About us

Welcome to HCS. If you’re looking for a vibrant and friendly community choir, then you’re in the right place.

First and foremost, we are a community choir. We are open to everyone who enjoys singing and trying out different music. We are sociable and friendly. What we achieve is down to the contributions of every singer and we often refer to ourselves as an HCS family. If you are interested in singing with us have a look at our membership page or join us as a Friend or sing with us at an open event.

There is no audition required to join us; we believe choral music should be accessible to all.

We rehearse with our Musical Director Manvinder Rattan and accompanist Tammas Slater on Tuesday evenings during term time at Sele School, Hertford and usually perform four public concerts a year.

To join our mailing list for information about forthcoming events, please email media@hertfordchoral.org.uk.

We are a registered charity and day-to-day activities are overseen by a group of member trustees. We are delighted to have Chris de Souza as our President.

But there is a lot more to us than this. Please read on to see more including the various other activities in which we engage.

Our Repertoire

We perform a wide range of choral music, from classical choral repertoire to contemporary compositions. We occasionally take the opportunity to introduce our audiences to music that may be performed less often. From Bach to the Beatles, folk songs to Fauré, Mozart to modern composers – there is something for everyone.

In the 2024/25 season for example we are performing pieces by Gabriel Fauré, Felix Mendelssohn and Cecilia McDowall. We will also perform works that are less well known, for example Missa Pastoril by Brazilian composer Nunes Garcia and Twelve Trees by Katy Lavinia Cooper which was composed very recently. We are including performances with a local school choirs at our festive Christmas concert. There really is something for everyone – singer and audience member alike.

We hold an annual workshop focussing on our Easter concert. This is usually open to non-HCS singers and details can be found here.

Check out our repertoire over recent years here.

Developing the next generation

We take pride and pleasure in developing the next generation of singers and conductors through our annual Choral Scholar and Conducting Fellow Schemes. We also try to offer solo roles in performances to younger soloists to help them gain invaluable concert experience and an opportunity to perform a range of choral works.

Community Partnerships

We see ourselves as Hertford’s town choir and, in consequence, value and benefit from partnerships and associations with a number of organisations with whom we have shared or aligned interests, or with whom we can work to achieve some greater benefit. Please email info@hertfordchoral.org.uk if you would like to talk to us about partnership.

Over the years we have built up some much-valued associations, in particular:

Charities

Local Schools

.

HCS Extra

Alongside our main choir rehearsals and concerts we also run open singing events for the community. The requirements for these may vary depending on the event but they will be advertised with details and registration links on this website and on social media, so do keep an eye out and come along if you can.

Our History

We mention at the start that HCS is a choir with a long and interesting history. For a summary of this and links to our publication and full repertoire, click here.