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This page gives outline descriptions of the choirs which have sung with the Brentwood Choirs Festival or which have recently come forward to sing with us. Our aim is to give a summary of their style, links to their websites, where possible, and contact details. Hopefully this will lead to new contacts with the participating choirs choirs and through that an understanding of what can be gained by joining in the BCF.
The Billericay Choral Society choir has about 40 singers and is based in Billericay, Essex. Formed in 1971, it has been a part of the town's community ever since. and enjoys a high reputation for performances. It performs a wide range of sacred and secular music, including unaccompanied miniatures, part-songs, anthems, motets, popular song arrangements but mainly larger scale works. It give 3 or 4 concerts each year, some jointly with other choirs. Their musical director is Ian Walker, who has been actively engaged in music in Essex for many years. He has sung with and conducted the Leigh Orpheus Male Voice Choir, directed a number of musicals for local societies, participated in the Southend Philharmonic Orchestra concerts as player, conductor and organiser since the age of 13, and is currently their chairman. He has been musical director of the Eastwood Chorale for nearly 20 years.
The society has a website which can be accessed using this link Billericay Choral Society
Over its long history, the Brentwood Choral Society has performed a many and varied selection of choral works. It was founded in 1941 by the late Dr. Edgar Brice, Director of Music at Brentwood School, who conducted from 1941 to 1992. Over 65 years on, it is still going strong. The Choral Society numbers about 30 dedicated and friendly musicians, and performs small scale works in its own right, yet is versatile enough to join forces with other choirs around the region to perform larger scale works."The current musical Director is Nicholas Sherwood He studied at Exeter University, where he gained his B.A. He is an Associate of the Royal College of Organists and of the Royal College of Music (Organ Performance) and he also holds a P.G.C.E.. As a singer, Nicholas has deputised at St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. He has conducted numerous choirs and is a teacher of singing, piano and organ, both privately and with the London Borough of Newham.
The society has a website which can be accessed using this link Brentwood Choral Society
The Ingatestone Choral Society is a group of 60 singers which rehearses in the United Reform Church Hall in Ingatestone
It was formed in 1948 by Miss Elma Russell, who had conducted the village church choir and the Ingatestone Women's Institute Choir during the war years. Since 1969 their conductor has been Bruce Pennick. 'In 1964, when he was teaching at Ingatestone Secondary School, his Youth Centre Choir was invited to share a concert with Ingatestone Choral Society. This led to an invitation to take over ICS itself.
The Ingatestone Choral Society aim to hold at least one concert in the village each year, in addition to Christmas concerts alternating between the Parish Church and the United Reformed Church, where they rehearse. The choir was originally formed for the purpose of entering the annual Festival of the Essex Musical Association and continued to do so until its demise in 2009. They were also founder members of the Brentwood Choirs Festival and continue to use this festival to enable them to perform the repertoire of larger choral works.
The society has a website which can be accessed using this link Ingatestone Choral Society
The Cathedral Singers, a mixed voice choir with about 40 members, exists primarily for concert work in the Cathedral, and has an ecumenical membership. They were formed in 1982 and were an off-shoot of the Diocesan Liturgical Choir. Their first concert, a performance of the Fauré Requiem, was given on the 2nd November 1984. They have made concert tours to Germany, Ireland and Austria and concert performances have included the Great C Minor Mass by Mozart, the St John Passion and the St Matthew Passion by Bach, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Rachmaninov’s Vespers, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Britten’s St Nicholas, Rejoice in the Lamb and Ceremony of Carols and Brahms’ German Requiem.
The music department of Brentwood Cathedral has a website
The page describing the singers can be accessed using this link Brentwood Cathedral Singers
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