Summer Social 2026 - June 1st 2026

Our summer socials are always lots of fun giving you the opportunity to showcase your best party piece - or just come along and be entertained. We've had everything from Piano duets to Barbershop quartets to solo songs and poems. Anything goes! If you need an accompanist let us know. We also have food!

Christmas Concert

Our Christmas Concert will be on Saturday 12th December 2026
Rehearsals start on Monday 14th September 2026 (to be confirmed).
There will be an additional rehearsal on Thursday, 10th December 2026.
Rehearsals run from 7.30pm till 9.30pm. 
Rehearsals are held in St Mary's Church, Marlborough

Please do not attend rehearsals if you feel unwell.

The programme is as follows:

Not yet available

 

 

Subscriptions

Subscriptions are £45 per term and are due now if you didn't pay for the whole year last term. Please pay by bank transfer if possible, otherwise by cheque or cash to Jo, our Membership Secretary. 
 
Bank details: 
Account name:            Marlborough Choral Society
Bank:                           Lloyds Bank
Account number:        38663062
Sort code:                    30-99-50

If you are a tax payer, please consider completing a Gift Aid form (available from Jo).

Raise money for Marlborough Choral Society when you shop online.

 

Concert details

These are general details for our concerts.

The Saturday rehearsal usually runs from 2pm till 4pm. PLEASE BE IN YOUR SEATS and ready to sing by 2pm.

The concert starts at 7.30 but all choristers should arrive by 7.10p.m. It is a good idea to warm up on your way.

1. There will be boxes at the back of the church in which to place all your borrowed music after the concert. Please do not take any home with you. If for any reason you do not return your music on or before the night of the concert, it is important that you get in touch with Beverley at beverley.lyle@gmail.com  to arrange its return. Late return of hired music incurs large fines for MCS.

2. Dress code: Men: Dinner suits, bow tie, white shirt, black shoes. Ladies: Long black skirt or trousers, black shirt/blouse (no jumpers) and MCS scarf. You can buy or borrow a scarf from Jane Scott.

3. HELP. We usually meet around 1.00pm in the church to set up.

4. There will be refreshments (red and white wine, soft drinks ) in the interval.

5. There will be a retiring collection for a local charity.

6. You will be told where to sit for the concert and your name will be on the allotted seat.

Useful resources

Cyberbass and Other Learning Sites 

www.cyberbass.com provides a really useful resource. For a large number of works you can listen (for free) to the choral parts played with your part emphasised.

Other sites include:
Choralia - https://www.choralia.net/
Learn Choral Music - https://www.learnchoralmusic.co.uk/
John Fletcher Music is not free but has many useful rehearsal aids - https://johnfletchermusic.org/

Concert Music on the Naxos Music Library

If you a member of Wiltshire libraries then you have free access to the Naxos Music Library - an online resource of many, many thousand CDs! There are almost certainly recordings available of pieces in our next concert to listen to online.
 
Access is simple:  
Go to http://wiltshire.naxosmusiclibrary.com/page.library_cardno.asp
Enter your library card number without the spaces - 9 999999 001 becomes 9999999001
Once logged on you can search for whatever takes your fancy

Concert Music on Spotify

If you aren't a member of Wiltshire Library then you could try http://www.spotify.com/ which provides free streaming of all sorts of music - you have the odd short advert but probably less than on commercial radio.

Once you've signed up and installed the client you can access all sorts of content.

If you do install the client I'd suggest you look at your Windows firewall settings. Access these via 'Control Panel', 'Windows Firewall', then open the exceptions tab and unclick the selection next to Spotify. That will stop Spotify accepting incoming network connections.
 

Youtube

A useful tip when using Youtube:

If you would like to listen to the piece at a slower pace it is possible to slow down a  youtube video without changing the pitch. 
Go to settings at the bottom right (hover over the bottom right of the picture if you can't see it, settings is the cog in the middle). Click on settings and you will see an option called playback speed. It does sound a bit odd on the longer notes but is helpful although I wouldn't recommend going below 0.75 speed.