ABOUT US
ABOUT US
For over forty years, Chiswick Choir has built up a reputation for performing the classic European repertoire as well as contemporary works.
CONCERTS
CONCERTS
Chiswick Choir performs three concerts a year, bringing choral music to a wide audience at affordable prices.
JOIN US
JOIN US
We welcome new members to enjoy and share our experience of performing choral works to the highest standards.
MEMBERS
members section
Useful information for Chiswick Choir members
Welcome to the West London Chorus
Coming Events
Saturday 7th December 2024
Autumn concert at St Michael & All Angels, Bedford Park, W4** One date – two performances! **
At 19.30 – Handel – Messiah
A complete performance of Messiah Part One – the ‘Christmas’ part – which features the Coming and Birth of Christ, and the Peace and Joy He brought to the World, concluding with the famous Hallelujah chorus, which celebrates the triumph of God’s kingdom.
Book main concert tickets here
From 17.00 to 18.00 there’ll be a special ‘Mini-Messiah’ performance for families and children to introduce them to the instruments of the orchestra and the different voices of the singers, and to show how they all come together to perform Handel’s great music!
Book tickets for the Mini-Messiah here
19.30 on Monday 16th December 2024 – Christmas Concert – St Nicholas Church, Chiswick
‘A Christmas Rose’
A candlelit concert of Christmas music by our WLC Chorale chamber choir, featuring the choir, soloists, and duets, singing works including..My Love is like a Red, Red Rose – arr Williams
The Rose in the Middle of Winter – Chilcott
A Spotless Rose – Howells
– and many more.Saturday 5th April 2025 – Spring concert at St Michaels and All Angles Bedford Park W4
Rossini – Petite Messe Solennelle
Having finished writing his many operas thirty years previously, Rossini came out of comfortable retirement to write this delightful and original work, which he self-deprecatingly referred to as his ‘poor little mass’ and one of his ‘sins of old age‘, as he called his later works.
Despite that, the work was well received, with a contemporary reviewer writing that, ‘The same facility of invention, melodic abundance, nobility of style, the same elegance, and novel twists, richness of harmony, audacity and happy choice of modulation, the same vigour of conception and of expression, the same ease of part-writing and disposition of the voices, and the same masterful and authoritative skill in the overall scheme of the work, as well as in the structure of each movement ..’
Buy our Chilcott CD!
Buy our first commercial CD recording as the West London Chorus with two festive and seasonal works by the well-known choral composer, Bob Chilcott – On Christmas Night and Wenceslas.
Wenceslas is based on the legendary tale of the Bohemian King and his Page, and tells of their kindness towards an impoverished peasant struggling in the winter cold.
On Christmas Night charts the trajectory of the Nativity story, from the fall of Adam to the prophecy of the Incarnation, to Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem and the birth of Christ.
Extract from the review in Musicweb International:
‘These are creditable performances of two attractive works by the West London Chorus. They sing with commitment and evident enjoyment of the music; the enjoyment is understandable given the appealing nature of Chilcott’s music. They are also attentive to dynamics; it’s obvious that Hilary Campbell has prepared them well and that they respond to her conducting. This release has the convenience factor in that you get both of the Chilcott Christmas works on the same disc.’
Play the tracks on Spotify
Play an extract from our new CD
About Us
We were originally founded as the Chiswick Choir in 1976 in London W4 by John Thackray, a passionate musician who served as conductor for many London choirs. Between 1984 and 2015 the choir was conducted by Alistair Jones and since January 2016 the choir has flourished under the direction of award-winning composer and conductor Hilary Campbell. In 2021 the choir changed its name to the West London Chorus to reflect its wider reach and appeal, and in 2022, the well-known choral composer Cecilia McDowall agreed to be the Choir’s Patron.
