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Welcome to Ely Choral Society

Ely Choral Society is a flourishing mixed voice choir conducted by Andrew Parnell, one of the UK’s foremost choral conductors.

Concerts are held in Ely Cathedral and other venues locally with professional soloists and orchestras, together with musicians from the Ely and Cambridge area.

The Ely Youth Choir for Secondary-age students was launched with great success in 2010 and is aimed at young people who want to experience the fun and excitement of choral singing to public audiences.

2022-23 CONCERT SEASON

We are excitedly looking forward to performing four concerts in Ely during the 2022-23 concert season.

At Ely Cathedral on Saturday 29th October 2022 at 7:30 pm we will perform ‘Petite Messe Solennelle’ by Rossini with Alison Daniels soprano, Chloe Allison mezzo-soprano, Mark Darling tenor, Jonathan Midgely bass, Nicholas Tall harmonium and Glen Dempsey piano organ. The concert will be conducted by Andrew Parnell.

Our Christmas Concert, ‘Carols for All’, will be at St Mary’s Church, Ely on Saturday 10th December 2022 at 7:30 pm. We will sing a traditional programme of music for the festive season including Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth. The programme also includes carols for choirs and audience.

On Saturday 22nd April 2023 we will sing Mozart’s Requiem Mass in Ely Cathedral. To complement the Requiem, we will also be performing Haydn’s moving Salve Regina.

Our Summer Concert will be on Saturday 8th July 2023 when Ely Choral Society will perform a concert jointly with Ely Sinfonia, which was first planned for July 2020 until Covid intervened. The programme will comprise Beethoven’s 8th Symphony and the Choral Fantasia, which includes a concerto-like piano solo. The concert will also include two pieces by Vaughan Williams and Bob Chilcott.

Tickets will be on sale from mid May 2023 from Ely Cathedral at www.elycathedral.org/events.

We hope the 2022-23 concert season will be a return to our normal series of concerts and we are looking forward to it enormously. The last two years have been like no other because of the pandemic. However, we managed to keep singing by replacing our normal rehearsals each Monday by rehearsals on Zoom. We also created a small Ely Choral Society Virtual Choir by making some video recordings on our mobile phones to remind ourselves of singing in a choir as you can hear by clicking on the following YouTube links:

https://youtu.be/SOmUXaN0fWY

https://youtu.be/JbZ7V-VC_Oc

https://youtu.be/7wOJTNsWtw8

https://youtu.be/jF03GEveC0E

We offer grateful thanks to our Musical Director, Andrew Parnell, for keeping the choir alive during this period as a master of Zoom by managing to play the keyboard, conduct, cajole and act as an entertaining raconteur for the whole evening!

Welcome to Ely Choral Society

Ely Choral Society is a flourishing mixed voice choir conducted by Andrew Parnell, one of the UK’s foremost choral conductors.

Concerts are held in Ely Cathedral and other venues locally with professional soloists and orchestras, together with musicians from the Ely and Cambridge area.

The Ely Youth Choir for Secondary-age students was launched with great success in 2010 and is aimed at young people who want to experience the fun and excitement of choral singing to public audiences.

2022-23 CONCERT SEASON

We are excitedly looking forward to performing four concerts in Ely during the 2022-23 concert season.

At Ely Cathedral on Saturday 29th October 2022 at 7:30 pm we will perform ‘Petite Messe Solennelle’ by Rossini with Alison Daniels soprano, Chloe Allison mezzo-soprano, Mark Darling tenor, Jonathan Midgely bass, Nicholas Tall harmonium and Glen Dempsey piano organ. The concert will be conducted by Andrew Parnell.

Our Christmas Concert, ‘Carols for All’, will be at St Mary’s Church, Ely on Saturday 10th December 2022 at 7:30 pm. We will sing a traditional programme of music for the festive season including Vaughan Williams Fantasia on Christmas Carols to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth. The programme also includes carols for choirs and audience.

On Saturday 22nd April 2023 we will sing Mozart’s Requiem Mass in Ely Cathedral. To complement the Requiem, we will also be performing Haydn’s moving Salve Regina.

Our Summer Concert will be on Saturday 8th July 2023 when Ely Choral Society will perform a concert jointly with Ely Sinfonia, which was first planned for July 2020 until Covid intervened. The programme will comprise Beethoven’s 8th Symphony and the Choral Fantasia, which includes a concerto-like piano solo. The concert will also include two pieces by Vaughan Williams and Bob Chilcott.

Tickets will be on sale from mid May 2023 from Ely Cathedral at www.elycathedral.org/events.

We hope the 2022-23 concert season will be a return to our normal series of concerts and we are looking forward to it enormously. The last two years have been like no other because of the pandemic. However, we managed to keep singing by replacing our normal rehearsals each Monday by rehearsals on Zoom. We also created a small Ely Choral Society Virtual Choir by making some video recordings on our mobile phones to remind ourselves of singing in a choir as you can hear by clicking on the following YouTube links:

https://youtu.be/SOmUXaN0fWY

https://youtu.be/JbZ7V-VC_Oc

https://youtu.be/7wOJTNsWtw8

https://youtu.be/jF03GEveC0E

We offer grateful thanks to our Musical Director, Andrew Parnell, for keeping the choir alive during this period as a master of Zoom by managing to play the keyboard, conduct, cajole and act as an entertaining raconteur for the whole evening!