The Society believes that this confirms that there is both a desire and support for a mixed, thriving choral society in a small town, despite the many difficulties facing choral singing, which have been recently well documented nationally. A Short History of Chepstow Choral Society Chepstow Choral Society celebrated its Silver Jubilee in 2004. Its origins began in September 1979 when Anne Martin, being unsuccessful in finding a mixed choir when she moved to Chepstow, gathered together a nucleus of local enthusiasts with varying abilities. The group took the name "The Kingsmark Singers". It went on to perform its first programme of Christmas carols in December of that year. During the next 8 years, the choir developed and performed such diverse programmes as "Messiah", Faure's Requiem, Vivaldi's "Gloria", Coleridge-Taylor's "Hiawatha's Wedding Feast", and the Flanders & Horovitz "Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo", as well as concerts with the Welsh Guards, Victorian Evenings and others. In 1990, after some short changes of leadership, Jeremy Winston took over, incorporating the Kingsmark Singers with the St Arvans Choir, and the group was re-named Chepstow Choral Society. The choir continued to progress, performing several concerts with orchestra, until 1993, when Robin Stubbs became conductor. By this time a committee had been formed to run the Society, with a constitution and responsibility for concert budgeting. Under Robin's direction, the choir widened its range and scope considerably, and "new" 20th century works were successfully attempted, including John Rutter's Gloria and Magnificat, and Andrew Carter's Benedicite. The choir participated in the nationwide BT Voices for Hospice performances of Messiah, with full orchestra and large choir at St Mary's Church, Chepstow, to a capacity audience. This was one of two concerts which raised over £3500 each for charity - when Graham Bull took over as Musical Director in 1998, his first concert with the choir was the second of these charity concerts, Mozart's Requiem for the National Meningitis Trust. The years since 1998 have seen the choir increasingly perform more ambitious works with orchestra, instrumental ensembles, organ, and using young professional soloists. As well as re-visiting certain works (Faure's Requiem, Rutter's Gloria and Stainer's Crucifixion to name but three), a large amount of new material for the choir has been performed. Works have included Vaughan Williams' Toward the Unknown Region, An Oxford Elegy and Lord, Thou Hast Been Our Refuge, Haydn's Creation, Handel's Messiah in its complete version (the Silver Jubilee Concert), Elgar's Dream of Gerontius (in 2000, for the Elgar centenary), Handel's Coronation Anthems (for the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002), Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, Charpentier's Te Deum, Durufle's Requiem, Gabrieli's In Ecclesis, Schubert's Mass in G, Bach cantatas, as well as works and anthems by Mathias, Finzi, Parry, Bruckner, Stanford, Purcell, Poulenc, and many others. It has included part songs, Gilbert & Sullivan items and light modern pieces in informal Patron's Evenings, and has sung carols at Christmas in the town, both for charity and as fund-raising for the Society. The Trafalgar Anniversary in 2005 was recognised with a highly successful evening to a full and enthusiastic audience in a concert which included Stanford's Songs of the Sea and Songs of the Fleet, this being the only major musical event for the Anniversary in the Chepstow area. In 2006, the choir's tribute to the 250th Mozart Anniversary was a further performance of the Requiem and the Vesperae solennes de confessore, - again, this was to a capacity audience, and again it was the only prominant recognition of the Anniversary in the area. In July 2007, the Society presented two major concerts, both with professional soloists and orchestra. In March, the Spring concert comprised Haydn's Missa Brevis in F, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, and Vivaldi's Gloria., and in July the Society gave a full performance of Felix Mendelssohn's great oratorio Elijah, a major challenge for any choral society, and was delighted at the enthusiastic response from highly appreciative audiences. In 2008, the Society will be charting new ground once more, with a first performance of Dvorak's Te Deum and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Benedicite in its March 8 spring concert, which will also include Faure's Requiem, and in July it will perform Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (two pianos and percussion version) with Brahms' Liebeslieder. The choir presents the town's annual Christmas presentation in St Mary's Church, with a mixture of choral items, family carols and seasonal readings, often including the children's choir from one of the local schools, and similarly programmes a concert for the pre-Easter season, usually on Passiontide weekend. The Society has responded to different challenges during the past 27 years, and would not have survived if it had not done so. The aim of the Society is to keep choral music alive, to produce the best of which it is capable, to enjoy singing, and to present programmes that are challenging to achieve but enjoyable for audience and choir alike. A policy of support for young professional musicians has proved a positive and much applauded move, and has seen some very fine singers, commencing their national and international careers, as soloists. The orchestra members are young qualified musicians and instrumentalists drawn from several of the nation's major Music Colleges, including many from Cardiff. The Society is affiliated to the Welsh Amateur Music Federation, and established this website in 2004, which posts news, programme planning, concert reviews, activities and contact names and addresses, as well as a comprehensive list of past programmes and soloists since 1990. Chepstow Choral Society believes it has a bright future, and will continue to offer a mixture of challenge, enjoyment and steady advance as the representatives of mixed larger- scale choral singing in the Chepstow area.

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