Over the course of its career, the Choir has built a repertoire principally based on the European tradition from the 16th to 20th centuries. The choir has also performed more contemporary pieces, including the world premiere of Alistair Jones’s Stabat Mater in 2006, Will Todd’s Mass In Blue and works by Bob Chilcott and others.
The choir’s repertoire includes most of the major works suited to a group of its size – the Bach Passions, Mass in B minor, oratorios by Handel, major works by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, Verdi’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and so on. Excursions into the 20th century have included performances of Britten’s Saint Nicolas, Tippet’s A Child of Our Time and Stravinsky’s A Symphony of Psalms.
Our Aims are:
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To inspire amateur singers to perform choral works to the highest standards
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To bring choral music to a wide audience at affordable prices
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To encourage singers to experience the enjoyment of singing
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To keep the tradition and art of choral singing alive for future generations
We always welcome new members, and more information is available on our Join Us page.
We also offer a limited number of vocal scholarships each year to nurture the skills and experience of talented singers between the ages of 18 and 30.
Help raise funds for the choir – at no cost to yourself!
By signing up to #easyfundraising, you will raise a donation for us whenever you shop online with over 7,000 brands including John Lewis & Partners, eBay, Argos, ASOS, M&S and more. And once you’ve raised your first £5, easyfundraising will double it!
Please sign up today – it will make a BIG difference this year!
Here are some short videos of the Choir performing:
Concerts
For more information about our forthcoming performances and events,
please see our CONCERT SCHEDULE
We usually perform three concerts a year as the culmination of our Spring, Summer and Winter seasons, working with a variety of soloists, small ensembles, or full orchestras, to deliver a varied repertoire of work.
Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Coronation Anthems, Carl Orff ‘s Carmina Burana, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Fauré’s Requiem, Will Todd’s Mass in Blue, Duruflé’s Requiem, Elgar’s Spirit of England, Vaughan Williams’ Sancta Civitas, Schubert’s Mass in G, Bruckner’s Requiem in D, Bob Chilcott’s Songs and Cries of London Town, and much more.
We normally perform in local churches but we’ve also filled St Johns Smiths Square and provided the guest choir at York Minster. To see what we’ve done recently, look at our CONCERT ARCHIVE.
Here’s part of our pre-lockdown performance of O Lord of all Creation from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.
…and a ‘virtual performance’ of At the River by Aaron Copland arr R. Wilding-White, recorded under lockdown by choir members at home.
Recent events
Cecilia McDowall
Saturday 6th July 2024 – Summer concert at St Nicholas Church, Church Street, Chiswick W4 2PH – ‘A Fancy of Folksongs’
A selection of folk songs on the subject of ‘love and courtship’. Featuring the work of our Patron, Cecilia McDowall and including many other traditional songs – some romantic and some bawdy!
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Saturday 22nd June 2024 – St Michaels Church Elmwood Road W4
‘The World of Theatre’
An entertaining social evening with guest speaker Michael Attenborough who shared his recollections of 50 years in the theatre – with canapés and full bar service!
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Saturday 11th May 2024 – St Pauls Church, Grove Park Road, London W4 3SB
‘Come and Sing – Messiah Choruses’
An afternoon spent singing selected choruses from this iconic work under the stimulating direction of our Musical Director Hilary Campbell – building up to a scratch ‘performance’ for friends!
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Weekend of 13/14th April 2024 – York Minster
We were honoured to be invited back to York Minster to be the guest choir for these weekend services.
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Rehearsing the Schubert
Saturday 23rd March 2024 – Spring concert at St Paul’s Grove Park
Schubert – Mass No 5 in A flat D678 and a selection of Lieder
Another welcome full house enjoyed a selection of Schubert Lieder followed by our performance of Schubert’s original and inventive fifth Mass, accompanied by the orchestral forces of the British Sinfonietta.
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Monday 11th December 2023
‘Christmas by Candlelight’ at St Nicholas Church, W4 2PH
This was the first concert by our WLC Chorale – a small chamber choir of members from the West London Chorus. It was an eclectic mix of beautiful and inspiring Christmas music, some better known than others, with solos from our own choral scholars – and mulled wine & mince pies!
