People

About Us

The Bingham and District Choral Society was formed in 1972 from a choral class at Toot Hill School, Bingham, Notts, UK. The original membership of 40 has now increased to around 90, with its membership coming from a wide area of South Nottinghamshire, North Leicestershire and Lincolnshire.

Under the direction of Neville Ward, musical director since its inception, the society has taken part in many major concerts, with the Orchestra of St Johns, Smith Square; the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the English Sinfonia and the East of England Orchestra. It has also performed by invitation with the Halle’ Orchestra under James Loughran at Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall, and with the Cory Band for its centenary concert at St David's Hall, Cardiff, which was recorded for radio and television.

Bingham and District Choral Society is a Registered Charity (no. 503557). The Society's aim is "to educate and interest the public in music, particularly choral miusic, by the presentation of concerts and other activities".

Past concerts have included a joint concert at St Mary's Church, Newark with the Kortrijk Vocaal Ensemble, from Kortrijk in Belgium; a joint performance of Messiah with Newark Choral Society; a performance of Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony with Manasfield Choral Society at Southwell Minster; a Christmas concert in Bingham in 2008 with the choir of Barker College, Sydney, Australia; and in May 2009 a performance of Verdi's Requiem at the Albert Hall, Nottingham, with Mansfield and Scunthorpe Choral Societies.

The Society performs three concerts in each season, some on a smaller scale, including a Christmas Concert. Our most recent included Tippett's 'Child of our time,' Britten's 'St Nicolas,' Haydn's Mass in Time of War and Mozart's Laurentine Litany.

Come and join us.

Our concert dress is for the ladies a long-sleeved black top and long black skirt or smart black trousers; and for the men a dinner suit or dark lounge suit with white shirt and black bow tie.

Musical Director- Neville Ward

After studying clarinet and bassoon at the Royal Academy of Music, Neville taught in Halifax, where he developed his interest in conducting. He was Head of Music at Toot Hill Comprehensive School, Bingham, from 1969 until July 2001.

He has been conductor of Bingham and District Choral Society since its inception in 1972, chorus master of Scunthorpe and District Choral Society since 1981, and conductor of Ruddington and District Choral Society from 1984 to 1995, as well as conducting the Rushcliffe Chamber Orchestra and the orchestras of East Notts. Music School in Newark and the Minster Music Workshop, Southwell. He has conducted many concerts with professional orchestras, including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the English Sinfonia, Sinfonia Viva, the City of London Sinfonia and the English Northern Sinfonia.

Neville has worked with leading vocal and instrumental soloists, and has trained choirs for performances with professional conductors including James Loughran, John Lubbock, David Lloyd-Jones, Clive Timms, Donald Hunt, Jeremy Jackman and Brian Kay. He has also conducted the Band of the Irish Guards, and the Cory Band at its Centenary Concert in St David's Hall, Cardiff, in 1984.

In 1998 and 2003 Neville appeared as guest conductor of Nottingham University Choir, and in 1999 he trained the choir for a performance of Beethoven Choral Symphony, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, at the University's Jubilee Concert. He also prepared the choir for a performance of the Verdi Requiem conducted by Jonathan Tilbrook.

Although trained principally as a woodwind player, Neville has always regarded the piano as his first instrument and throughout his career has appeared as accompanist in concerts and recitals of all kinds. He has taken part in performances of many musicals as well as playing the piano for dance classes and accompanying students for music examinations. He has also accompanied Mansfield Choral Society and the Cecilian Singers of Leicester in a number of concerts and has enjoyed working with duettists Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow on several occasions.

A recent highlight for Neville and the choir was a performance in 2009 of the Verdi Requiem at the Albert Hall, Nottingham, involving the joint forces of the Bingham, Mansfield and Scunthorpe Choirs and the Orchestra da Camera.

Accompanist & Associate Conductor - Roger Bryan

Roger was born in Cheshire and was educated at the Manchester Grammar School, where he was School Organist. He studied organ with Jonathan Bielby at Manchester Cathedral before going to Trinity Hall, Cambridge as Organ Scholar in 1970 to read music. After a postgraduate course at Cambridge, he returned to Manchester for a further period of advanced study at the Royal Northern College of Music, and received organ tuition from Gillian Weir, Lionel Rogg and Flor Peeters, before taking up the post of Assistant Organist at Lincoln Cathedral in 1975.

Roger has performed recitals at cathedrals, universities, colleges and major churches both in this country and abroad, and has played with several major orchestras under such conductors as Richard Hickox, Sir Charles Groves and Sir David Willcocks. He undertook several European tours with Lincoln Cathedral Choir, both as organist and musical director, to countries including France, Germany and Norway. He also made a large number of recordings with the choir as conductor, soloist and accompanist, in addition to regular broadcasts from the Cathedral with them.

Roger was appointed Master of the Song School at Newark Parish Church in 1992, where he was responsible for the maintenance and development of the pre-Reformation Choral Foundation - a legacy of five hundred years and a musical tradition unique in England outside the major cathedral and collegiate foundations. His teaching appointments have included seventeen years at Lincoln Cathedral School and thirteen years as tutor at the County Music Centre based in Southwell, and he undertakes academic and practical tuition as well as his performing and freelance work. Beyond his commitments and engagements as a professional organist, Roger has a reputation as a choir-trainer, conductor and teacher, with several of his students now holding cathedral organist appointments or winning Organ Scholarships and other musical distinctions to Oxford, Cambridge and elsewhere.

Roger has a specialist interest in working with choirs in both sacred and secular repertoire. For several years he was Musical Director of the Lincoln Chorale, Lincolnshire's well-established chamber choir. The Chorale gave concerts throughout the region and in Holland and Germany under his direction. In its regular series of concerts at Lincoln Cathedral, the choir also performed under his baton with many professional artists and orchestras.

Roger is Musical Director of both Newark Choral Society, which he established in 1996, which has performed many major works with professional soloists and orchestras, and also of the Trent Chamber Academy, an exciting young chamber orchestra of professional standard based on Newark's internationally famous School of Violin Making, which he was instrumental in founding in 2002. He was appointed Associate Conductor and Accompanist to the Nottingham Bach Choir in 2001, and to a similar position with the Bingham and District Choral Society in 2003.

He relinquished his post as Master of the Song School at Newark in 2009 to concentrate on his teaching, performing, conducting and other professional and freelance commitments. He has subsequently given recitals at many prestigious venues, and with many well-known orchestras.