One of the longest-established and most respected choirs in Southern England, we are a large choir performing choral music from the classical and contemporary repertoire with professional orchestras and soloists. We sing together with the Southampton University Phil, giving us a unique blend of youthful and experienced voices. The choir performs major concerts three times each year, generally at Southampton Guildhall or Winchester Cathedral. Additional performances include our popular concert of Christmas Music at the Turner Sims Concert Hall at the University of Southampton. We also hold regular Choral Workshops for keen singers who are interested in developing their ability.

We adopted Mayfield Nurseries as our new nominated charity in June 2011 and are looking forward to helping to raise funds for them and awareness of their invaluable work in the community.

We are also grateful to Bluthner Piano Centre Ltd for their kind support and sponsorship of the choir.

Next Concert: From Russia with love

Rachmaninov’s rarely performed choral symphony The Bells is the main choral work in this concert. It was composed for soprano, tenor and baritone, with choir and a large, colourful orchestra. The original Russian text was freely adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem of the same name. We will sing an English translation. Each of the four movements uses a different type of bell to portray a stage of human life – silver sleigh bells for birth and youth, golden wedding bells, bronze bells of warning, and the iron death bell.