PICTURES: KING’S LYNN FESTIVAL CHORUS
Local Life
ABOVE: The five founder members of King’s Lynn Festival Chorus, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. From left to right are Diana Braithwaite, Sue Stewart, Andrew Stewart, David Wagstaff and Ann Peppitt. Oppposite is the chorus’ Musical Director Tom Appleton (left) with pianist and accompanist Chris Brown.
Celebrating four decades of dulcet local tones... In 1977 the newly-formed King’s Lynn Festival Chorus performed Mozart’s famous Mass, and forty years later the chorus is about to celebrate with a special anniversary concert, as Clare Bee discovers
K
ing’s Lynn Festival Chorus means forty years of friendship, hard work, fun and, above all, inspirational music making, leaving me with some incredible memories – and no desire to stop singing just yet!” This comment, from one of the original members of King’s Lynn Festival Chorus, sums up in a nutshell what the chorus means to its 100 members. This year the chorus is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and at one of the events to mark this occasion, it will be performing Mozart’s Mass in C during the town’s summer Festival; the very same work the inaugural Festival Chorus sang at its inception in 1977. Formed in the Silver Jubilee year to
KLmagazine April 2017
perform alongside the visiting orchestra of St Martin-in-the-Fields for that year’s festival, the chorus is still the event’s resident choir, whilst at the same time performing numerous other concerts throughout the year – and sometimes joining forces with other musicians across the region. Since those early days, the chorus has evolved and changed, but five of the founder members are still proud to sing with it. The chorus has flourished under various Musical Directors, and each one has brought his own style. As its first MD, Roy Whittingham was a prime instigator of the chorus as an independent organisation. Other influential MDs include Derek Oldfield, who gave the chorus invaluable singing
experience alongside his Iceni Orchestra, and John Jordan, who, as organist at King’s Lynn Minister (then the church of St Margaret’s), brought a wealth of sacred music with him. From 2001, the chorus was led by Michael Kibblewhite, one of the most notable choral conductors in the country, and with him started the tradition of annual tours to Europe. Amongst other places, the chorus has sung in the incredible Great Mosque of Córdoba in Spain, the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, Italy, and St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. Current Musical Director Tom Appleton joined in 2010 and since then has steered the chorus in his own inimitable, enthusiastic style. Born in
17