The Choir
Warwickshire Singers is a non-auditioned, mixed choir of 45 to 50 members, attracting people of all ages from around the district.
Rehearsals are on Monday evenings from 7:30 to 9:30pm (usually in term time) at Kenilworth Methodist Church on Priory Road. We meet once in the middle of the summer holidays for a fun garden rehearsal and social at someone’s house (because two months with no rehearsals is way too long!).
Our talented Musical Director, Jim Bate, brings an impressive depth of knowledge, a great sense of humour and an infectious love of music to every rehearsal. We have really enjoyed our rehearsals and concerts with him since 2022, and have improved under his enthusiastic and diligent leadership.
We enjoy the benefit of a skilled and versatile accompanist in David King, who is also an accomplished arranger.
Our repertoire is remarkably wide-ranging and includes not only traditional choral classics, appropriate to our numbers, but also world folk songs and beautiful pieces by contemporary composers.
Moreover, Jim has introduced us to works by lesser-known female composers and has programmed these, alongside well-known repertoire, in order to expose our audiences (and us!) to the familiar and unfamiliar.
History
Warwickshire Singers was established in 1970 by the Music Advisor for Warwickshire, David Jones. His vision was to bring high quality choral music to the villages of Warwickshire, he himself living in Ettington.
Some of the teachers he ‘invited’ to join (by all accounts, refusal was not really an option) are still with us and as keen as ever to keep his ideas alive – perhaps even more important today as music is tending to slip off the school curriculum.
Past concerts have raised money for various charities and have taken us to some interesting venues: Hampton Lucy ('cathedral' in the village), Our Lady's (Grade II listed 1960s church in Leamington Spa), and the rebuilt St Nicholas' in Radford Semele. Going back even further, we have had tours to Malta, the Czech Republic, Italy and France.
