MCC was the brainchild of a number of Malmesbury residents who loved to sing. We found ourselves the very best Musical Director we could, gave him complete creative control, and launched in June 2013, with very little idea whether the community would be interested. We held two free open evenings in the town hall which were swamped with eager participants. We had a total of 160 applicants to join the new choir!
Taking advice from our MD we capped the choir at 80, and pulled names out of a hat – no auditions and no experience required. And what a brilliant mix of individuals we got!
Since then we’ve worked incredibly hard to achieve our aim of singing professional quality, four part harmony pieces from all types of music. Many of our members can’t read music. Some had never even sung before joining, and very few had ever stood up to perform on stage, but we’ve all pulled together under the talented, tough and brilliantly enthusiastic guidance of our Musical Director, Laurie Jones, and created something we’re really proud of.
In December 2013 MCC held its first public performance at Malmesbury School, to a sell-out crowd of 230 locals, friends and family. We were joined by the Welcome Choir from Bath, directed by Mr Grenville Jones (yes, Laurie’s father!) for an evening of traditional, modern, familiar and brand new pieces, topped off with some brilliant audience participation numbers. We could not have got off to a better start!
Since then we have held several concerts in Malmesbury Abbey inviting guest choirs from the local area to join us, including the Bath Male Choir, Cirencester Male Voice Choir, the Blue Notes and Westonbirt Girls’ Chamber Choir. We have even ventured out of Malmesbury and performed in Farmborough, Bath and at the Bradford Roots Festival.
Now in 2023 and at ten years old, we have evolved to become Malmesbury Choir. We will be maintaining all our community contributions and involvement with a focus on providing the high-quality musical experience our audiences have come to expect from us
We are always interested in collaborations and so if you are part of a choir that would like to work with us or you have an event you think we’d be perfect for then please contact us!
“I hadn’t been in a choir or sung anywhere, other than at home irritating my children, since being at school. I’ve always wanted to sing, so decided to join a local choir a year or so ago. The reward and enjoyment I’ve got out of it are immense. I love singing as a group, getting to know the people around me and becoming more and more confident about singing out. I’m really looking forward to singing with the Malmesbury Community Choir. Laurie (Jones) is a fantastic director – he’ll work us hard, but we’ll definitely have a few laughs along the way!”