Our History and Heritage

A period of instability — 2011 -2014

Alistair Auld became Musical Director following Martin Schellenberg’s final concert on 12th November. Michael Davey became accompanist

21 December 2011 - “The Big Christmas Sing”

24th March 2012 - Handel’s Messiah at St Mary’s Church

16th June 2012 - “Opera Viva” at the Walker Theatre at Theatre Severn - featuring music from Verdi’s Il Travatore, Nabucco, Macbeth & La Traviata, Bizet’s Carmen, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Borodin’s Prince Igor.

10th November 2012 at the Abbey - “Glorious Haydn” - Insanae et vanae curae, Missa St Ioannis de Deo ‘Little Organ Mass’ & Imperial ‘Nelson’ Mass.

19 December 2012 - “The Big Christmas Sing” at St Mary’s.

23 March 2013 - “Britten’s Centenary Celebration”at the Abbey - Te Deum, Simple Symphony for Strings & St Nicolas

29th June 2013 - “The Best of Broadway” at St Mary’s - featuring classics by Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Leonard Bernstein

9th November 2013 - “Baroque Celebration” at the Abbey - Handel’s Zadok the Priest, Purcell’s Come Ye Sons of Art, Vivaldi’s Beatus Vir, Charpentier’s Te Deum

18th December 2013 - “The Big Christmas Sing” at St Mary’s

Alistair Auld departed from the role of Musical Director after the Big Christmas Sing for personal reasons. William Hayward, former Master of Music at Shrewsbury Abbey who had accompanied the Choral Society on a number of occasions stepped into the role for the following two concerts pending the appointment of a new permanent Musical Director. This necessitated changes to programmes. The April concert was to have included the ‘Organ’ Symphony by Saint-Saëns but plans for this work were scrapped. The Summer concert which was to be titled ‘The Magic of Musical Song’ would have featured songs “from Oklahoma to Les Miserables” was replaced by an entirely different programme.

22nd February 2014 - Choral Workshop at the Baptist Hall followed by short concert - Vivaldi’s Gloria

12th April 2014 - “The French Connection” at St Chad’s. Music by Fauré - Pavane, Après Un Rêve, Cantique de Jean Raçine, Requiem, and a composition by William Hayward himself Ye Now Have Sorrow, composed in 1997 as a piece for Holy Week to partner the Requiem and using the same orchestral forces.

28th June 2014 at St Mary’s. Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Constant Lambert’s The Rio Grande, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana featuring the Children’s Chorus from Prestfelde School and Shrewsbury Percussion Ensemble. Stephen Roberts was rehearsal accompanist. The financial demands made by the orchestration caused a serious depletion of the budget which impacted upon programming decisions for some time afterwards. William had been in poor health for some time and passed away in December 2015

Dr Martin Cook was appointed as Musical Director starting in Autumn 2014