Around The County

We perform at a variety of functions each year including weddings, birthdays, Christmas concerts and fundraisers for other charitable and worthy good causes (Castles a speciality).  We also produce our own concerts, sometimes sharing the stage with other choirs, brass bands etc, as well as with young people from local school choirs and ensembles.

The choir has competed in the Radio Shropshire Choir of the Year competition, Minsterley Eisteddfod and we have also been involved in the Shrewsbury International Music Festival.

Charity Work

The Choir achieved registered charity status in February this year which significantly enhances our ability to support local charities and good causes.  We are entirely self-financing and proud to have helped raise many thousands of pounds for other organizations over the years.

Each year we choose a charity to support and all concert fees for that year go directly to it.  This year we are supporting Shrewsbury Mencap as we have in previous years.  Apart from our concerts, choir members organize fairs, auctions and other activities throughout the year to raise money for the charity.

Our repertoire is constantly changing and ranges from sacred music to show tunes and modern pieces from the like of Queen and Snow Patrol as well as classics from the 60s and 70s.  English Traditional Folk and pieces sung in Latin, Swahili and French have figured in our repertoire over the years - Welsh has been conspicuous by its absence, but we're working on it!  We have a separate repertoire for Christmas which also changes every year, with new songs to learn as well as older favourites revisited.

The Singing Experience

All our performances are undertaken without copy which means we must learn the whole repertoire off by heart.  This may seem daunting to new members at first but constant revision and reinforcement in rehearsal as well as individual and section training does the trick.  The advantages of being able to follow The Directors lead without distraction are well worth the effort. 

"The Choir is better than the sum of its parts"

This certainly applies to us. We are all part of the team - even the Basses, a much maligned and vilified group of unsung heroes. 

Choir On Tour

Every other year the choir organises a singing tour.  This broadens the choir experience and gives us the opportunity to share our music with and enjoy other cultures.  The Choir has visited Canada, Germany and Belgium, all of which were very successful both socially and musically, with concerts in larger sometimes ornate Gothic venues being the high points.  We are looking forward to the possibility of completing tours around the UK in the near future - The credit crunch hits everybody! 

Wonder where they got that from?   Mmmmm.

Minsterley Eisteddfod

For the past few years we have supported the local  Eisteddfod at Minsterley.  Being part of such an event is both exciting and testing.  To be in competition with choirs of such a standard always sharpens our performance and the honest and often frank opinions of the judges gives us some focus for our efforts in the coming year.  This year it was the turn of the basses to be focussed upon - bless 'em.  We won't be lacking next year Ladies!  We were surprised and delighted to be awarded the cup for the Open Choir Category this year, against a very strong field of accomplished choirs, and look forward to taking part next year.