Community Choir

Our choir meets every Thursday from 7.15pm to 9.15pm. As the word ’community’ suggests the choir’s membership of around 50 singers includes friends from the wider Macclesfield area.

The choir’s repertoire ranges from Bach to the Beatles stopping at all stations in between! We believe in a rich and varied musical diet incorporating sacred and secular music in equal measure.

On Good Friday each year we sing appropriate music for the day. In recent years this has included Faure’s Requiem, Rheinburger’s Stabat Mater and Mozart’s Requiem.

At Christmas time the annual carol service is led by the choir and mixes the best of traditional carols and the best of contemporary ones. Every other year the Advent Calendar concert for ALL the family in early December ushers in the festive season. A giant Advent Calendar beautifully lit and decorated is the centre piece and its boxes contain the musical and literary clues to be performed. Father Christmas always finds time to call in!

Themed concerts raising money for different national and local charities have been a regular feature for many years. Examples are a Valentine’s Day programme, an All American evening and one celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. In addition the choir has demonstrated its versatility and pazzazz by presenting semi staged, costumed productions of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury, Pirates of Penzance and H.M.S Pinafore.

A music exchange that began in 1985 between All Hallows Catholic High School in Macclesfield and the Gymnasium in the German spa town of Bad Bergzabern continues every 2/3 years, although not involving the schools! Clemens Schmitt and Andy Donaldson, the music directors are both retired but the partnership has survived and happily revolves round the Community Choir and the Orchester der Vier Jahreszeiten and singers from Bad Bergzabern.

The Community Choir welcomes new singers with the right commitment. Contact Andy Donaldson, the conductor on choir@methodistchurchmacclesfield.org.uk.