History Of the Society

Gloucester Choral Society was founded in 1845 when a "Choral Meeting" took place in the Shire Hall. From that early beginning the Society has played a major part in the musical life of the city and county.

The practice of inviting the Cathedral Organist to be conductor began in 1856 when Mr. Arnott was appointed and happily it continues to the present day. The famous organ in the Shire Hall was paid for and erected by the Society, built by John Nicholson for £740 and restored in 1910 by subscription, to which "Sir Hubert Parry gave munificently".

Concerts were always held in the Shire Hall until the outbreak of World War Two, when concerts were transferred to the Cathedral, which has been our home ever since. The Society's progress was uninterrupted by either World War, its report in 1915 stating that it would carry on, "feeling it desirable that instruction and pleasant distractions should not altogether be banished from our city".

In 1937 the Society joined forces with the City of Birmingham Orchestra for a performance of Verdi's Requiem, conducted by Dr. Herbert Sumsion, which was broadcast by the BBC (for a fee of £75). The post-war era saw the Society expand its repertoire, although as the Shire Hall was no longer available, secular works could not be included for some time.

The close links between the Choral Society and the Three Choirs Festival were well illustrated by Sir Herbert Brewer who stated in 1921, "Music in Gloucester, the hardy plant which for many generations has triennially flowered nationally and internationally into the Three Choirs Festival, has for its sustaining root - outside the Cathedral Choir - the Gloucester Choral Society".