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The Durham Singers was founded in 1972 by the late Dick Addison, who brought together
sixteen singers (of whom three are still with the choir) with the aim of performing
unaccompanied choral music to as high a standard as possible. From the outset, the choir
performed a broad repertoire ranging from early Renaissance to the contemporary, including
several first performances and commissioned works.
The choir initially met solely for the purpose of performing concerts, usually for
local music societies, with members preparing works alone and having just a few
rehearsals to provide polish. A desire to spend more time working on technique led
to weekly rehearsals, and since that time the choir has enabled singers to develop
technically and artistically, with many members being able to take on the solo parts
in larger works. A new series of workshops with choral specialists and several CD
recordings have contributed further to this process of development.
By the time Dick Addison retired in 1984, the choir had doubled in size, so that
larger and more complicated works could be tackled. Under his successor, Alan Oyston,
the choir continued to grow, and performed many of the standard larger-scale
choral works, often collaborating with other local choral and orchestral groups.
In recent years, a group of professional period instrument players has joined the
choir for performances of works by Bach and Handel.
The choir’s third director, Dr Julian Wright, was appointed in 2007 and has continued
the choir’s tradition, mixing a core repertoire of a cappella pieces with an annual
concert of a large-scale orchestral work.
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