The Choir
The Edinburgh Singers is one of Scotland’s finest non - professional mixed-voice choirs. It is
renowned for vibrant, moving, and expressive performances of music from the Baroque period to
the present day.
Founded in 1952, the choir has evolved and grown in recent years, both in its size and in the variety
of programmes it performs, while remaining an enthusiastic and sociable group of all ages
encompassing members from every walk of life. In its regular concerts it strives for the highest
quality of performance and has collaborated with Scottish Opera, the BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra and appeared on BBC TV’s Songs of Praise and Radio 4’s Sunday Worship. It also often
works with talented professional soloists and musicians from across the UK.
Under our Musical Director, Alistair Digges, the choir has considerably extended its repertoire.
Concerts have featured Renaissance and Mediaeval pieces as well as more modern works. The choir
has performed major works by 20th century and contemporary composers such as Kodály, Widor,
Walton, Poulenc, Tavener, MacMillan, Ešenvalds and Whitacre, as well as the more familiar choral
works of Bach, Handel, Brahms, Elgar, Fauré, Haydn, Howells, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Vaughan
Williams.
We have also undertaken several concert collaborations, most recently with the Edinburgh
Meadows orchestra in October 2023, and undertook the challenge of performing Joby Talbot’s
glorious 17-part Path of Miracles in March 2024, a Scottish choir first. The choir has also
commissioned new choral pieces from leading Scottish composers. A detailed list of past concerts is
listed on the website.
The choir typically performs four formal concerts each year in major venues in the centre of
Edinburgh, and often in the atmospheric surroundings of St. Mary’s Cathedral, the Parish Church of
St Cuthbert, and Greyfriars Kirk. There are also a range of other activities through the year in
support of charitable causes, various social activities, residential weekends, and tours abroad.
Recent tour venues have included Rome, Paris, Berlin, Brussels and now Madrid.
We are always on the lookout for enthusiastic and talented singers interested in joining us. Find out more about how you can sing with us here.
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