A Breif History

The Choir History & Its Musical Past

The Northampton Musical Society' was formed in 1896 to comprise a choir and an orchestra, and its choir developed in succeeding years under a handful of conductors including the organist of St Matthew's Church in the early twentieth century, Charles J King. During this time, the Choir went from strength to strength, performing substantial choral works and earning a prestigious reputation.

Their longest serving conductor has been the late Graham Mayo, who took over the reins in the early 1960s and remained with the choir until the end of 2004. During his tenure, the Society had changed its name to ‘Northampton Philharmonic Choir' and with the City of Birmingham Orchestra performed Elgar's Dream of Gerontius in Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire, the first time that the Choir had sung outside its native county. Over the following quarter of a century, during which time the Choir was also known as ‘The Philharmonic Choir' it gave concerts not only in a variety of venues in Northampton itself but also in the cathedrals of Peterborough, Lincoln, Wells, Bury St Edmunds and Gloucester, with further performances in Northampton's Derngate and London's Queen Elizabeth Hall.

After a brief interregnum Christopher Mabley was appointed as Graham's successor in October 2005 and enjoyed eighteen years on the podium. Under his baton the Choir returned to its roots and once again became known as ‘Northampton Philharmonic Choir' and programmes included music ranging from Byrd and Palestrina to the present day. christopher-mabley-conductingIn November 2009, the Choir celebrated Henry Purcell's 350th anniversary with a wide-ranging concert of his music; they have regularly featured Handel's music in concerts of works such as his Coronation Anthems and Chandos Anthems; whilst in March 2019 they presented a concert dedicated to both the familiar and less-well-known music of Ralph Vaughan Williams including Toward the Unknown Region and An Oxford Elegy. In 2011 the Choir visited Althorp House to sing a programme of Christmas music; they have twice sung Tudor madrigals at Boughton House as part of its commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605: and in the summer of 2016 they sang Captain Noah & his Floating Zoo (in a downpour!) at St Peter's Harrington as part of the annual series of Harrington Concerts.

The Choir celebrated its 125th anniversary by giving the first performance of Pleasures of Fancy, a suite of brand-new musical settings of poems by the Northamptonshire poet John Clare set to music by Christopher Mabley.

In September 2023, following the retirement of Christopher Mabley, the choir appointed its seventh Musical Director, Thomas Moore, who takes up the baton to lead choir into a new chapter of its illustrious history.

As well as singing the standard and well-loved choral repertoire from before the twentieth century, the Choir also sings music from more recent times by composers such as Michael Tippett, Benjamin Britten, Maurice Durufle, Oliver Messiaen, Richard Rodney Bennett, George Shearing and John Rutter.

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