As The Priory Singers enters its 40th year as a choir, it is returning to the piece it sang at the very first concert.
John Stainer’s The Crucifixion is being performed on East Sunday afternoon at Spalding United Reformed Church, the venue for the original concert.
Conductor from the start Malcolm Grief admits the first concert was done as a “one-off” when it became apparent that some of the members of the choir he inherited as organist and choirmaster “wanted to do more than sing at Sunday services” at the URC.
However, as soon as the concert was over, Malcolm says choir members started asking, “When are we going to meet again?”, and people in the audience expressed an interest in joining the choir, then known by the lumbering title of The Augmented Choir of the United Reformed Church.
Malcolm says: “The concert went very well. I don’t know who enjoyed it most, the singers or the audience. We were all very new to it and I had never been a conductor before.”
The choir of 25 blossomed to about 40 in five years and, to reflect the fact that members came from various churches or none, its name was changed to South Lincolnshire United Chorale.
Choir numbers have ranged from 40 to 50 during most of its life but in the last few years numbers have dropped down to about 25 and so the name was changed once again to differentiate it from its much larger composition, to The Priory Singers.
“There aren’t that many people interested in going into choral singing,” says Malcolm. “Choral singing today is not in fashion either in schools or many communities.”
The work performed varies depending on the concert being performed and the musical ability of the people who are singing. Malcolm says: “You have a range of people who like singing, but don’t read music, and people who like music and will have a go at anything because they can read music. The enjoyment of music is more important that a small number of gifted people. I would rather involve people in doing it.”
Malcolm jokes that they don’t charge people to come in, but they have to pay to get out: Easter Sunday’s concert is raising money for Agape Care Foodbank in Spalding. The choir has raised about £40,000 for CLIC Sargent and helped local charities.