Chester Festival Chorus

In rehearsal in Chester Cathedral

About Us

The Chester Festival Chorus was formed in 1981 by Martin Merry, a founder of the Chester Summer Music Festival and Artistic Director from its inception in 1978 until 1985.  Since its formation the Chester Festival Chorus has established itself as one of Northwest England’s leading large-scale mixed-voice choirs.  At the annual Chester Summer Music Festival the chorus has performed major choral works from Handel and Mozart to Weill, Mahler and Tavener. 

The chorus made its first visit to the BBC Proms in 1992 when it gave the second performance of John Tavener’s We Shall See Him As He Is, conducted by Richard Hickox with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.  The chorus has since returned to the Proms on three occasions, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 1994 for a performance of Dvořák’s Requiem conducted by Libor Pešek, with the BBC Philharmonic in 1998 for a performance of Poulenc’s Gloria under Yan Pascal Tortelier and again with the RLPO in 2005 singing Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony conducted by Gerard Schwarz. 

The Chester Festival Chorus has also appeared with the BBC Philharmonic and other choirs from the North of England at the opening choral concert at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

Repertory in recent years has included Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, Handel’s Saul, Britten’s War Requiem and Spring Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem, Tippett’s A Child Of Our Time and Finzi’s For St Cecilia.  Recent conductors who have worked with the choir include David Hill, Harry Christophers, Martyn Brabbins and James Burton.  Many of the chorus’s performances have been broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and in 2005 the choir made its live television debut when its Prom concert was broadcast on BBC 4. 

For 2008 the choir has an exciting project on its hands.  The saxophonist/composer John Harle is this year’s artist in residence, and the festival has commissioned a new work for chorus and orchestra, ‘Earthlight’, which will receive its first performance in Chester Cathedral on July 25th.  The chorus will also be performing, in Russian, Rachmaninov’s Spring Cantata.  The concert will also feature works by Debussy and Vaughan Williams and will be the first time the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra has appeared in Chester under its new chief conductor, Vasily Petrenko.

Since 1991 the chorus has been trained by Frances Cooke who also trains the choir of the St Endellion Festival in Cornwall.  The choir’s rehearsal accompanist is Eve Harrington.

THE CHOIR OF THE CHESTER SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL