Chichester Chorale concludes its 20th anniversary season

Their Festival of Chichester concert, conducted by Tom Robson, will be on Friday, July 4 at 7:30pm (Church Lane, Boxgrove, PO18 0EE). Tickets £15 from the Chichester Chorale website.

Tom said: “We have had a great anniversary season. It has been absolutely brilliant. We've done some lovely things and had some fabulous support. We sang mass in Westminster Cathedral and that was such a special experience.

“But the anniversary has meant that we've been able to consider a little bit more about what the institution is and what we're trying to do. I've been trying to push for it to become a registered charity to secure its long-term security and the long-term health of the choir, but the anniversary has also been a chance to consider what we do and why we do it. It's all very well someone coming up with the ideas for three concerts a year but we've had the chance to think what is the function of the choir behind those concerts, what people are interested in doing and what they're interested in doing more of. The idea of external trips has come up and we're hoping to do a tour next year. We've done one once before my time and I thought about it doing again but Covid hit in my second year but now we're thinking about doing another tour next year.”

But the key factor is that the anniversary finds the choir in a good place: “Our membership did dip during Covid and immediately after but it has grown again. We're more or less back to where we were. The choir can go from anything between 30 and 50 singers. We are not up to 50 at the moment, but we used to have a big student contingent that we don't have any more though we do have ex-students that come along.”

As for the big summer Festival of Chichester concert: “When I'm planning it the first thing in mind is that we're playing in the most glorious location, Boxgrove Priory. My starting point is what is going to work well in that beautiful space, but also there is a bit of an end of year blow-out feel. It is the only concert where we regularly have instrument accompaniment rather than just organ, and often I will try to think in terms of things that are popular.

Buxtehude’s Magnificat is formally attributed to Buxtehude: “But we don't really know who wrote it but it really is the most glorious piece.”

Monteverdi’s Beatus Vir is “one of the greatest pieces ever written. It is so joyful and so uplifting. There are so many ideas in this single piece. We don't know when it was written but there is just such a vibrancy to it.”

As for Vivaldi’s Gloria: “It's a beautiful piece that I have not done with this choir in my time over the last six years, and I just thought it was about time to do it. It is so uplifting and we have got two wonderful soloists.”