Our History
We’re over 140 years old
The Tutbury and Uttoxeter Choral Union was founded in 1881 by Herbert Drury, a musician who lived in Derby. He was also responsible for founding choirs in Rocester and Stafford. By 1900 we were renamed the Uttoxeter Choral Union. When Herbert Drury died in 1919 the name of the choir was changed to the Uttoxeter Choral Society. The first time we were advertised as the Uttoxeter Choral Society was in 1924.
The Society nearly floundered in the Second World War but was kept alive largely due to the efforts of George Allen, a music master from Denstone, and G.C.E. Neville, who came to Uttoxeter with the Chatham House School, which was evacuated to the area.
The earliest known surviving programme of Uttoxeter and Tutbury Choral Union is this one from 1890, advertising a band and chorus of 140 performers in a performance of “Fair Rosamond” at the Town Hall.
The back of this programme gives ticket options ranging from 1s. to 3s.
It also gives details of the special trains which were arranged to get the audience to the event from Burton, Horninglow and Tutbury.
Our Repertoire
At one point the society’s constitution stated that ‘Messiah’ and ‘Elijah’ had to be performed every other year!
Old programmes show a great variety of music has been performed.
Our Conductors
We have had many conductors over the years.
Our most famous conductor was (Sir) John Pritchard. Towards the end of World War II the UCS secretary journeyed into Derby to interview him. For two or three years the choir had the benefit of his expertise before being spotted and heading to greater things at Glyndebourne. And to quote from a letter sent to Classical Music magazine in 1990 on the occasion of Sir John Pritchard’s death, the choir ‘reached heights of which we had not realised we were capable’.
Among the conductors who followed were Harold Gray and Philip Moore, who went on to become Chief Controller of Music for the BBC West of England Region at Bristol. James Wood, a local music teacher, took over as chorus master and conducted the choir for 32 years until he retired in 1988. The baton then passed for a short period to Peter Merrick and then onto Tim Moon of Abbotsholme School. Under his leadership several new and exciting modern works have been successfully tackled.
Over the years the choir has hosted a variety of famous singers when starting out on their careers – Norma Proctor, Isabel Baillie and April Cantelo to name a few.