Our History

Honorary Officers

President: The Lord Bishop of Worcester
Senior Vice President: The Dean of Worcester
Vice Presidents: Dr Christopher Robinson CVO CBE, Adrian Lucas MA FRCO (CHM), Dr Peter Nardone BA FRCO, Christopher Allsop MA FRCO

Overview

Worcester Festival Choral Society, founded in 1861, is one of the oldest and most prestigious choral societies in Britain.

The Society had close associations with the Elgar family from its early days, with Sir Edward Elgar leading the WFCS Band in the 1890s and often conducting his own works at its concerts. Elgar also wrote two choral works that were premiered by the Society: The Black Knight (1892) and Scenes from the Bavarian Highlands (1895).

During the 20th century, a string of choral conducting luminaries including Sir David Willcocks, Douglas Guest, Dr Christopher Robinson and Dr Donald Hunt, helped to establish WFCS as the highly respected chorus it is today. They also established our current tradition of performing three, major concerts in Worcester Cathedral each year, between November and March.

Throughout that time our musical programmes have been continually enterprising and exciting; encompassing not only the great, traditional works of choral repertoire, but also contemporary works from both home and abroad. Highlights in recent years have included Mozart's Requiem, Verdi's Requiem, Bach's Mass in B minor, Fauré's Requiem, Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem, Vaughan Williams's A Sea Symphony, Haydn's The Creation, Poulenc's Gloria, Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius and Handel's Messiah. More modern works performed have included Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna, Jonathan Willcox's Lux Perpetua, Jonathan Dove’s For an Unknown Soldier and Richard Blackford's Mirror of Perfection - both of the latter performances attended by the composers themselves. To see our complete concert repertoire since 2001, and many concerts further back, visit our past Past Concert Poster Gallery.

Alongside these main concerts, many singers from the Society are selected to perform in the renowned Festival Chorus at the famed Three Choirs Festival, which has taken place annually for more than 300 years, rotating between the Cathedral cities of Worcester, Hereford and Gloucester. In 2015 a massed Festival Chorus, including many WFCS members, marked the Festival's tercentenray with a special, massed recital for the then-Prince of Wales (now King Charles III) at Buckingham Palace.

Other special activities over the years have included appearances at the King's Lynn and Elgar Festivals in the Royal Albert Hall, with the BBC Singers and City of Birmingham Choir in Birmingham's Symphony Hall, and at several outdoor 'Picnic Proms' concerts around the UK; new choral commissions from its former directors of music Dr Donald Hunt and Adrian Lucas; broadcasts with the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra; and participation in CD recordings made with Worcester Cathedral Choir.

Today the Society's conductor is Worcester Cathedral's esteemed Director of Music Samuel Hudson, who took over the role in 2019. Samuel's outstanding musicianship, complemented by our strong partnership with the superb Meridian Sinfonia orchestra, continues to enable WFCS to achieve ever higher standards of performance, to thrill and inform music lovers from across the region.

Find out more

A fascinating, 240-page, full colour book tracing the 160-year history of Worcester Festival Choral Society - A Choral Chronicle: The History of Worcester Festival Choral Society, by Michelle Whitefoot - is now available; with all proceeds going towards WFCS funds. CLICK HERE for more details! (ISBN 978-1-5272-7786-1)