A choir for every occasion

Beaminster Singers formed after the cast of the 1987 Beaminster Community Play stayed together to sing. Since then, the choral society has become a feature of the town's musical life, giving two or three concerts a year in the town and surrounding villages.

Heavenly Harmonies - November 2013

Our 2016 season began with a Passiontide Reflection on Palm Sunday - The Seven Last Words from the Cross - and our Spring Concert featured Haydn's Heilig Mass, Stanford's Songs of the Fleet and Kelly's Missa Brevis.

On 1st October we will be holding a Choral Workshop day working on the choruses of Bach's Mass in B Minor. Click here for more details.

For our 2016 autumn season we begin rehearsals on 31st August and will be preparing for a concert on Saturday 26 November. The programme will include Schubert's Magnificat, Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on Christmas Carols and an enchanting Mass by Carl Maria von Weber; his JubelMesse No.2 in G major. We have assembled a fine line-up of soloists: Josephine Goddard, the highly talented young soprano, Adriana Festeu the dramatic Mezzo, Tenor Paul Badley and as our  Bass, we welcome back Martin Robson. Click here for ticketing information.

Recent performances have included Mendelssohn's Elijah at the Lighthouse, Poole with the Dorset Guild of Singers, Gounod's St Cecilia Mass, macDoall's Christus Natus Est, Bax's Of a Rose I Sing, Alessandro Scarlatti's Dixit Dominus and Mozart's Loreto Mass, Bach's Magnificat and St John Passion, Haydn's Creation, Brahms Requiem, Vaughan Williams's Mass in G, Bach's Wachet Auf, Vivaldi's Beatus Vir and Mozart's Te Deum.

In 2015 we performed Rossini's Petite Messe Solenelle and Brahms' Liebesliederwaltzer to a very appreciative audience. We welcomed terrific young soprano Josephine Goddard as well as Mezzo Lucie Spickova, Tenor Martin Hindmarsh and Bass Martin Robson. The Rossini was written for piano and harmonium accompaniment and we were delighted to have Antony Saunders and Richard Hall as our keyboard duo.

2015 also saw a joint venture with the celebrated London-based Chamber Choir, The Esterhazy Singers. This was a new and very exciting departure for us - singing with and listening to our city colleagues, directed by Esther Jones. The programme was varied and featured the two choirs singing both separately and together. Delicate a capella pieces by Tallis, Stanford, Finzi and Whitacre contrasted with more rustic settings of Barnes poems, sentimental ballads and favourite anthems ranging from Handel’s Zadok the Priest to the Cantique de Jean Racine by Fauré.

Our final concert for 2015 was on Saturday November 28 when we performed music for Advent including excerpts from Handel's Messiah and Solomon, and Cecilia MacDowell's Christus Natus est, with professional soloists and orchestra.

As well as our concerts, we also host occasional choral workshops and perform in local festivals, at fund raising concerts, dinners and ceremonial occasions. We are available for private bookings at weddings and memorial services, where we can advise on the choice of music and arrange soloists as well as singing hymns and anthems.

This is what we sound like... click the icon to hear us sing

Kyrie from Mozart Requiem, recorded live at our 20th Anniversary Concert in May 2008.

part of How lovely are thy dwellings fair from Brahms Requiem, recorded live at a concert in November 2006.

a short extract from the Mendelssohn chorale Hear my Prayer (O for the wings of a dove) which was recorded live in November 2005.

Calling Tenors and Basses!

We are looking for more
men's voices.
If you would like to join
Beaminster Singers,
please click here for more information.