History

The society was founded in 1991 after the Peterborough Philharmonic Choral Society disbanded. The choir is made up of mixed voices and we have enjoyed performing two classical concerts a year with a lighter summer concert in the Peterborough area. A Christmas Concert has been performed on an annual basis with local schools, churches and Care Homes.

For our first concert in September 1991, we performed Faure Requiem and Vivaldi Gloria in Peterborough High School. It was a great success and the following March we performed our second concert. This was Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Peterborough Cathedral, performed with soloists and the City of Peterborough Symphony Orchestra. Since then our repertoire has included major works such as Bach's B Minor Mass, as well as Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man, Monteverdi, Beatus Vir and Howard Goodall’s Eternal Light.

In the last 10 years we have had Musical Directors from the Cathedral and have joined with the Cathedral Choir, Youth Choir and Festival Chorus to perform the large choral works in the Cathedral. These concerts were accompanied by professional soloists, orchestras or ensembles as well as showcasing the talent within the Choirs that we joined. During Covid we continued to make music through rehearsals by zoom. We also had the opportunity to join Leicester Philharmonic Choral Society and Stephen Bullamore in a concert of R. Vaughan Williams’ ‘Sea Symphony’ and ‘What Man is He?’ by Imogen Holst in the De Montfort Hall in Leicester, accompanied by the Bardi Orchestra. We also joined them later that year in the ‘Last Night of the Autumn Proms’ concert accompanied by the London Concert Orchestra.

Last year we had a new Musical Director from London, breaking with the tradition of having Musical Directors from the Cathedral. Cathedral Choral Scholars have joined the choir as well. The Musical Director conducted other choirs in London and the choir joined a charity concert at St Mary’s Church, Primrose Hill, London for a performance of Mozart's Requiem accompanied by the London Classical Orchestra. Performers donated their time and the concert raised money for three Homeless Charities, two in London and our local Light Project in Peterborough. Due to the change of circumstances of the Musical Director in April, we have been extremely lucky to have a new Musical Director, Bradley Smith. We are looking forward to our exciting musical journey and future with him. See Our Team

We continue having good links with our local choral societies and enjoy members joining for a number of concerts. We are a good choir who are passionate about continuing choral musical excellence in an accomplished performance in Peterborough. Research has shown that singing together supports mental health and wellbeing and we have fun too. We are proud of the support we have given to many members over the years. We have an active committee and organise fundraising events through the year with Quiz Nights and formal dinners.