A Brief History of Pershore Choral

Pershore Choral was founded in 1949 as the Pershore W.I. Choir by the late Joan Phillips who was for many years a leading member of the Abbey community and teacher of music at the Alice Ottley School in Worcester. Some male voices soon had to be recruited to help out with a performance of Handel's Messiah and stayed on once the concert was over. Thus Pershore Choral, which until very recently was known as Pershore and District Choral Society, was born.

Joan Phillips was musical director until shortly before her death in 1983. Under her baton the choir grew in stature and confidence with a repertoire that ranged from Bach to Verdi. Michael Anderson, who had arrived from Kent in the early eighties, took over from Joan and led the choir through seventeen years of exciting and challenging music making. Alongside popular and well-known works by Bach, Handel and Mozart, music by Duruflé, Poulenc, Ramirez, Fanshawe and Monteverdi was successfully attempted. Michael took a year out in 1990 and Ian Gerrard, who is our accompanist, took over for the season and directed a memorable performance of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius.

The current conductor  is Carleton Etherington. Read more ab9out him on the Musical Director page. Under his direction Pershore Choral is proudly continuing its tradition of learning and singing fine music in Pershore Abbey - a venue which is widely acknowledged to be one of the best for miles around.