Wellingborough Orpheus Choir celebrates 70 years of singing after being formed by publican in 1953

Wellingborough Orpheus Choir reaches a landmark anniversary this year. Founded in 1953 by local publican Frank Stalvies, a musician who had previously worked on ocean liners, the choir’s first public performance was of Handel’s ‘Messiah’ in what was then the Congregational Church on Wellingborough’s High Street. Today’s choir will be celebrating its platinum jubilee with a performance of the same work in the same church (now the United Reformed Church) on Saturday 1st April.

The choir’s chairman, Keith Jones said: “Our numbers have not yet returned to pre-Covid levels, so we have invited our musical director’s other choir, the Camerata Singers from Kettering, to join us for the performance, but we hope that the opportunity to sing such a popular work as ‘Messiah’, with an orchestra, will attract both former members and new singers from the Wellingborough area. We are particularly short of tenors and basses but would welcome singers in all sections. You don’t have to be able to sight-read music, there are no auditions, and the first term’s membership is free.”

The choir rehearses under the leadership of musical director Nicolas Moodie on Monday evenings from 7.30pm to 9.15pm at Wellingborough Methodist Church on Kingsway. For more information about the choir, email [email protected], visit the choir’s website at www.orpheuschoir.org.uk or follow them on Facebook.

The anniversary concert is being supported by Wilson Browne Solicitors, BCC Telemarketing and Wellingborough Town Council.