Sherborne Festival Chorus is a non-auditioning community-based choir of 140 people, formed in 2006, in collaboration with Sherborne Abbey Festival, to enable and to encourage local people to sing to a high standard within an informal environment. It aims to provide more local people with the opportunity to perform annually in Sherborne Abbey and to involve members of the community in Sherborne Abbey Festival.
The Chorus is led by our Musical Director, Paul Ellis, who has a longstanding reputation for leading amateur choral music of a high standard. We meet for weekly rehearsals and occasional workshops during the three months prior to the concert, which is usually the Thursday preceding the early May Bank Holiday Monday.
Sherborne Abbey Festival held its first concert on Friday, 5th May 2000, and has been held each year since as a four or five day event based around the liturgy and its music, attracting large audiences both local and from further afield.
The choir’s inaugural concert of Haydn’s Creation in April 2006, with professional soloists and orchestra, was highly acclaimed. The feedback, from members and audience alike, was very positive and there was great enthusiasm for continuing the choir as a regular group. In May 2007 the choir gave its second major concert, of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, and in 2008 a celebration of British music commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Vaughan Williams’ death, including a performance of A Sea Symphony and his Serenade to Music. A sell-out performance of Messiah followed in 2009, with soprano Emma Kirkby included in the line-up of soloists, and in 2010 a memorable performance of Elgar’s The Kingdom. Performances since have included Holst’s Hymn of Jesus and Poulenc’s Gloria, Mozart’s Mass in C minor Verdi’s Requiem and the first performance in the Abbey of Elgar’s The Apostles.
Our 2023 performance was as part of Sherborne Abbey Festival, with a performance of Haydn Harmoniemesse, Brahms Schicksalslied, and Schubert Symphony No. 8 The Unfinished, alongside Chameleon Arts Orchestra.
See our Past Performances page for more details of our concerts.
Click here to read the review of our performance in Sherborne Abbey of Elgar’s great work, The Dream of Gerontius.
Joining the Chorus
If you’d like to sing with the Festival Chorus, please get in touch, and we’ll make sure you’re on our mailing list for the next season. There are no auditions, but most of our members have some previous singing experience, and being able to read music or at least follow your line in a musical score is very helpful. We expect singers to attend the majority of rehearsals; as space is limited in the Abbey, we often have a waiting list for the performance and a place in the final concert is based on good rehearsal attendance. If you’d like to try the choir out, then attending our annual Come and Sing is a good way to see what we’re like.
