Romsey Choral Society

Welcome to Romsey Choral Society

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We finally did it! Our first live concert for many months - with many covid related hoops to jump through - we were delighted to be able to perform our planned concert to open the Romsey Festival 2021.

We completed a Risk assessment and worked closely with the Romsey Abbey guidance in order to ensure as safe an event as possible. All our performers were asked to take a covid test before the concert, and the Romsey Festival team were on hand to make sure everything went to plan. With 4 superb soloists and Richard Pearce at the helm, we sang the concert which we had planned to present in March 2020 before world events overtook us.

A huge thanks to our loyal audience members who came and supported us in a socially distanced Romsey Abbey.

And who could forget Richard McVeigh's happy socks twinkling along the organ pedals? Magnificent!

Thanks to Romsey viewfinders for these pictures of the concert.

Romsey Choral Society

Welcome to Romsey Choral Society which is recognised as one of the best choirs in Southern England. Please have a look around this site to discover more about the choir. The season's repertoire is listed in the Concert Diary pages. For our latest choir newsletter click here.

Rehearsals usually take place every Tuesday at 7.30pm at the Romsey Methodist Church, The Hundred, Romsey, SO51 8BZ .

We are hopeful that when we resume rehearsals in September we will be able to return to the Romsey Methodist church. We are completely committed to keeping all our members as safe as possible. During the past year and a half, we have taken the required steps for any face to face rehearsals and now a performance without any adverse incidents.

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Want to hear us sing?

Click below to see and hear a short YouTube excerpt from Visions of Heaven - Saturday 28th March 2015

Hear an excerpt

Summer 2020 recording

Christmas 2020 recording

Click here to read our latest concert review

Concert reviews

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Richard Pearce
RCS Musical Director

Richard took up the post of Musical Director in September 2019 as we transitioned to our next stage of development, building on six brilliant years under the baton of Jamie W. Hall.

Richard Pearce was organ scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating with first class honours in music. He is now a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, coaching singers and instrumentalists for careers in opera and the concert platform, and is a trustee of the Josephine Baker Trust, which supports young soloists at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music in London.

Richard is busy as a conductor, pianist and organist with professional choirs. He records and broadcasts regularly with the BBC Singers. He recently conducted works by James MacMillan, Judith Bingham, Britten and Roxanna Panufnik for broadcast on BBC Radio 3. As organist and pianist he has performed with many of the UK’s best-known choral conductors, including David Hill, Stephen Cleobury, Paul Spicer, Bob Chilcott and Sofi Jeannin. Richard has a long-standing association with the Royal Choral Society, and performs with them several times a year at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Richard has been musical director of the Waverley Singers, based in Farnham, Surrey, since 2009. During this time, he has led the choir in some 40 performances. Particular highlights have been concerts in Guildford Cathedral of Monteverdi Vespers, Verdi Requiem, Beethoven Mass in C, Brahms Schicksalslied, Mozart Requiem and Bach Magnificat in D. Alongside these major works he has introduced new and varied repertoire to the choir, including commissions by composer Will Todd, and many newly-written compositions.

Richard is regular organist with the Philharmonia and BBC Symphony Orchestras in London; with them he has performed with many inspirational conductors including established maestri Lorin Maazel, Pierre Boulez, Oliver Knussen, Andrew Davis, Sakari Oramo, Marin Alsop and Ed Gardner, as well as up-and-coming stars such as Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Valentina Peleggi. Recent performances have included the solo organ part in the European première of Unsuk Chin’s Le Chant des Enfants des Étoiles with Esa-Pekka Salonen in London’s Royal Festival Hall, and a tour of China performing Saint-Säens organ symphony with Vladimir Ashkenazy. He also performs regularly in Promenade concerts and recordings, including at the Last Night of the Proms to a worldwide television audience.

Richard frequently conducts and plays for services at St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster and at the Houses of Parliament.

Light at the end of the tunnel!

It's been a long time coming, but we have now managed to sing together in person.

It was such a huge relief to get back to something resembling normality when we met to perform in Romsey Abbey on 3rd July 2021.

We sang the music which we had planned for March 2020, at the beautiful church of St Cross in Winchester, but had to be postponed due to the onset of the COVD 19 virus.

So we hope that by September, when we gather again to start rehearsing music for our November concert, we will be able to meet and sing under slightly more normal circumstances.

We know that some people will still be wary of meeting in groups, and some people will still wish to wear a face covering whatever the guidance says. And that's fine. We want everyone to feel safe and that is why we have been following the guidance as closely as we can. We will continue to do our utmost to ensure the safety of everyone involved.

And finally a huge thank you to the members of RCS who have followed the rules and waited in line to enter a concert or rehearsal venue with face coverings and sanitiser at the ready! Thank you!

Hilary Mitchell
RCS Admin Secretary