Halifax Choral Society

Halifax Choral Society is proud to be one of the most eminent names of the UK choral tradition.

The Choir celebrated its Bicentenary Season in 2017-18 by performing a completely new full-scale oratorio, commissioned from composer Philip Wilby.  The Holy Face tells the biblical story of the life of John the Baptist, who in great humility baptises the Messiah in the Jordan.  John the Baptist is the patron saint of the town of Halifax whose name is said to mean holy face.  Later in the same season the Choir re-enacted a period performance of the very first concert – Joseph Haydn’s The Creation – which at the time had been a still quite new composition.

When the idea of a permanent large choir was first suggested in 1817 by founder William Priestley (eminent Halifax musician, antiquary and literary gentleman wool-merchant) he could hardly have foreseen that the Halifax Choral Society would still be going strong into the Third Millennium. Nor could he have envisaged it surviving to become the world’s oldest amateur choral society with an unbroken record of performance.

Throughout the nineteenth century the choir played a prominent part in the musical and social life of Halifax, a growing mill town, contributing to the many civic and national celebrations which typified Imperial Britain. The twentieth century brought the choir the major challenges of keeping going through two world wars, and the challenges of the advent of radio, TV, the gramophone, and now the internet, CDs and DVDs, in their era all new avenues for the Choral Society to explore and use to reach new audiences.

Since its inception, the HCS has been associated with the highest order of music making. A list of conductors (by no means exhaustive) needs no further comment: Hans Richter; Sir Henry Wood, Malcolm Sargent; Owain Arwel Hughes; Stanford Robinson; Sir Charles Groves; Sir Hubert Parry; Sir George Dyson; Richard Hickox; Paul Daniel; Mark Elder. Nor is a representative list of soloists any the less impressive: Heddle Nash; Walter Widdup; Isobel Bailey; Webster Booth; Elsie Suddaby; Stiles Allen; Roy Henderson; Gladys Ripley; Robert Easton; Owen Brannigan; Janet Baker; Brian Rayner-Cook; Raymond Herricx; John Mitchinson; Jill Gormez; Robert Tear; John Shirley Quirk; Peter Pears; Sir Thomas Allen; Michael Chance.

Throughout its long history the Society has also worked with first class orchestras including the Hallé, Northern Philharmonic; CBSO; many of the BBC’s orchestras, the Hanover Band, the Orchestra of Opera North, the Manchester Concert Orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia and the North of England Concert Orchestra. The HCS has also enjoyed a close professional relationship with the world famous Black Dyke Band whose base is just up the road from Halifax.