WELCOME TO THE WEBSITE OF THE MARCHES COMMUNITY CHOIR
The Choir aims to bring choral music to all in the Bishop’s Castle (Shropshire) area of the Marches, including those who live in the adjacent towns in Wales.
We are now in our 10th Anniversary Year, following our launch as part of the Millennium celebrations. We pride ourselves in reaching a high musical standard under the direction of professional musicians. Our concerts feature professional vocal soloists and instrumentalists.
The Choir has around 80 enthusiastic members drawn from a wide section of the community around Bishop’s Castle. It is open to all to join, and we encourage participation by all those over 16, whether able to read music or not. Tenors and basses are especially welcome, but there will always be a need for sopranos and altos as well. There is no upper age limit and we have many retired members.
In normal years there are two concerts, in the Spring and at Christmas. Rehearsals are held in Bishop’s Castle Community College at 7:30pm on Mondays. Concerts are normally on Saturdays in St John’s Church, Bishop’s Castle.
Following a very successful visit by the Choir to our twin town in France during October 2008, we had a summer concert last year with the orchestra and singers from St. Marcel. This was on July 4th, and was widely considered a great success (see Photo Gallery page). Members also participate in workshops and other events organised by Making Musing West Midlands and also attend other choral events in the region such as those run by the CBSO, Shrewsbury Choral and Ludlow Choral Societies. These give opportunities for further musical advancement as well as providing contact with other choirs. The Choir is a Registered Charity (number 1099360) and is funded by member subscriptions, member fund raising, grants from Shropshire Council, Making Music and others plus other sponsorship.
To celebrate the Choir's 10th Anniversary in 2010, we held a very successful special Easter concert and plan a further concert of greater than usual scope at Christmas 2010, and an additional one in the Summer. New music has been commissioned from local composers for the concerts, which also include popular classical choral works.
The Spring concert this year was on 24 April when we performed Handel’s Zadok the Priest, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Mozart’s Requiem. Ian Ward conducted. A fanfare newly written by Richard White started the event. See photos in the gallery. A double CD will be available of this performance shortly.
Our Summer concert, which will be free to the audience, will take place as part of the Bishop’s Castle Midsummer Rejoicing on 19th June and will feature Penny Burns’s Shropshire Serenade set to music by John P Bowen as well as pieces by Elgar. We look forward to the collaboration of the Castle Voices and the Bishop’s Castle Orchestra.
At Christmas (11th December) we will be performing the first part of Handel’s Messiah and a second commission from John P Bowen as well as the usual carols with audience participation.
We hope you will join us at the remaining two concerts during our celebratory year. Even better, if you would like to sing, please see the Membership page.
