(Ardingly College Chapel, 31st March 2007) The Spring Concert of the East Grinstead Choral Society proved to be a perfect blend of an evening in the beautiful chapel of Ardingly College. The Bach/Haydn/Vivaldi combination suited both the liturgical year and the discerning musical ear with an impressive line-up: the excellent EG choir itself, vocal and instrumental soloists and orchestra all blended skillfully by conductor Richard Jenkinson. Bach's “little mass” in G minor and Haydn's Stabat Mater, with Vivaldi's Concerto for Bassoon made up the programme. Prize-winning Tanya Weeks performed this rarely heard Vivaldi piece. The make-up of both the Bach and the Haydn works maintained an interesting flow to the evening and produced excellent performances all round. Jenkinson has brought the choir to a high standard of togetherness and performance. Combined with a fine choice of soloists, Sarah Corp, Eve Lambah, Philip Slane and the Swedish-born baritone, Stefan Holmstrom, this spring concert had all the brightness and optimism for the future of choral performance in the area. For the diary: Saturday 23 June, Imberhorne School, East Grinstead.
East Grinstead Choral Society has recently returned from a concert tour to Mindelheim, East Grinstead’s twin town in Bavaria, where they performed highlights of Handel’s Messiah and other works with the church choirs of St. Stephan and St. Johannes and the Mindelheim Chamber Orchestra. The concert received a very good review in the Mindelheim daily newspaper, which reported three times on the Society’s visit during the week. East Grinstead Choral Society also sang at the nearby Monastery at Ottobeuren, a magnificent rococo baroque Basilika. The tour also included day trips to the fairy tale castles of Neuschwanstein and Linderhof, and the rococo baroque Maria Steinbach church.
The Society enjoyed singing again with the pupils of St. Peters RC Primary School at its Family Christmas Concert, which was held on Saturday 11th December at Sackville School, East Grinstead. Mulled wine and mince pies will be served and the proceeds went to the Heatherley Cheshire Homes.
In 1952 Mr Leslie Jenner of Christopher Road, East Grinstead inaugurated the Society, in those days a small number of friends in a private house and as he put it, 'to have a bit of a sing-song'. Within three months, the Society was giving a performance at the old grammar school, now known as Imberhorne Lower School in Windmill Lane. After Mr Jenner, came the first conductor, Goldburn Crossley, followed by Graham Gooder and Gordon Hughes. All these musicians widened the repertoire of the choir. The performances during the first twenty five years ranged from carol singing at Queen Victoria Hospital to appearing with Mr David Kossoff at a charity performance of his biblical stories at the Adeline Genée Theatre in 1967. More recently, Jarrod Armstrong conducted a performance of Jabberwocky, and local musician Paul Harvey also took the reins for some years.
For 50 years East Grinstead Choral Society has been delighting audiences and is now one of the best established choral groups in the area, having twice won awards for choral enterprise in recent years. It employs two highly qualified professional musicians: Richard Jenkinson (Musical Director) and Jeremy Barham (Accompanist and Assistant Musical Director) under whose enthusiastic leadership membership has grown and regularly masses to over 100 singers for its acclaimed concerts with professional soloists and orchestras. The Society's major works have included Mozart's Requiem, performed at the Brighton Festival this year, Bach's Mass in B Minor, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Verdi's Requiem, as well as innovative works such as the Chichester Psalms, Jabberwocky and the African Sanctus. It is affiliated to the Adult Education Centres of East Grinstead and Tandridge and with the NFMS.
The Society has travelled to Europe on five concert tours, including Verbania, East Grinstead's twin town in Italy where they performed with a local choir 'Coro La Piana'. In celebration of its Golden Jubilee Year, the society will be singing this autumn in the Spanish twin town of San Feliu de Guixols and has also been invited to take part as a choir in the Girona Festival. Other features of the year will be the Golden Jubilee Concert (Brahms Requiem and Poulenc Gloria) on 29th March 2003 at Ardingly College Chapel and the Twin Towns Choral Festival to be held in the autumn of 2003. Next April the Society welcomes all singers to a Saturday Workshop conducted by John Rutter. This will be a wonderful chance to work directly with one of our best known contemporary composers and arrangers.