A Brief History of the Society

The original Corsham Choir was formed in 1858 and achieved a high standing in the musical life of the town and throughout the county of Wiltshire. Changing its name to Corsham Choral Society in 1871 it gave regular public concerts for another 60 years until circumstances combined to compel the then committee to disband the Society in 1932. These circumstances are not specifically chronicled but are anecdotally presumed to include the economic depression prevailing, the advent of the wireless and improved gramophone records.

Our reincarnation in 1989 came about as the direct result of the vision and personality of a greatly respected and multi-talented local musician, John Nourse. Under his leadership the reformed Society gave its first performance, Vivaldi’s Gloria in St. Bartholomew’s Church Corsham, on 6 May 1989. John continued as Musical Director of the Society for another twelve years during which time he expanded its musical repertoire and steadily improved its standard of performance. We acknowledge gratefully the huge debt we owe to John Nourse.

Colin Howard was appointed as our Musical Director in 2001. Colin studied conducting and piano at the Royal College of Music and has worked with many choirs and orchestras. He is also a gifted vocalist having been a boy chorister and currently singing regularly in cathedral choirs. Under Colin, we continued to develop both our range of repertoire and our competence to perform it. After ten years' service, Colin stood down as Musical Director in July 2011. The role was admirably picked up by Margaret Henry who guided us with panache through our programme for the Autumn of 2011, while we arranged to appoint a permanent replacement. Francis Faux took up the baton in January 2012 and his charismatic leadership is now taking the choir in new and exciting directions.

Recent larger scale concerts have included performances of The Seasons (Haydn), Requiem (Faure), Pastoral (Bliss), Light of Life (Elgar), Psalmus Hungaricus (Kodaly) and Mass in C (Beethoven) and Rutter's Gloria. Concerts in a lighter vein have embraced short pieces by George Shearing, Britten, William Byrd, Joseph Horovitz and most recently a concert of well known opera choruses.

In addition to our regular performances we engage in ad hoc ventures such as a slot in the annual Bath Festival, performing Carols for the Officers and their guests at their Christmas Dinner, singing at the switching on of Corsham's Christmas lights and accepting engagements to sing at weddings.

We have a commitment to fostering an interest in choral music in young people. In 2009, we organised a very successful competition for composers under 23 years of age whereby each entrant submitted an original composition up to five minutes in length which was performed by the Choir in front of a panel of accredited judges. In addition, for 2009-10 we appointed a student conductor, from Bath Spa University, who assisted in the taking of rehearsals and directed the Choir in some public performances, all under the tutelage of our Musical Director.