About Us
Pershore Choral is a thriving amateur mixed choir of about 100 voices comprising Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass sections.
Pershore is a beautiful Georgian market town in Worcestershire situated on the River Avon. Out concerts, usually three each year, are performed in the historic Pershore Abbey. You can find a map showing directions here.
Pershore Choral welcomes new members and is actively seeking all voices. If you are interested in joining us, please do contact our membership secretary, Pam Pike for details.
Pershore Choral was founded in 1949 as the Pershore W.I. Choir by the late Joan Philips, a leading member of the Abbey community and teacher 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, formerly Pershore and District Choral Society, was born.
Joan Philips 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 took over from Joan and led the choir through seventeen years of exciting and challenging music making. From 2000 – 2006 the choir was led by Andrew Wilson.
The current conductor is Carleton Etherington. 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.
Welcome from the Chairman
Joan Philips, who founded our choir over seventy years ago, would be delighted to see how Pershore Choral has prospered and grown over those years. A robust membership of over a hundred singers has ensured some exciting concerts in Pershore Abbey with its brilliant acoustics and historical setting.
In the last two years, COVID has rocked us all back on our heels and singing has had to take a lesser priority than our health. But the experience has made us all the more determined than ever to enjoy making music together. There is little in life more uplifting than a concert accompanied and led by professional musicians and conductor and sung in front of an audience of several hundred people.
We enjoy singing works by Bach, Brahms, Faure, Handel, Haydn, Mozart and of course Elgar, but part of our aim as a charity is ‘to educate and inform the public’ in things musical and particularly choral. This we do by performing lesser known works as well as more popular ones. We also encourage younger people to sing with us by offering a reduced subscription, and more recently, a form of ‘musical apprenticeship’.
We are managed by an able and hard-working committee drawn from our membership and by our two professionals, Carleton and Tim who seta high standard of musicianship. Best of all are the regular Monday night rehearsals where the atmosphere is a combination of serious endeavour mixed with friendship and fun. Experience the joy of community singing!
Paul Clarke
Pershore Choral Chair
Our People
President: Jean Andrews
Chairman: Paul Clarke
Patron: Anne Albright
Director of Music: Carleton Etherington
Rehearsal Pianist: Tim Sidford
Carleton Etherington
Musical Director
Tim Sidford
Rehearsal Pianist
Carleton Etherington has been our Musical Director since 2007. He enjoys a busy professional life as an organist, conductor, choral director and teacher. Amongst his other activities he is Organist and Director of Music at Tewkesbury Abbey. Conductor of Cirencester Choral Society, Organ Tutor at Dean Close School, Cheltenham and Director of Musica Deo Sacra, a week-long Festival of Sacred Music held in Tewkesbury each summer.
Educated at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester and the Royal Academy of Music, London, Carleton studied organ with Peter Hurford and David Sanger. He went on to gain first prize at both the Paisley International Organ Competition and the Royal College of Organists’ “Performer of the Year” competition. Since then, he has performed throughout Europe, Australia and the USA. He has broadcast on BBC radio many times and has made various CD recordings, which have received considerable critical acclaim.
Perhaps one of the many highlights of his time with Pershore Choral was directing Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius as part of the choir’s 60th anniversary celebrations. He was recently awarded a Fellowship from the Guild of Church Musicians in recognition of his work in the profession.
Tim Sidford is a freelance pianist and music teacher. Tim has worked with countless musicians and is in demand as an accompanist, chamber musician and concerto soloist. He is also a member of the Estrilda Piano Trio and the Boehm Ensemble. He has appeared extensively throughout the UK as well as concerts in Germany and Holland. In London he has performed at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, St Martins-in-the-Fields, St James’, Piccadilly, and Leighton House.
After reaching the BBC Young Musicians Semi-Finals aged 15, he was awarded an Associated Board scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music, where he took his degree and Postgraduate Diploma (gaining Distinction). During his time there he won four of the College’s prizes for Piano and Chamber Music, and was chosen to perform for HM The Queen. He has studied with Emily Jeffrey, John Barstow and Niel Immelman, and was selected to participate in masterclasses given by Stephen Hough and Peter Katin.
Tim has a passion for music education, and currently teaches in three school including Malvern St James. He has given numerous educational and outreach performances, encompassing a wide range of musical styles, and delights in taking music into the wider community.
Carleton Etherington
Musical Director
Carleton Etherington has been our Musical Director since 2007. He enjoys a busy professional life as an organist, conductor, choral director and teacher. Amongst his other activities he is Organist and Director of Music at Tewkesbury Abbey. Conductor of Cirencester Choral Society, Organ Tutor at Dean Close School, Cheltenham and Director of Musica Deo Sacra, a week-long Festival of Sacred Music held in Tewkesbury each summer.
Educated at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester and the Royal Academy of Music, London, Carleton studied organ with Peter Hurford and David Sanger. He went on to gain first prize at both the Paisley International Organ Competition and the Royal College of Organists’ “Performer of the Year” competition. Since then, he has performed throughout Europe, Australia and the USA. He has broadcast on BBC radio many times and has made various CD recordings, which have received considerable critical acclaim.
Perhaps one of the many highlights of his time with Pershore Choral was directing Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius as part of the choir’s 60th anniversary celebrations. He was recently awarded a Fellowship from the Guild of Church Musicians in recognition of his work in the profession.
Tim Sidford
Rehearsal Pianist
Tim Sidford is a freelance pianist and music teacher. Tim has worked with countless musicians and is in demand as an accompanist, chamber musician and concerto soloist. He is also a member of the Estrilda Piano Trio and the Boehm Ensemble. He has appeared extensively throughout the UK as well as concerts in Germany and Holland. In London he has performed at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, St Martins-in-the-Fields, St James’, Piccadilly, and Leighton House.
After reaching the BBC Young Musicians Semi-Finals aged 15, he was awarded an Associated Board scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music, where he took his degree and Postgraduate Diploma (gaining Distinction). During his time there he won four of the College’s prizes for Piano and Chamber Music, and was chosen to perform for HM The Queen. He has studied with Emily Jeffrey, John Barstow and Niel Immelman, and was selected to participate in masterclasses given by Stephen Hough and Peter Katin.
Tim has a passion for music education, and currently teaches in three schools including Malvern St James. He has given numerous educational and outreach performances, encompassing a wide range of musical styles, and delights in taking music into the wider community.
Committee Contacts
Chairman: Paul Clarke
Honorary Secretary: Susan Mortimer 01789 773453 mortimersp43@gmail.com
Librarian: Andrew Simpson 01386 710 175
Membership Secretary: Ruth Davis 01684 833028
Honorary Treasurer: Sue Wright
Ticket Secretary: Anne Howells 01905 770 557
Friends, Sponsors and Advertisers: Simon Darley 07900 290 277
Publicity
Member: Tony Perks
Website: Elaine Hawley 01386 860420 elainehawley362@gmail.com
Thank you to all our loyal supporters and to the programme sellers who give their time so generously. Thanks also to the local businesses who advertise in our concert programmes each year.
Please contact Simon Darley if you would like to advertise in our concert programmes or become a friend or sponsor of Pershore Choral
