The Choir

St Peter's has a flourishing adult and junior choir, both robed. The adult choir sings every Sunday morning at the 10 am Choral Eucharist and also once a month at Matins. The juniors sing once a month at the All Age service, often with support from an orchestra made up of all ages, and sing solo items which they mostly learn from memory.

There are around 25 to thirty adult choristers, with a good spread of sopranos, altos, tenors and bases, and up to 12 juinors with a range of ages. Practices are held at the church on Thursday evenings under the direction of the choir leader Ann Osborn. Geoff Martin assists Ann in coaching the junior choir.

The adult choir also sings at cathedrals and other churches. For example we have sung for services at Southwark, Salisbury, Rochester and Canterbury Cathedrals and St Mary's Church in Bath. In May 2008 we shall be singing evensong in Winchester Cathedral.

In addition to enjoying our music the choir has an active social life, including an annual long weekend holiday for choir members and their partners and others from the church who like to come along. Venues in recent years have included Norwich, Stratford-on-Avon, Guernsey, Cheltenham and Chichester. These weekends are always over-subscribed and although we do not sing officially we usually find an opportunity to sing an anthem or two in the local church or cathedral.

New members are always very welcome. The standard of singing is high, but no audition is required, just an enthusiasm for singing and a commitment to taking part regularly. If you would like to join us please contact the choir leader via the Parish Office, telephone no. 01883-723183 or e-mail choir.

As well as singing at the regular church services, the choirs sing at other events such as the Christmas carol services, other church festivals and special concerts. Although the choir concentrates on church music of all kinds, we can turn our hand to other styles such as the recent Victorian music hall evening, when the full choir, together with adult and junior soloists sang a variety of music hall songs.