Beckenham Chorale - 50 years of music-making
Beckenham Chorale was founded as the Manor Choir in 1960 by the late Kennimore Straker, manager of the music publishers Ricordi and Co., who was succeeded in 1964 as conductor by Lionel Sawkins, with John Nightingale as accompanist. Works performed in the early years included Fauré’s Requiem, Lambert’s The Rio Grande and Stanford’s Songs of the Fleet along with the traditional charity carol concerts.
To reflect the choir’s local identity its name was changed at the beginning of 1967 to Beckenham Chorale. During the next ten years the membership grew and the repertoire expanded to include French baroque music which was, and still is, a particular specialism of Lionel Sawkins. Concerts were given not only in Beckenham but over an increasingly wide area including Central London, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and at the English Bach Festival in Oxford. At this time too the Beckenham (later Bromley) Summer Choral Festival evolved from several local choirs joining to promote large-scale concerts. The Chorale remained an integral part of the Festival which continued until recently giving singers from around the area the opportunity to perform great works such as Verdi’s Requiem, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast and Mahler’s Symphony No.8 at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon.
James Blair was appointed conductor of Beckenham Chorale in January 1977, bringing with him an established reputation as the conductor of the Young Musicians’ Symphony Orchestra. Since then James has conducted, in Beckenham, many memorable and highly-praised performances of the great choral works with the admirable support of the professional players in the Albemarle Orchestra, many of whom have YMSO connections.
Some of the outstanding professional soloists who have performed in the Chorale’s concerts have been Harry Christophers, Felicity Lott, David Wilson-Johnson, Margaret Cable, the cellist Robert Cohen and clarinettist Emma Johnson and today’s rising stars Elin Manahan Thomas and Ruby Hughes.
Important developments over the years have been the change in the Chorale’s status when it became independent of the Bromley Adult Education service in 1982, the acquisition of the distinguished mezzo-soprano Sarah Walker CBE as Patron, the appointments of John Nightingale as chorus-master and Janet Bishop as rehearsal accompanist and the decision to make St George’s Church the Chorale’s concert base.
Works performed in the last 50 years have encompassed all periods from Monteverdi and Bach via Handel, Haydn and Mozart to Brahms, Dvořák, Elgar and Vaughan Williams and the present-day composers John Rutter and Karl Jenkins. In March 2008 the Chorale gave a sell-out performance of Orff’s Carmina Burana and Lambert’s The Rio Grande, emphasising its versatility and enterprise. In a new departure the Chorale commissioned Mary’s Song from Ronald Corp in 2000, and has performed the work twice.
