The Kidderminster Choral Society
People
Geoffrey Weaver: Musical Director
Geoff was appointed in 1987, and is also the Musical Director of our Youth Choir, the
Wyre Forest Young Voices.
He also conducts the St. Michael's Chamber Choir, based in Wolverhampton.
Geoff was the Director of Outreach for the Royal School of Church Music until 2002, and he continues to work for them and for many other organisations on a freelance basis.
He presently undertakes numerous teaching and conducting engagements at home and abroad including Nigeria, the USA, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Kenya, Poland, Cyprus, the Philippines and Estonia.
Geoff's own website is: www.geoffweavermusic.com
Mike Elden: Rehearsal Accompanist
Mike, a native of Yorkshire, was a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal Northern College of Music, going on to study at the Royal College of Music in London and then, after graduating, to teacher training at Bretton Hall.
Having taught for many years, he is now a freelance accompanist for choirs, instrumentalists, singers, theatre and dance, as well as organist for church services in Worcester and the West Midlands. He is also the rehearsal pianist and accompanist for the Wyre Forest Young Voices.
Helena Raeburn: Vocal Coach, Wyre Forest Young Voices
Helena studied Music at Birmingham University, specialising in performance, and completed a Post Graduate Diploma at the Birmingham Conservatoire, achieving distinction for her certificate recital, for which she was also awarded the PGDip prize.
Following Arts Council-funded Vocal Animateur training, delivered through Solihull Music Service, she is now the vocal coach for Wyre Forest Young Voices and the Bournville Young Singers, as well as being a Vocal Tutor with the Ex Cathedra education programme.
Choral Singing has remained a central part of her work; she is a Choral Scholar at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, and has sung with Ex Cathedra, the Armonico Consort, St. Chad’s Cathedral choir and at numerous church events and other celebrations both as a soloist and in variously sized vocal groups.
In addition to her oratorio, concert and recital experience she has also been heavily involved in opera and other dramatic performances, ranging from Early Music to Contemporary Installation art pieces and Musical theatre. She is a member of the Voxtops Cabaret Trio and is a new member of the Advanced Performers Studio, based in Hammersmith.
Having played the title speaking role in the Conservatoire Production of ‘Psyche’, an opera by Matthew Locke, she has continued to explore this avenue of performance, attending courses in drama at the Birmingham School of Acting, and puppetry at the Little Angel Theatre, London.
Canon Rob Jones: Chairman
Our Chairman, Canon Rob Jones, has been a member of the Society since 1980, when he came to work in Kidderminster as curate at St. John's and Holy Innocents. He says that the late, redoubtable Peg Jordan was one of the people instrumental in getting him to join - in fact the way she put it he doesn’t think he had much choice, and he’s always been grateful to her for that.
Moves for work have kept Rob within reach of KCS; he moved firstly to Dudley and then to Worcester, where he is now working for the Diocese of Worcester in the training and development of clergy and lay ministry across Worcestershire and Dudley. He started off in the back row of the basses, and has stayed there, where there is a good tradition of chairmen skulking!
For a history of the KCS, please click here.
The Society
President: John Gaston
Vice-Presidents:
- The Mayor of Kidderminster
- The Chairman of Wyre Forest District Council
Life Vice-Presidents:
- Harry Bramma
- Jeannie Cornwell
- Philip Head
- Andrew Millington
- Kit Mockett
- Jonathan Price
For general enquiries about the Society, please contact the Secretary.
The Theodor Storms Chor, Husum
We have been linked with the TSC since 1989, through our two towns' 50-year twinning arrangement. Every two years we visit them, or they visit us, for a long weekend of concentrated rehearsing and performing - we combine the choirs to perform works from the classical choral repertoire.
Individual members have also joined us for such occasions as our Singing Weekends in Shrewsbury - just as individual members of KCS have joined them and taken part in performances. Members of KCS visited Husum to join with the TSC at the end of May, 2008, and performed in a very successful concert of music by Mozart and Haydn. We hope to be joining the Husum choir again in October 2012, when we plan to sing Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle.
The choir's last visit to Kidderminster was towards the end of May 2010, when we presented a very successful concert together before travelling, on Sunday, to Symphony Hall, Birmingham to join in a great rehearsal and performance of Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem.
Husum is on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein, in Germany, and our visits there make a very pleasant change from the English Midlands - though Husumers enjoy and appreciate our Worcestershire scenery just as much!
Financial Support
The Society is grateful to the following organisations that have supported events recently:
- The Elmley Foundation
- The Mary May Sheward Trust
- Worcestershire County Council
- Wyre Forest District Council
The Wyre Forest Young Voices have also received grants from the following organisations:
- The Elmley Foundation
- The Mary May Sheward Trust
- The Kidderminster and District Youth Trust
- The RD Turner Trust
- The Roy Woodward Trust
- The Sebright Trust
... and sponsorship from Swan Centre Shopping, Little Lakes Golf Club, Phipps and Pritchard and Plastics Plus Ltd.
The Society is very grateful to these and to the many individuals who give financial support or assist in other ways; if you would be prepared to assist in any way in the Society's aim of promoting high-quality practice and performance of classical music, please contact the Chairman.
