A BRIEF HISTORY OF HARROGATE CHORAL SOCIETY

A review of Harrogate Choral Society in the Harrogate Herald of 1881 recorded :- "The success of the Harrogate Choral Society is now no matter of conjecture, for as at present there are considerably above one hundred members enrolled, its future prosperity may be considered assured"

Unfortunately world events affected life in Harrogate as elsewhere, but in 1948 the choir sang Elijah in May to celebrate the formation of the Society formally. This first Harrogate Choral Society was an amalgamation of the choirs of the Air Ministry, Ministry of aircraft Productions and the Ministry of Supply. Membership grew rapidly, the repertoire was increased and performances were given, generally in local churches. By 1953 the society was established in the Lounge Hall, Harrogate with occasional orchestral accompaniment and in the sixties, the concerts moved to the Royal Hall under the new conductor Joseph Nicholson. The first concert in the Royal Hall which was also the first concert with full orchestra was the Messiah in 1965.

Mr Nicholson was succeeded in 1970 by Ian Linford who directed fifty major concerts. It has been the policy of the Society to be adventurous in its choice of works as well as to present well established old favourites. Thus in Ian Linford's final six years as conductor we included Vaughn William "Sea Symphony", Fricker " Vision of Judgement", Faure "Requiem", Handel "Messiah", Berlioz "Requiem" and "Te Deum", Orff "Carmina Burana", Beethoven "Missa Solemnis", Bach "Mass in B Minor", Tippett "A Child of our Time" and Monteverdi "Vespers of 1610".

Between 1986 and 1991 our conductor was John Gulley and he continued this adventurous trend. His first concert with us being Honegger "King David" with Richard Baker as narrator. We reached a milestone on 11th November 1989 with our first performance of Britten "War Requiem", commemorating the annniversary of the outbreak of WWII. In his final year we performed the requiems of both Brahms and Verdi.

For fourteen years from 1991 to 2005 our Music Director Jeffrey Wynn Davies who (with excellent support from our Deputy Music Director, Marilynne Davies) led us with great imagination and flair, moulding the quality and character of our choral sound to achieve an ever increasing standard and flexibility. Performances under his baton have included repertoire as diverse as Monteverdi "Vespers of 1610", Bach "St Matthew Passion", Elgar "Dream of Gerontius", and Britten "War Requiem" which we performed a second time in November 1995, 50 years from the end of World War II. Sadly on 26 October 2002 we performed in the Royal Hall for what seemed like the last time. The structure of the building was crumbling to such an extent that the whole building was closed for health & safety reasons.

In the Autumn of 1995 we made a recording of Christmas Carols at Fountains Abbey, our nearest National Trust site, subsequent sales of which have supported both ourselves and the National Trust. We were asked to sing Carmina Burana in the massed choir at the Proms 98 choral day at the Royal Albert Hall. We have also taken part in two commercial Opera Gala Nights for the Raymond Gubbay organisation in Harrogate and Sheffield and have been the "backing group" for Russell Watson in late 2000 / early 2001.

Our numbers are now in the region of 140 - 150 and we are very much enjoying working with our new Music Director, Andrew Padmore who joined us in September 2005. Even better news is on the horizon, after many years of hard earned fundraising and battles against beauracracy the Royal Hall Restoration Trust are proud to announce that the Royal Hall will reopen in the spring of 2008 and Harrogate Choral Society's concert there on 3rd May 2008 will be the first performance by a local amateur group.