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.