Before the war, a group of singers known as Bexhill Chorus joined together, and continued to sing and perform concerts until 1952, when Bexhill Choral Society was founded.
The first concert was performed at St. Barnabas Church, Sea Road. There is no record of the programme, but it could well have been Handel’s Messiah. From that year until 1982 Messiah was performed almost annually, along with a Christmas Carol concert held at the De La Warr Pavilion, and other works were also introduced into the repertoire. The choir also took part in the BBC programme ‘Friday Night is Seaside Night’, which was broadcast from the De La Warr Pavilion for at least 7 years in the 50s and 60s.
In 1979 the featured soprano soloist in Haydn’s Creation was none other than the now world-famous Lesley Garrett, who in 2013 became the Society’s Patron. Since 1982 the Society has performed at least three concerts each year, one of which has always been a Christmas-themed programme.
Concerts have included Brahms’ and Mozart’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Haydn’s Creation and Nelson Mass, Handel’s Messiah and Coronation Anthems, Glorias by Poulenc, Puccini, Rutter and Vivaldi, Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man, Parry and Stanford songs, Gilbert and Sullivan, Rodgers & Hammerstein songs, opera choruses, music by Kenneth Roberts (our Director of Music since 1996), and of course Christmas carols and music.
