Welcome
The Chantry Singers is a friendly Guildford based chamber choir, specialising in high-quality performances of imaginative choral programmes. The Chantry Singers was formed in 1983 by Tim Venvell (an assistant in the music department of Guildford's Royal Grammar School) and was initially comprised of staff, parents and other invited singers. These days we are in the capable hands of Roy Rashbrook (see the page headed Our Conductor). Along with other choirs we have felt the effects of Covid, but were able to continue singing activities online with the use of Zoom calls during the periods of lockdown. We are very grateful for the continuing financial support provided to the choir by the Trustees of the Humphrey Richardson Taylor Charitable Trust which has helped us survive this period.
Live concerts recommenced in November 2021 and we have returned since to our normal programme of three concerts per year.
The choir specialises in performing themed concerts; as examples we have in the past sung a concert based entirely on film theme music, a concert based on music from both North and South America, a concert where East meets West in musical terms and a concert of music attributed wrongly to various composers.
We have also teamed up with the folk duo Ninebarrow to sing several concerts, featuring their original compositions combined in some cases with other repertoire performed before. One of these concerts featured Roy's choral arrangements of a selection of Ninebarrow's own compositions. Plans are under way for The Chantry Singers and Hart Voices, Roy's other choir, to record a professional CD with Ninebarrow early in 2024.
If you would like to join us or to hear us sing please use the Contact Us link at the head of this page. We look forward to hearing from you!
"We very much enjoyed the concert on Sat...... the intonation and blend of voices was really good. It was an interesting programme and worked really well in that church."
"There was such a balanced sound, wonderful diction (perfect German pronunciation!) and homogeneity and commitment ....... the difficult chords of the Sanders piece were fantastic and performed so well by you all..."
We are very grateful for the support from the following organisations:
