Celebrating 50 glorious years of music-making in West London
As the West London Chorus, which changed its name from the Chiswick Choir in 2021, reaches its 50th anniversary, Chair Tony Speakman reflects on its half century of singing.
The choir was founded in 1976 by John Thackray, a gifted musician and choir director, with the aim of giving Chiswick its own choral society which would perform the classical repertoire for a mainly local audience. John was already the director of music at St Michael’s church in Grove Park, and when he failed to find a local choral society to join he decided to start one – as you do! Thirty singers – twelve sopranos, seven altos, two tenors and ten basses – met on 23 March 1976 for their first rehearsal at St Michael’s, where the choir still rehearses every Tuesday.
The choir’s first concert, Vivaldi’s 'Gloria' and Mozart's 'Mass in C', was on 5 June, and was performed twice, first at St Michael’s Highgate where John had sung as a boy and the following week in Chiswick. Over the next seven years John led the choir through a wide-ranging choral repertoire from Byrd and Purcell through Bach and Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert to twentieth-century works such as Vaughan Williams’ 'In Windsor Forest' and Britten’s 'Cantata Misericordia' and his 'Flower Songs'.
After seven years John felt the time had come to move on and the committee appointed Alistair Jones to take on the role of musical director and conductor of the choir. Alistair was a professional musician who began his career as organ scholar at Trinity Hall, Cambridge; he then taught at Bristol Cathedral School, directed the Bristol Bach Choir, and became Organist at Wellington College. By 1984 he was Education Manager of Roland (UK), a Japanese company developing digital electronic musical instruments.
During Alistair’s 30 years with the choir, they performed a wide repertoire from baroque to 21st century, including Bach's 'Passions' and 'Mass in B minor', Handel’s great oratorios, Mendelssohn’s 'Elijah' and 'Saint Paul', and works by composers ranging from Monteverdi and Mozart to Brahms, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Benjamin Britten, Stravinsky and Bob Chilcott. The choir also premiered four oratorios written by Alistair himself. Alistair gave many young singers opportunities as soloists at the choir's concerts, in particular aspiring soloists from the Royal Northern College of Music where he had a regular connection.
One special event which lives in the memory of many longer-standing members is the splendid Memorial Concert for John Thackray, who died in 1999, of Brahms’ 'German Requiem', conducted by Alistair. This took place at the Natural History Museum where John had worked as an archivist, with 200 singers from all of John’s choirs and Julie Kennard and Michael George as soloists.
When Alistair decided to retire in 2015 the committee and I were faced with finding a successor who would build on the reputation of the choir and take it forward. One of our aims was to recruit more young singers - people stayed with the choir for many years but we wanted to recruit fresh new voices to join the experienced singers who knew the repertoire. In Hilary Campbell we found a young, energetic, widely experienced and versatile musician whose particular strength is helping singers with voice technique.
Hilary’s impressive CV as a freelance choral specialist includes a wide variety of music-making. She is the founder and Musical Director of professional chamber choir Blossom Street, and Musical Director of Bristol Choral Society, West London Chorus and West London Chamber Choir. As well as guest conducting ensembles such as the BBC Singers and the University of Greenwich Choir, and chorus mastering the BBC Symphony Chorus and Royal Academy of Music Symphony Chorus, she is conductor of P&O Ferries Choir, the group which won the BBC2 series 'The Choir'.
Describing her first ten years as director, Hilary says: ‘Since 2015 we have performed a wide repertoire from from Handel and Mozart to Rossini and Bernstein, and I have been delighted by the way the choir has continued to make each concert better than the last! This has taken real hard work and a willingness to do homework between rehearsals, and it has really paid off.’
Under Hilary’s leadership we have introduced a programme of choral scholarships for young singers at the start of their professional careers, which has helped to improve our vocal quality, made a recording of Bob Chilcott’s 'Wenceslas' and 'On Christmas Night', and sung as visiting choir at Llandaff Cathedral, York Minster and Southwark Cathedral. We have toured to Belgium which was many people’s first foray abroad after the COVID-19 pandemic and are off to Spain in April to sing in Salamanca and Valladolid cathedrals.
We enter our second half century with much to look forward to. Our 50th anniversary concert will take place at the Cadogan Hall on 12 July when we perform Handel’s 'Dixit Dominus', but before that we shall have performed our spring concert Hear my Prayer – Mendelssohn of course but also Brahms, Liszt, Vaughan Williams and Bainton – in Chiswick.
I think our members love the challenge of singing a variety of musical styles which stretch us and keep us continually on our musical toes. Singing in a choir is about being part of a team, and the well-recognised benefits of singing go beyond the music itself.
If you live in West London, join the choir at their next Come & Sing event for Mozart's 'Coronation Mass' on 16 May - find out more
Celebrate the choir's 50th anniversary at the Cadogan Hall on 12 July - find out more
Find out more about West London Chorus (Chiswick Choir) on their website and follow them on Facebook / Instagram / X (Twitter)
Banner photo credit: Musical director Hilary Campbell
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