In a newspaper report, celebrating our Thirtieth Anniversary in 1973, the Society’s former president, Sylvia Horton-Fawkes recalled ‘…the Choral society was born in the drawing room at Farnley Hall at a party I gave there in 1943 for members of a Music Society that then existed in Otley.’ This music group, founded in 1941, met in the library of the Grammar school to listen to gramophone records. Encouraged by Mrs Horton-Fawkes, they placed an advertisement in the Wharfedale Observer inviting people interested in forming a choral group to attend a meeting in the Congregational Hall on Tuesday, 19^th October 1943 – and to bring copies of Messiah. We have met on Tuesdays ever since and we still sing Messiah frequently! Fifty singers turned up but a shortage of men was reported (nothing changes!) and even some of them, the Society’s records show, had to resign because of ‘civil defence duties’. The Otley Choral Group planned a concert version of Merrie England for the spring of 1944, inviting a Mr Sydney Parsons to conduct, but by the date of the concert (April 1944) the choir was already known as the Otley Choral society and seventy singers took part in the performance. Incidentally, we sang Merrie England again for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002.

That the choir has survived through difficult times (numerical and financial) bears witness to the enthusiasm and loyalty of its members but more particularly, to the dedication, skill and energy of Charles Bainbridge who trained and educated the Society from 1946 until his retirement in 1980. Once again the redoubtable Sylvia Horton-Fawkes played her part as it was she who suggested in 1946 that ‘Mr Bainbridge from Pudsey be invited to take up the post of conductor’. The Society has been blessed with other long-serving members, especially the two accompanists – Rupert Tong who served from 1948 until 1970 and Bob Walker from 1970 until 2000. Pat Jordan, our talented new accompanist knows what is expected of her! One local family has always been represented in the choir – Mrs Doris Moxon (second soprano) was one of those founder members in 1943; soon after the war she was joined by her husband Cyril (tenor) who served as chairman of the society from 1964 -1986 and they were later joined by their son David who now sings in the tenor section and also composes carols for our Christmas concerts.

Charles Bainbridge was also responsible for encouraging the formation of another Choral society in Wharfedale – The Ilkley Choral Society grew out of his Musical Evening Class in 1949 and since that date the two societies have worked together for most of their major concerts – usually two in each town per season. Although functioning as two separate societies, they rehearse the same music and come together for joint rehearsal just before each concert, forming a chorus of 120-150 voices. The idea of amalgamation has been aired from time to time, but it has been found preferable to continue this unusual collaboration. Other musical partnerships have developed in more recent times; The Yorkshire Chamber Ensemble (leader: Sally Robinson) has provided a wonderful accompaniment for most of our concerts for the last decade and for the past two years we have enjoyed sharing our Christmas concerts with Otley Brass Band.

Otley Choral Society has occasionally performed outside Wharfedale. In May 1984 choir members travelled to Otley’s twin town to share a concert with the Chorale de Montereau, performing Faurés Requiem and Vivaldi’s Gloria. Nearer to home, some members of the Choir spent two memorable weekends in Wensleydale singing in freezing conditions (and thereby earning a valuable fee for Society funds), as the Darrowby Choral Society in BBC Television’s ‘All creatures Great and Small’. Even nearer to home and with the help of the first of our lottery grants, we were able to perform Verdi’s Requiem at St George’s Hall in Bradford which fulfilled our ambition to mount a really big concert. This memorable concert in June 1998 provided a platform for young soloists and involved the participation of young singers from Prince Henry’s Grammar School, St Mary’s Menston and Bradford Cathedral Choir.

After Charles Bainbridge’s retirement in 1980, the Society was first directed by a succession of young conductors, Marcus Huxley, Michael Harris, Darius Battiwalla and Matthew Beetschen, all of whom extended our repertoire but soon went on to higher things. We were very fortunate to be able to appoint the widely known and very experienced John Coates as our musical director in 1991, but sadly, he died in 1996. Our musical director is now Alan Horsey and his talent was recognised by the reviewer of our Bach’s Magnificat and Haydn’s Nelson Mass Concert (Wharfedale Observer 28.11.96). Under a headline ‘Tingle factor warms audience’ he wrote ‘How remarkable it is that someone can come to a complexity of musicians, all of whom work and rehearse at different times, in different places and with little time for rehearsal, and get the very best of them. Alan Horsey did just that in masterly fashion’.

It doesn’t seem possible that it is ten years since we performed our first commissioned work at our 50th Anniversary Concert. Andrew Carter’s Musick’s Jubilee, based on a poem by Andrew Marvell, was a joy to sing and we are proud and delighted that other choral societies have chosen to perform it. So far, there have been at least 58 performances world-wide. In the UK, the most northerly was at Dunblane Cathedral (where our former conductor Matthew Beetschen is Musical director) and the most southerly in Dover Town Hall. In the US, it has been performed in Pennsylvania, Florida and Illinois and in Europe there have been recent performances in Essen (Germany) and Riga (Latvia). We hope that our Diamond Jubilee commission, Christopher Rathbone’s The World’s a Stage too will circle the globe!