Our Christmas concert for 2025 was at 3 pm on Saturday December 13th in St Gregory’s Church, Sudbury. We sang a lovely selection of traditional and not so traditional Christmas Carols with the audience being invited to join us on several of them plus readings in between.
Want to hear a snippet of what you missed – well here it is……
Our Christmas concert for 2025 was at 3 pm on Saturday December 13th in St Gregory’s Church, Sudbury. We sang a lovely selection of traditional and not so traditional Christmas Carols with the audience being invited to join us on several of them.
One of the carols we sang was composed by Amy Bryce who is composing our 80th anniversary work and who also came to the concert. We really liked this addition to our carol repertoire and so did our audience.
And in the concert interval we had teas and coffees and mince piese and sausage rolls. Whats more to like?
Our Christmas concert this year was at 3 pm Sunday December 15th in Sudbury Arts Centre. We sang a very fine selection of traditional Christmas Carols and we were joined by the Christmas Choir from Great Waldingfield Primary School. Cuteness overload or what.
Who else was there? Well in addition to our two accompaniests, Jill Garrett and Christopher Moore and our conductor we hope you were there too. This is a concert where we want you to join in and sing your heart out. Singing Christmas carols is THE way to get into the Christmas spirit and plenty of you did come along and joined in.
The concert was free although everyone was encouraged to make a donation which will be shared between the Choral Society and the Bridge Project who run Sudbury Arts Centre.
Our last “serious” concert was at 7 pm on Sunday 17th November in Sudbury Arts Centre at St Peter’s. We sang the gloriously operatic Puccini Gloria (loosely based on the Catholic Mass) with great gusto – which is what it needs and then after the interval we sang Faure’s heartstoppingly beautiful Requiem. Our fantastic soloists from the Royal Academy of Music and an orchestra made up of local professionals who really did the music justice.
Hats off to our newer and younger members of the choir – you really made a difference. Our audience was very impressed.
We hope you came to this concert – it was a wonderful evening of full on choral music. Not to be missed, particularly the duet in the Agnus Dei for the tenor and baritone soloists which was fabulous.
Here are some of the comments from our audience:
I just want to say how much i enjoyed the choir’s concert of Faure and Puccini on Sunday at the Sudbury arts centre. The Requiem is one of my favourite pieces and hearing it sing so beautifully with the gorgeous voice of the soprano was just breathtaking. Her voice was as pure as a choir boys! I don’t know the other piece by Puccini, but I really enjoyed it – there were so many exciting parts and the baritone soloist was absolutely brilliant – (so was the tenor!). We are so lucky to have this choir and orchestra in Sudbury – I will definitely come again! But I’ll get there early next time because it was so packed. Gaynor
Full disclosure first – I have been working with Sudbury Choral Society as their accompanist for a few months now, so I was really looking forward to sitting back and hearing them in full voice, as a spectator! And what a fantastic audience – yet another, thoroughly deserved full house! – at St Peter’s Arts Centre on Sunday 17th Nov.
For many in the choir it was the first time singing with an orchestra – and what a thrilling difference these professional players made. As the players responded to John Chillingford’s every nuance, the Choir rose to create a performance of real excitement and sympathy. I’ve adored the Puccini Messa di Gloria since rehearsals started but hearing the results of so much hard work, complemented by the brilliant orchestra and the 2 sensational young soloists, was indeed Glorious! Turning a little darker & more reflective for Faure, the more exposed vocal parts wobbled a little at times, but my goodness – I was proud to be listening to my friends and colleagues singing their hearts out up there! Jill
Stephen Varcoe, our president, said – Sudbury Choral Society entertained a packed house at the Sudbury Arts Centre on November 17 with another of their splendid concerts. Puccini’s challenging Messa di Gloria received a spirited performance accompanied by a hand-picked orchestra and two very impressive solo singers from the Royal Academy of Music – Owen Thomas and Johannes Moore. For Fauré’s beautiful Requiem Johannes was joined by local soprano Gill Wilson, and the choir again performed magnificently under the baton of conductor John Chillingworth.
For their Autumn concert, performed on 17 November, Sudbury Choral Society lit upon the ingenious idea of uniting compositions by two major, if musically disparate, composers who died one hundred years ago, in November 1924. Puccini’s Messa di Gloria is an early work, composed in 1880 when Puccini was 21 and still a student at the Milan Conservatory. The Messa little hints at the great operatic composer he was to become, though in the touching final ‘Agnus Dei’ for tenor, bass and chorus we experienced some of the emotional power for which Puccini was to become so noted. Fauré’s melodically appealing Requiem is a long-established member of the oratorio canon. It is amusing to read in the programme notes that such an accessible work was once ‘regarded by the conservative elements in French music as being dangerously modern.’
Once again, the Society was able to draw on talented young singers from the outstanding Royal Academy of Music vocal stable. Both tenor Owen Lucas and baritone Johannes Moore displayed well-schooled voices of attractive timbre, Moore admirably resisting the temptation to push in the lower reaches of the Puccini aria for bass. Both might have benefitted from observing local soprano Gill Wilson’s communication with the audience in Fauré’s ‘Pie Jesu.’ A certain reserve marks the performances of the Royal Academy students I have seen in oratorio. A greater vulnerability, and openness both to music and audience, would achieve yet more affecting results. John Chillingworth conducted the excellent band with his customary verve while the chorus, as ever, gave their all. Mark Glanville.
An occasion where the enthusiasm of an amateur choir, working with professional soloists, conductor and musicians , and playing to a packed house – Sudbury Arts Centre/ St Peter’s – provided a performance which had a true sense of occasion, exceeding all reasonable expectations, and provided an uplifting and joyful musical experience.
Soloists in the Puccini, Owen Lucas, tenor, and Johannes Moore , baritone, were superb, always excellent in their expression, projection and diction . The barione was joined by Gill Wilson as the excellent soprano soloist in Faure’s ethereal Pie Jesu .
Ensemble work of choir and orchestra was always well integrated , with conductor John Chillingworth , marshalling together soloists, musicians and choir on the day, providing tempi and phrasing which always maintained clear balance, crisp rhythms ,and well- phrased direction and line ; a result which was a splendid advert for his( and the accompanist’s) work over the choirs several weeks’ rehearsals. Graham
This was a fantastic sell out concert. The soloists, all from the Royal Academy of Music, were breathtaking. They they had such beautiful voices and were so enthusiastic that you could mot fail to be moved by their singing. The small orchestra which included a very large harpsichord played superbly and though we say it ourselves – the choir sang very very well. We sang with conviction and pure enjoyment and the audience had a wonderful night of top class music.
And when the Allelujah Chorus came, the audience stood and the choir took aim and lifted the roof off St Peter’s. It was something to behold and hear. We finished the evening with the beautifully gentle aria, Worthy is the Lamb. Glorious is not the word for this work and for the evening.
Sudbury Choral Society 