Thank you for visiting our web site. We hope the information contained here is helpful and interesting to you but do please contact us if you would like to know more.

We currently have a membership of some 100 adult singers drawn from all walks of life and from a wide geographical area - Grimsby and District in the North of Lincolnshire down to Boston in the South. We meet weekly from September through to July to rehearse for our customary programme of four major concerts. Our aims are simple - to perform to the highest possible standards, choral music that is challenging, interesting and entertaining. We also aim to make our rehearsals fun and enjoyable.

Membership of the choir is open to all singers over the age of 16. Members pay an annual subscription (save for students where the subscription is waived) and are required to pass a simple (and unintimidating!) audition.

Rehearsals are held in the modern Salvation Army Community Centre in Church Street, Louth and concerts are regularly given in Louth's magnificent St James's Parish Church.

If you enjoy singing and would like to come along and see what we do we would love to see you. We are a friendly society and keen to welcome new singers in all voices. Perhaps you would contact our Secretary June Howeson (01507 600295) in the first instance for further information.

Our programme for each season is announced in advance and we are currently finalising plans for the 2007/08 season. Full details will be announced during the coming weeks but we are proud to announce that we will be including in our programme the first performance outside London of Patrick Hawes' new work The Lazarus Requiem conducted by the composer. It looks like being another very exciting year.

2006/07 has been a very special year for the Louth Choral Society when we reached our One Hundredth and Fortieth Birthday in November 2006. This was marked with a celebration concert with The London Mozart Players in a performance of Mozart's Great Mass in C Minor. We were also priviliged to include in that programme the second performance of Lynne Plowman's imposing choral work Cries Like Silence. We have subsequently performed Rossini's hugely enjoyable Petite Messe Solonelle and have just completed the year with a spectacular cabaret evening featuring the international piano duo team of Richard Markham and David Nettle in a performance of Side by Side by Sondheim. We were also joined by rising West End musical theatre stars Sarah-Jane Bourne, Vanessa Havell and Andrew Keelan as well as by local actor Jeremy Bass in the role of Narrator.

We may be 140 years old but we have not lost our appetite for new challenges!

Follow the links to find out more!

St James's Church, Louth

The tallest parish church spire in England

Some history

It was at a meeting on Monday 26 November 1866 that Louth Choral Society was formed and performing members were asked to pay the sum of four shillings as a subscription for the term.

Originally intended as a male voice choir, it was decided by the committee that a number of ladies be invited to join, but without paying a subscription. The Choral Society was directed by Mr John Porter, who in the same year had taken up his appointment as Organist and Choirmaster of the Parish Church. He held both these positions until 1897.

The Society ceased to exist for time after this, but in 1946 a meeting was held to discuss the possibility of a re-formation. Mr Hedley Warr was elected Chairman, and a formal proposal was made that Louth Choral Society be revived under the conductorship of Mr Harold Dexter.