Chesterton Choral Society

Chesterton Choral Society is an amateur mixed choir about fifty strong, based in Chesterton, Cambridge. It originally drew its membership primarily from the Chesterton area of Cambridge and still has strong local roots, although choir members are now increasingly drawn from a wider area in Cambridgeshire.

The choir is currently growing and looking forward to its 50th anniversary in 2014.

Photo: Courtesy Don Flory

Music and repertoire

Unlike some choirs, Chesterton Choral Society does not tend to take a large single work and perform it right through, although we have performed substantial selections from Mendelssohn's Elijah, Bach's Christmas Oratorio and others. The range of music performed varies widely from 'serious' choir music (in the past two years we have performed choral pieces by Haydn, Purcell and Britten) to Victorian and Edwardian ballads and part songs, madrigals, folk songs, seasonal music, arrangements of 'standards' and songs from the shows. Our Christmas concerts usually offer opportunities for the audience to join in.

We are very fortunate to have the arranging skills and diverse musical interests of our Director of Music, Quintus Benziger, who contributes many arrangements to our repertoire.

Aims of the Choir

The aims of the choir are 'Learning and singing choral works and light music to a good standard for the enjoyment of members and their audiences' with the emphasis firmly on enjoyment.

We are a non-profit organisation and we regularly contribute to charities.