A Brief History

St. Ives United Choirs was the union of the Free Church and the Methodist Church choirs in St. Ives, who gave their first performance during Holy Week in 1966. The programme was Maunder's Olivet to Calvary under the direction of Charles Cannon, with John Morley playing the organ. The choirs continued to perform annually and in 1974 the new St. Ives Choral Society was formed. Initially, two concerts were performed a year- at Christmas and Easter; In recent years there has been an additional summer concert.

Charles Cannon's direction continued until 1982, when Richard Walshaw took up the baton, followed by Christopher Moore in 1987, Gary Mallins in 1992 and Robert Webb who was with us until December 1996, when he moved to Oxford. Chris Jessop led us from our first concert in 1997, Bach's Mass in B Minor, until the summer of 2001.

Since becoming the St. Ives Choral Society, we have given over 80 performances, sung in many locations. Recent concerts have included Vaughan William's Five Mystical Songs, Carter's Benedicite, Handel's Solomon and Haydn's The Seasons. Occasionally we have joined forces to sing with other local choirs to perform larger pieces such as Verdi's Requiem and Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, both in Ely Cathedral.

For most of our concerts we have an excellent orchestra to accompany us, composed of local musicians of the highest standard. Over the years, the choir has seen many changes, and our links with tradition have also stretched to incorporate more contemporary ideas for the choir. Our annual Family Christmas Concert has included the St. Ives Girls Choir, and more recently, Westfield Junior School Choir. The Christmas concert has become an annual 'landmark' which draws a lot of new faces into our audiences !

Our Musical Director, Julian Merson.

Julian lives in St Ives and is very active musically. He read music at Royal Holloway College, London University, graduating in 1987. Julian has been accompanist to the St Neots Philharmonic for a number of years and is also seen regularly performing at venues in and around St Ives. Since 1994, he has been organist at St Mary's Parish Church, Houghton. Julian also played the organ at a number of concerts with St Ives Choral Society prior to his appointment as musical director in 2001. He recently accompanied the Orlando Singers of Cambridge on the organ, in their performance of Durufle's Requiem.

Julian can be contacted by email at: julianmerson @ aol dot com.

Other key people

We are very grateful to our patrons who support the Choral Society financially. If you would like to become a patron, please contact Sylvia Waterworth (Tel. 01487 841 842). The annual donation is £25 and you receive complimentary tickets for all concerts. Our Chairperson is Trina Miller. You can contact the Choral Society using the following generic email: StIChSoc@googlemail.com.

St Ives Choral Society, Christmas 2004

Student Bursary

St Ives Choral Society will set aside up to £1000 per annum to enable the Society to award bursaries to young people under the age of 18 who sing on a regular basis as Choral Society Junior Members. This scheme will be administered according to the Society's rules, a copy of which can be obtained from John Guthrie (StIChSoc@googlemail.com) or download here: Bursary.doc.

Affiliations

The St.Ives Choral Society is affiliated to Making Music: The National Federation of Musical Societies

Click here to link to the Making Music website.......

Or for choir members, click here to link to the Making Music Eastern website