Stratford-upon-Avon Choral Society was founded in 1836 and is one of the oldest choral societies in the UK. We have met and performed continuously since then, apart from short interludes during wartime and the COVID pandemic.
Our historic base has always been in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, the church where William Shakespeare was baptised and is buried. We still perform most of our concerts there, though we rehearse elsewhere.
We have been fortunate to have some great Music Directors to lead us over the years including our current MD, Oliver Neal Parker, who joined us for the 2021/22 season. He has helped us recover from a year without singing during the pandemic, and has taken our singing to new heights.
His predecessor, Stephen Dodsworth, did a great deal to advance the choir over his 31 years as our MD. He lead several overseas tours and raised the overall standard of our performances.
Over the years, the choir has sung in the first performances of Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem", "The Beatitudes" by Sir Arthur Bliss, "This Airy Day" by James Walker, Howard Goodall's "Let Us Be True to One Another" and Stephen Dodsworth's "Time's Glory".
Some memorable recent performances include
- Singing Handel's Messiah in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, as part of the opening of the new main theatre in 2010
- Performing the UK premier of Joseph Touchemoulin's Messe Solonelle in 2013. We believe this was the first performance of this work anywhere since the 18th centuary. It was re-disovered in a library in Regensburg in Germany, the town where it was written, and a new printed edition was created and edited by our then Music Director, Stephen Dodsworth.
- Our Spring concert in March 2022 was our tribute to the 150th anniversary of the birth of British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the second half featured his anti-war piece Dona Nobis Pacem, which we dedicated to the support of Ukraine. It was a memorable evening which filled the church and raised over £1,500 in the retiring collection for the Ukraine fund.
- Our performance of JS Bach's St John Passion in March 2025 was our first with a period orchestra, the Instruments of Time and Truth.
To commemorate our 190th anniverary, Carol Jackson has written an update to the choir's history. It builds on the history of our first 150 years that was published by Diana Brownhill and covers the 40 years since then.
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