Although originally started in the first half of the 20th century, the choir in its present form was founded in 1952 as Brockham Christ Church Music Society, later changing this to Brockham Choral Society (its registered charity name) though it is now generally known just as Brockham Choral. In due course, as numbers grew and members came from further afield, the focus of the choir shifted to Dorking and it now rehearses and performs predominantly in Dorking. The choir consists of around 70 singers; although some members still live in the Brockham area, most now live in Dorking or Reigate and surrounding areas.
We warmly welcome new members to the choir. Although we don’t hold auditions, we aim for a high standard and all members are encouraged to attend as many rehearsals as possible. Obviously it helps if you can read music, but in any case you will get plenty of support from your fellow singers and of course our MD, as well as being able to use rehearsal files. We also hold occasional workshops and sectional rehearsals to help get to grips with our repertoire, which ranges from baroque to modern compositions, with occasional lighter concerts in the summer. You can see the sort of things we have undertaken on our Previous Performances page. If you think you would like to join us but are not quite certain, we recommend you come to one of our concerts to get a feel of what we’re like. And you can use our Contact Form to get someone to contact you with further information. New members can sing with us for free for four weeks before making up their mind whether to stay (but we hope you will!).
Our choir year runs from September to May/June with two or three concerts a year, usually performed in St Martin’s Church, Dorking. Our annual subscription is currently £165 (free to under-25s in full-time education).
We rehearse in St John’s C of E School, Goodwyns Road, Dorking RH4 2LR on Tuesday evenings from September through to the following May/June, starting at 7.30 pm and finishing at 9.30 pm.
We aim to give our audiences a high standard of performance, working alongside professional orchestras, musicians and soloists. We use raised staging to give a more professional look to our concerts.
Our MD is Cole Bendall who joined us in 2020 – more information about him can be found on our MD page.
Tours Our usual practice had been to undertake a summer tour every two years or so, in the UK or abroad. Our last tour was to Portugal in 2018, but plans for subsequent tours had to be put on hold due to Covid until we felt we could travel and assemble freely again. Happily, we were able to sing in Normandy in July 2023; you can read about this and other tours we have undertaken previously on our Tours page.
We are available to sing at weddings and similar events – for further information please contact us.
Safeguarding Policy You can read our Safeguarding Policy by clicking here.