1955-1979

This area of the site groups together the events of the years 1955-1979.

1977

The Queen's Silver Jubilee concert was in June 1977, below

Mary Moultrie (right) was a soloist for the concert

 Copyright: Jersey Evening Post

Arthur and John Lobb (standing), Stanley Sackett and Sir Thomas Armstrong (sitting) copyright: Jersey Evening Post

Sir Thomas conducted Mendelssohn's 'Elijah' for the second time in 1961 (in 1958 he had, temporarily, relieved Leslie Woodgate of the baton to conduct it for the first time in the choir's history)

1970

The choir sang at Wesley Grove (now St Helier Methodist Centre) for the Spring Concert: a photograph of this concert was in the 1971 programme here

1971

The choir sang Haydn’s Creation for the Spring Concert: extracts of the programme are here

1959

The choir sang Haydn’s Creation for the first time: extracts of the programme are here.

1962

The choir sang Haydn’s Creation for the Spring Concert: extracts of the programme are here

Concerts

 In the 1950s and 1960s, an 8:15pm start-time was the norm.  By the time of the 1970s, that had moved to 8:00pm - a position that held during the 1980s and 1990s.  In the 21st century our concerts now start at 7:30pm.

1978

The programme that year included Brahms' Song of Destiny; Schubert's Symphony No. 2 and Mozart's Mass in C Minor.  The concert was conducted by Sir Anthony Lewis, who appears below flanked by John Lobb , who was the Choir's Chorus Master at the time, and Vaughn Jelley, who was President at the time.

Copyright: Jersey Evening Post

1969

A programme for a “Recital of Christmas Music” is here. This is believed to have been in 1969.

1968

A link to the programme for the 1968 “Festival of Carols” (it doesn’t actually have this title but was the equivalent in that year) can be found here.

It can be noted that the programme has varied over the years and elements that we have considered to go back to time immemorial do not do so, for instance there was no Minuit, Chrétiens (O Holy Night) in 1968.

1964

This picture was posted on the Royal Academy of Music’s alumini page as a photo of a chamber orchestra arriving in Jersey in 1964

John Wilbraham is listed amongst the players of 'an orchestra of students from the Royal Academy of Music' which played in 1964. The Festival Choir performed the Messiah that year under the baton of Sir Thomas Armstrong

A copy of the programme can be downloaded here

A recording of Minuit Chrétiens from December 1977 was recorded with Audrey Lobb and Rowland Heaven singing the verses as solos.

The mp3 recording can be accessed here (you may need to turn up your volume control as the level is low)