About us
Feltham Choral Society was formed in 1973, when a group of singers got together to perform Handel's Messiah. Since then many types of music have been performed, from Renaissance right through to contemporary commissioned works. We are a friendly choir, currently with around 30 members, and are affiliated to Making Music.
We rehearse on Wednesdays at St. Dunstan's Church, St. Dunstan's Road, Feltham. TW13 4JY from 7.30 to 9.30pm, with a break for refreshments and a chat.
We usually perform 3 concerts per year, although there are sometimes other opportunities to sing, eg. Christmas Carols at local venues. As often as we can afford it, we employ professional soloists or orchestral players to enhance our concerts.
For details of our future concerts, click here: Forthcoming Concerts.
To help cover running costs (eg. hire of church, musical director, concert accompanist, soloists fees etc) there is an evening class type subscription fee, which is currently £156 for the year September 2023 to July 2024, with a concessionary rate of £129 for students, senior citizens and unwaged. Arrangements can be made to pay termly if preferred.
New members joining during the year pay the remaining proportion of the fee. When you consider that the full fee works out at around £5 per evening, it is extremely good value for money.
We also arrange social and fund raising events throughout the year to help cover costs, and allow to get to know each other and our supporters better.
Musical Director
In January 2017 FCS was pleased to welcome our new Musical Director David Howard.
David M Howard started his choral directing at the age of 15 in the Parish Church in Cuxton, Kent. While reading for an Electronic Engineering degree at University College London, he became the organist at the University Church of Christ the King under Alan Wilson. There he played in a number of cathedrals in the UK on vacation choir tours. David played in Westminster Abbey (broadcast live on Radio 4) for the 40th anniversary celebrations of the first woman (Florence Li Tim-Oi) to be ordained in the Anglican Communion. David has conducted a number of choirs over the years; the most recent being Vale of York Voices (who sang evensong in York Minster once a month on the cathedral choir's Mondays off), York's Beningbrough Singers and and York Cantores.
David heads the new Department of Electronic Engineering at Royal Holloway where he researches singing and speech. He recently published a book on choral singing for choir directors and singers, titled "Choral singing and healthy voice production" with a foreword by Ralph Allwood, that is based on much of his research. A number of these ideas will be explored with Feltham Choral.