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Our History
In the early 90s, the Hertford Choral Society and Aeolian Singers of Hemel Hempstead looked into ways of collaborating so that the work put into preparing a choral concert was not all expended on one night. The spirit in the two choirs was willing but the venues to accommodate both choirs were just not there. A light-hearted comment - "the Albert Hall would be big enough" - resulted in the performance in '94 of Britten's War Requiem. The programme also contained Brahms' Academic Festival Overture and Song of Destiny. The soloists were Alison Pearce, Susan Bickley, Ameral Gunson, Susan Stacey, Morag Atchison, Justin Lavender, David Wilson-Johnson, Stephen Richardson. The performance was conducted by Derek Harrison. The choir numbered around 750. The boys' choir was based around St. Albans and directed by Andrew Parnell.
The enthusiasm generated by that project led to consideration
of another. The result of this was a performance in 1999 of Mahler's 8th
Symphony. Again the choir was large. This time with the children's choir drawn
from the Hertfordshire County Music Service directed by Peter Twitchin. The
soloists were Alison Pearce, Susan Bickley, Susan Stacey, Morag Aitchison,
Justin Lavender, David Wilson-Johnson, Stephen Richardson.
After two such demanding works, the third project was to perform Verdi’s Requiem and this concert took place on 16th November 2003. The choir of around 600 was drawn from 14 Hertfordshire choirs and the soloists were Alison Pearce, Susan Bickley, Justin Lavender and David Wilson-Johnson. As on the previous occasions, Derek Harrison was the conductor. The Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra accompanied the choirs for each of these concerts. All these concerts have supported the charity British Council for Prevention of Blindness - to date, around £100,000 has been raised.
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