Cantorum Choir was founded twenty five years ago by conductor Jonathan Miall.

Jonathan grew up in this area, attending – along with several other key figures in the choir – Desborough school in Maidenhead. He went on to Manchester University, where he gained his first conducting experience and subsequently studied singing at the Guildhall under Arthur Reckless. After some stage work and other musical experience, Jonathan determined to form his own chamber choir locally. He began with a small group of highly talented friends and then built around them a fine choral unit of thirty voices. This was Cantorum. It first appeared in 1981 and rapidly gained a reputation for choral excellence. For the next decade, the choir went from strength to strength, establishing a keen following.
 
In 1992, however, after eleven demanding years of being in sole charge, Jonathan decided he really had to step down. The sudden loss of its original inspiration brought the choir to a critical point, but it was rescued by the efforts of Penny Bysshe, a member of the altos. Penny was determined Cantorum should continue. Working together with members of the committee, she rallied the troops and approached Murray Hipkin – who already had a connection with the choir – for the post of Joint Musical Director.

Murray, another local boy, had been to York University before going on to take the prestigious Répétiteur course at the Guildhall. He was already beginning to make a name for himself at the English National Opera. The committee also approached another local conductor, Sally Stafford. Sally was a graduate of Royal Holloway College, University of London and already established as an enthusiastic and successful conductor of a number of youth orchestras, bands and choirs. Both musicians agreed to the challenge, and Cantorum then entered its second phase. For another decade and more, the choir benefited from the creative dialogue of these two entirely complementary yet strikingly individual musical personalities. Fortunately, with advances in technology, it became possible to make good recordings of our concerts. To catch the flavour of this period, you might like to hear us online.

As a true chamber choir, Cantorum has always specialised in ‘chamber’ performances. This means that even the larger works of the repertoire are given in an intimate, small scale form, and our programmes always also contain important shorter or a cappella works – just the kind of pieces to take on tour. And indeed during this decade there were some very successful and enjoyable European tours, for example to Bruges and to Paris (twice).

We were delighted to have worked with Murray; he is remembered with great affection and is still in touch with many of us. When he left in 2005 to pursue his conducting career at the ENO, in the West End and with the North London Chorus, Sally very generously took sole charge despite the huge workload involved. Special mention must be made of her Haydn Creation, Poulenc Gloria, Bach St John Passion and, of course, our 2006 tour to Venice. There, the choir sang for the Palm Sunday mass in St Mark’s itself, the original home of so much great choral music – an astonishing experience musically, emotionally and acoustically! To our great surprise, the full Easter congregation stood up to applaud.

In 2007, Cantorum approached Dr Ian Taylor to share the conducting duties. Ian joined us as a young and first rate Oxford musician, just beginning a career outside academia. We enjoyed working with him very much, and his tenure was notable for a number of wonderful concerts, including the performance of the Mozart Coronation Mass, Monteverdi Beatus Vir, Vivaldi Magnificat and the lighthearted Summer programme that included madrigals and Rutter’s The Reluctant Dragon.

2009 brought – coincidentally - the sad departures from the choir of both Sally and Ian, with outside and family commitments eventually proving too demanding. Cantorum invited several excellent guest conductors – Neil Matthews, Graham Barker and Michael Sanderson – to lead our concerts and maintain our quality while we set about the task of recruiting a new permanent Musical Director. During the early months of 2010, we carried out a full appointment process, receiving sixteen very strong applications for the post. A shortlist was drawn up and demanding auditions were held during the rehearsal period for our “Faire is the Heaven” Concert (Spring 2010). We were delighted to appoint the young, talented soprano and conductor Elisabeth Toye, whose conducting skills, musicianship and enthusiasm made a great impression upon us all. Liz is now in sole musical charge of Cantorum.

The choir continues to flourish. This is mostly owing, of course, to the quality of its performances. But Cantorum has also maintained throughout its history a very strong social life. We always follow each performance with a party – great company, good food and a chance to relax and wind down. Our various tours have been memorable not only for their music but also as wonderful opportunities for cementing the friendships which are at the heart of the choir.

Perhaps the best example of Cantorum’s social function, though, was as recent as June this year – 2007 – when we hosted of a visit from ‘Fonte’, a Japanese choir who were visiting UK and were keen to sing with us. What was so touching about the whole experience was the fantastic spirit of co-operation: everyone played some part or other in making this musical meeting an absolute treat.

Continuity has also been important. Some grown-up children of founder members are now singers – indeed soloists – with the choir in their own right. Others, accomplished instrumentalists, return regularly to play for orchestral concerts.

Mention should be made of some particular highlights. Cantorum appeared in the first of the Inspector Morse adaptations, The Dead of Jericho, and was the chorus for the recording of the stage musical Wuthering Heights. A sample of our diverse repertoire includes, most recently, the Brahms German Requiem, the Mozart Requiem, Great Mass and Coronation Mass,  Poulenc’s Stabat Mater, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle, Elgar’s The Music Makers and From the Bavarian Highlands, Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Magnificat and St John Passion, Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, Britten’s St Nicholas and Cantata Misericordiam, Rutter’s Requiem, Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Kodály’s Missa Brevis and Fauré’s Requiem – together with a great many shorter cycles and a cappella anthems and motets from whole range of the choral tradition.

One last word: possibly the most constant factor in our history has been our Christmas carol concert held each year at St John the Baptist Church, Cookham Dean – near Winter Hill on the ridge of the Chilterns. Over the years, this has become a local institution. Two performances are given, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. Do come – but book early!