Portsmouth Baroque Choir

Portsmouth Baroque Choir (previously Drayton Choral Society) was founded in 1981. Based in central Portsmouth, it attracts singers from across The Solent region. Four concerts take place throughout the year in a variety of churches between Chichester and Fareham.

While the big names of 17th and 18th-century West European music - Bach, Handel, Schütz, Vivaldi and Purcell - make up the core of its repertoire, a key feature of music director Malcolm Keeler’s programming explores lesser known contemporaries such as Carissimi, Charpentier, Pelham Humphrey, Kuhnau and Buxtehude. Repertoire also extends back to English Renaissance composers, especially Weelkes (with his Chichester connection), Byrd, Tallis and Gibbons. And it extends forward to the 20th century - Vaughan Williams, Finzi and Britten - and to the present day: the choir has featured works by Jonathan Dove and John Rutter while its President, Ian Schofield, has often written especially for it.

Many concerts commemorate composer anniversaries: Monteverdi in 2017, Parry in 2018, Weelkes in 2023, Stanford and Bruckner in 2024. One of its most successful concerts in recent years, at St Paul’s Chichester, celebrated the 280th anniversary of Handel’s Messiah, a rare performance of the complete work, for which the choir was joined by professional soloists and the Chichester-based Consort of Twelve. Local critic David Green declared it his Event of the Year. Similar forces involved in Bach’s B Minor Mass in 2019 won the Portsmouth News Guide Award for the Best Classical Act.

Recent concerts have featured Duruflé’s Requiem, Schütz’s Christmas Story, and music for Lent by Bach, Caldara and Charpentier. In March 2024 we presented two contrasting works, the little-known Stabat Mater by Emanuele d’Astorga and Fauré’s famous Requiem. In May this year (2025) Portsmouth Baroque Choir joined forces with Winchester Youth Orchestra and Southampton Choral Society to sing Brahms A German Requiem in Romsey Abbey. In July the choir celebrated Gibbons 400 with a concert of his verse anthems at the Festival of Chichester and in October will return to St Paul’s Chichester with Handel’s Dixit Dominus.

Please visit https://portsmouthbaroquechoir.co.uk where you can obtain details about all our concerts, engage with our blog posts about the music we sing, sign up for our regular newsletter and, if you're looking for an attentive and adaptable choir to join, apply to try us out and audition .

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Next concerts in 2025 www.ticketsource.co.uk/baroquechoir:
July 5th, Christ Church, Chichester with Binsted Viols - Gibbons 400: Orlando Gibbons & his contemporaries - full & verse anthems through the church's year.
October 18th, St Paul's, Chichester with the Consort of 12 - Handel 'Dixit dominus' and Alessandro Scarlatti 'St Cecilia Mass'
December 6th, Havant United Reformed Church - Christmas concert