RAMSBOTTOM CHORAL SOCIETY & CONCERT ORCHESTRA

REGISTERED CHARITY NO: 1093417

Musical Director : G. Barry Sugden

President : Wayne Marshall

Vice-President : Maggie McDonald

Welcome to our website

Like many other large choral societies, ours have gone through a period of change since the lockdown. The parts of the society which have survived this difficult period are the Andantino Singers and the Ramsbottom Concert Orchestra. These two parts are very much alive and flourishing and perform concerts together three times a year. They still remain an integral part of the original Ramsbottom Choral Society and Concert Orchestra which is a registered charity. However, the main choral society is no longer operating.

If you are interested in listening or joining as a singer or instrumentalist, please browse our pages and find out more about our friendly and welcoming society.

The Ramsbottom Concert Orchestra meet on Thursday nights, 7-30pm. at St Francis House Community Centre, Hebburn Drive, Bury BL8 1ED, Andantino Singers meet on a Friday at All Saints Church next door to St Francis House. These two venues are adjacent buildings and share a spacious parking area.

Our History

 The existence of a Ramsbottom Choral Society can be traced back to 1914 from two documents that exist in our archives. They bridge the period of the First World War and are comprised of two very detailed concert programs dated December 2^nd, 1914, of a ‘Special Concert’ given on behalf of the War Fund and another entitled ‘Second Concert’ dated February 23^rd, 1921.

Our continuous written records of Ramsbottom Choral Society stem from 1949 when it was reformed after the Second World War.  The Ramsbottom Concert Orchestra was founded by the present conductor Barry Sugden in 1965 a year after taking over the choir and was formed to accompany the choir when it performed major choral works rather than using a piano or organ.

From the 1960’s right up to the Covid epidemic the society performed most of the standard choral repertoire such as Handel’s ‘Messiah’, Haydn’s ‘Creation’, Mendelssohn’s ‘Elijah’ and ‘St. Paul’, Poulenc’s Gloria, Vaughan William’s ‘Sea Symphony’ as well as the Brahms, Mozart, Verdi and Faure ‘Requiems’ several times over. Our large choir and orchestra utilised some of the finest solo singers in the Northwest of England in the performance of these large choral work. The society always had a very loyal following for all their concerts and the ‘Annual Carol Concert’ held in Greenmount United Reformed Church  for over 30 years and the summer concert entitled ‘Songs From the Shows’ were particular favourites with the large audiences until the onset of the COVID epidemic.

Many of these choral works such as Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius call for a small additional choir or semi chorus  and during the 1970’s the semi chorus used to meet regularly to rehearse some of the more difficult parts that they had to sing. They also started to sing other shorter pieces such as madrigals and popular light music and were asked to do some concerts where a small repertoire choir was needed.

As this demand grew, the members of the semi chorus decided that they needed their own distinctive name, and the Andantino Singers, were born but they still remained affiliated to Ramsbottom Choral Society & Concert Orchestra and took part in all the concerts.

After the lockdown when the main choral society rehearsals were finally  able to resume, the numbers had dramatically declined, and unfortunately this downward trend continued until June  2023 when the main choir was no longer deemed to be viable as a Choral Society and was sadly disbanded. However, the Ramsbottom Concert Orchestra and Andantino Singers  continues to grow and are still gaining enthusiastic new members. In more recent times these two remaining parts of the society regularly perform joint concerts together.