Welcome to
Saffron Walden Choral Society

Hon. Patron: John Rutter CBE D.Mus.(Lambeth), MA.Mus.B.(Cantab)
President: Sean Brady

SAFFRON WALDEN CHORAL SOCIETY is a friendly and energetic choir with a reputation for innovative programming and polished performance. Under the directorship of Janet Wheeler the choir has performed music in a wide range of styles. In recent years our programmes have included Mozart, Haydn and Brahms, Handel's Dixit Dominus and Messiah, and Bach's Magnificat and B minor Mass.

Some of the themed concerts have included twentieth century composers such as Duruflé, Tippett, Finzi and Britten, a Venetian evening with the Gabrielis and Monteverdi, as well as the unaccompanied choral repertoire - Purcell, Wilbye, Elgar, Stanford and Vaughan Williams.

The music of living composers has not been neglected and the SWCS has been delighted to have sung several of Janet Wheeler's own compositions with their jazz inflected rhythms and, of course, the hugely popular works of our patron, John Rutter.

The choir has close links with local schools from which singers and instrumentalists join the choir every year for the popular Spirit of Christmas concerts. Scholars have also participated in Pathways in Time in 2002, Singing on Track in 2005 and Wingbeats in 2007, part of a large partnership project with the RSPB.

SWCS draws its membership of about 100 singers from a wide geographical area covering Essex, Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. Our main concert venue is St Mary's Parish Church in Saffron Walden.

SWCS was founded in Saffron Walden in 1883 and celebrated its 125th birthday last season with two hugely successful Birthday Proms!