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The WINDSOR AND ETON CHORAL SOCIETY gave its first public performance in Windsor while William the Fourth was still on the throne, so qualifying as one of the ten oldest Choral Societies in the country. Founded by the then Organist of St. George’s Chapel Windsor, it has always had a close connection with both St. George’s and Eton College, the conductors having been drawn in almost equal numbers from the two royal foundations.
The Choral Society is honoured to have had among its patrons Prince Albert, Princess Christian and, since 1923, the reigning Monarch. Of the present Royal Family, H.M. The Queen, Prince Philip and the late Queen Mother have all attended performances.
The Society is about 185 strong. As well as enjoying the established “classics”, the Society has, over the last few years, been persuaded to venture into new territory with works by Monteverdi, Howells, Dankworth, Nielsen, Bernstein, Spicer and Ferguson. After the trauma of the initial rehearsals, all these have proved to be deeply satisfying, and it is intended that this enlivening mixture of old and new should be continued during the half century leading up to the two-hundredth anniversary of the Society’s first concert, in 2037.
Last year the Society performed to full houses in three concerts in Windsor Castle, in the Falklands commemoration ceremony televised from Horse Guards Parade and in a concert in Eton College School Hall . In May 2008 members participated in the hugely successful Royal Windsor Tattoo featured on BBC1 and, in September, in the spectacular and much acclaimed 'Music on Fire' at Sandhurst singing with Jonathan Ansell and Hayley Westenra for 22,000 people.
Our Next Concerts
Saturday 26th September 2009 – ST GEORGE'S CHAPEL,
WINDSOR CASTLE 7:30 pm Haydn - Creation
Tuesday 15th December 2009 – ETON COLLEGE SCHOOL HALL 7:30 pm Handel - Solomon
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Our Conductor
Ralph Allwood is Precentor and Director of Music at EtonCollege. He founded and runs the five Eton Choral Courses, attended each year by three hundred singers aged between 16 and 20. The courses broadcast and record evensongs and sequences for BBC Radio Three. He has conducted choral courses in Taiwan, Sydney, Barcelona, HarvardUniversity, Boston, Kansas, Utrecht and Vancouver. He has been musical director for National Youth Music Theatre musicals for ITV, Granada and BBC2, and conducted on two occasions for the Edinburgh International Festival. He is a judge for the Sainsbury's / BBC2 Choir of the Year Competition. Eton College Chapel Choir, which he directs, tours abroad every year and have released six recordings. He is an advisor for Novello and Co and for the Voices Foundation, and a judge for the Sainsbury's Choir of the Year Competition and the Llangollen International Eisteddfod. He has recently been made an honorary Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music and an honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. He also directs the Windsor and Eton Choral Society and the Rodolfus Choir. The latter have released recordings of choral works by Bax and Villette, Parry, Francis Grier, Eberlin, Choral Arrangements, 19th Century German Motets and one of English Folk Song arrangements.
Ralph Allwood is Precentor and Director of Music at 
