History

The society was founded in 1991 after the Peterborough Philharmonic Choral Society disbanded. The choir is made up of mixed male and female voices, and we enjoy performing two classical concerts a year, plus a lighter summer concert, in the Peterborough area.

For the first concert in September 1991, we performed Faure's Requiem and Vivaldi's Gloria in Peterborough High School. It was a great success and the following March we performed our second concert. This was Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Peterborough Cathedral, performed with soloists and the City of Peterborough Symphony Orchestra. Since then our repertoire has included major works such as Bach's B Minor Mass, Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man, Monteverdi's Beatus Vir and Howard Goodall's Eternal Light. We have had Musical Directors from the Cathedral and have joined with the Cathedral Choir, Youth Choir and Festival Chorus to perform the larger choral works in the Cathedral. These concerts were accompanied by professional soloists, orchestras or ensembles as well as showcasing the talent within the choirs that we joined. During Covid we continued to make music through rehearsals by Zoom. We also had the opportunity to join Leicester Philharmonic Choral Society and Stephen Bullamore in a concert of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony and What Man is He? by Imogen Holst in the De Montfort Hall, Leicester, accompanied by the Bardi Orchestra. We also joined them later that year in the Last Night of the Autumn Proms concert accompanied by the London Concert Orchestra.

A Musical Director from London joined us in 2023, breaking with the tradition of having Musical Directors from the Cathedral. The choir joined a charity concert at St Mary’s Church, Primrose Hill, London for a performance of Mozart's Requiem accompanied by the London Classical Orchestra. Performers donated their time and the concert raised money for three homeless charities, two in London and our local Light Project in Peterborough. Since 2024 we have been under the leadership of Musical Director, Bradley Smith. He is an internationally renowned and inspirational voice coach and supports us to improve our voices through tips and techniques. He also inspires us, has great enthusiasm, humour and provides creativity in concert production. This is providing an exciting journey for the choir.

We continue having good links with local choral societies and some of their members have joined us for a number of our concerts. We are a very good choir who are passionate about continuing choral musical excellence in Peterborough. Research has shown that singing together supports mental health and wellbeing and we have fun too. We are proud of the support we have given to many members over the years.