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Saturday 2nd December 2023 – Winter Concert at St Michaels Bedford Park
Bach Magnificat and Vivaldi Gloria.
A full house enjoyed these two much-loved classics of the choral repertoire, with music both magnificent and glorious from the choir, our guest soloists and the orchestral forces of the British Sinfonietta!
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.On 2nd/3rd September 2023 we were the Guest Choir at Llandaff Cathedral.
We were invited to be the guest choir at Llandaff Cathedral for Choral Evensong on the Saturday and Sunday and for Choral Eucharist on the Sunday.
Works performed included Mozart’s Missa Brevis and Ave Verum Corpus, Magnifcat and Nunc Dimittis by Vaughan Williams and Stamford, Rutter’s A Crown of Glory, Elgar’s O Hearken Thou and Howell’s Like as the Hart.
Here’s a link to the ‘live stream’ of our Sunday Choral Evensong on the Llandaff website.[The actual service starts at about four minutes in.]
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Our July 2023 Summer Concert was ‘A Coronation Celebration’ with guest singers from the West London Chamber Choir and brass ensemble Bella Tromba.
The concert included these rousing choral works:
Walton’s Coronation Te Deum, Rutter’s A Crown of Glory, Bruckner’s Ecce Sacerdos Magnus, Elgar’s O Hearken Thou, and I Was Glad by Parry.
There were also these even more rousing works for brass and organ:
Britten’s Fanfare for St Edmundsbury, Holst’s Deddington Suite and Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre by William Walton.
‘…what a pleasure it was to work with a choir who really went for it and a conductor with such high standards. We were all buzzing after!’ Bella Tromba Brass Ensemble
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Our April 2023 Spring Concert took the theme of Psalms, Songs and Seasons, and included Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein, Five Hebrew Love Songs by Eric Whitacre, and A Time for all Seasons by Cecilia McDowall, who is also the choir’s Patron.
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For our Winter Concert in December 2022 we performed Mozart’s Requiem, one of the most famous choral works in the classical repertoire, backed by a full orchestra and in front of an appreciative full-house!
Written in 1791 during the last days of Mozart’s life, the origins of this beautiful work are shrouded in mystery, though none of that detracts from its musical power and emotional impact.
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In July 2022 we put on our Platinum Jubilee Celebratory Summer Concert, performing Handel’s Coronation Anthems, I Was Glad by Purcell and other works.
The Coronation Procession of George II
Handel’s four celebratory Anthems, including the rousing Zadok the Priest and The King shall rejoice, were written in 1727 for the Coronation of George II. A contemporary account of the first performance in Westminster Abbey reported that Anthem I ‘..was omitted and no Anthem at all Sung… by the Negligence of the Choir of Westminster’ and that Anthem II was ‘..in Confusion: All irregular in the Music!’ We are confident that we gave a better performance of all four Anthems at this celebratory Summer concert!
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In April 2022 we put on our Easter concert of sacred and uplifting choral works by 20th century British composers, including Elgar, Howells, Bainton and others. A few days later we took the same repertoire to perform in Bruges, Ghent and Ypres as part of our much-delayed tour.
Singing in Bruges and at the Menin Gate in Ypres
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Our first event of 2022 was our ‘Come and Sing’ workshop in January, when choir members and guests spent the afternoon working on Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’ with our musical director Hilary Campbell.
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Back in September 2021 we put on our much delayed Robin Johnson Composition Competition Concert
Videos of the Competition pieces
Read more about our Robin Johnson Composition Competition
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Our previous live concert was back in December 2020, when we put on a socially-distanced, behind-closed-doors, performance of Bob Chilcott’s ‘On Christmas Night’.
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Chiswick Choir is registered with Making Music (National Federation of Music Societies).