About Us
History of Anglian Singers
The choir was first formed as a madrigal group in the late 1940s by Alice Peters; as it grew it was renamed The Anglian Singers.
We are a friendly, mixed choir of nearly 40 voices, based in Norwich. We sing both a cappella and accompanied works. These range from the 16th century to the present day; from motets and madrigals to modern musical theatre; from the traditional baroque and longer classical choral works to the folk idiom; from the highly serious to the seriously humorous. We hope there is always something in the programme that everyone will like!
Although this isn’t an exhaustive list we have sung longer, choral works such as Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, Schubert’s Mass in G, Karl Jenkins ‘The Armed Man’, Faure’s Requiem & Vivaldi’s Gloria. We have also performed items by John Rutter, George & Ira Gershwin, Flanders & Swann as well as madrigals, spiritual songs and medleys from various musical shows such as Les Miserables, Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar.
We give regular concerts and recitals throughout Norfolk, upon invitation. We are always delighted to assist in raising funds for charitable purposes and on occasions such as anniversaries and restoration appeals. Our future concerts are listed on our Events page.
Each December we have our annual concert of Christmas music and carols with some audience participation and festive refreshments.
Members of our choir are drawn from a wide area surrounding Norwich and we rehearse each Monday evening from 7.30pm – 9.15pm at United Reformed Church, Ipswich Road, Norwich NR4 6QR. We do not rehearse over the summer months (mid July to end of August).
We pay a small subscription every term which covers hall hire charges and music hire/purchase.
If you would like to make contact, know more about the choir, its constitution or wish to book a concert, please get in touch.
Below: We rehearse at United Reform Church, Ipswich Road, Norwich. (Photo copyright IRURC.)
Musical Director
John Barham, B.Mus, ARCM
John trained at the University of Birmingham and the Royal College of Music. After teaching in Birmingham for a couple of years he went to Ghana, West Africa, where he was Head of Music at Achimota School. After 10 years in Ghana he was Head of Music at Island School, Hong Kong for 23 years. John has been involved with choirs, orchestras and musical theatre for more than 50 years and with the Anglian Singers since 1999.
Assistant Musical Director and Accompanist
Marion Flaxman, BSc
Marion trained at Bretton Hall, a specialist Music, Art and Drama College under Leeds University. After teaching Music in Bradford her career then led into pastoral and administrative roles becoming deputy head of a high school in Kirklees before retiring and returning to Norwich. She sang with Bradford Festival Choral for twenty years, accompanied amateur musical societies and conducted The Thornton Singers. Marion joined the Anglian Singers in 2012 as a soprano, then taking on her existing role under John’s leadership.
Click on the link below to see some recent photos of the choir