Worcester Cathedral Chamber Choir History

Worcester Cathedral Chamber Choir was founded in December 1998 by its Musical Director Stephen Shellard. It comprises about 30 voices of men and women from around the Diocese of Worcester. The choir occasionally sings for Sunday Eucharist Services in the Cathedral but more frequently Evensong and performs concerts and sings services both in the Diocese and beyond.

Major works in the recent repertoire include Bach's St John's Passion, Fauré's and Duruflé's Requiems, Brahms' German Requiem, Handel's Messiah and Dixit Dominus, Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, St Nicholas and Ceremony of Carols and Rutter's Magnificat.

In April 2003 the choir went to Dublin where it performed Duruflé's Requiem in St Bartholomew's Church and sang Evensong in St Patrick's Cathedral.

In August 2005 the choir commissioned and sang canticles by Steven Kings for a Three Choirs Festival Evensong and the choir was also the resident semi chorus during the Festival. For this year's Three Choirs Festival the choir has it's own concert in Tewkesbury Abbey with the Worcester Chamber Orchestra. Stephen Shellard formed the orchestra in 2006, fulfilling his long held ambition to set up a professional orchestra to accompany the Choir in at least two concerts a year.

The choir has recorded three CDs. You can read more details of these and hear some clips by clicking the appropriate link on the left of the page. You can now also buy two of them on line.

For future plans see the events page.