About Us
We aim to share excellence in choral music with others.
Committee members 2025-2026
Adrian Bawtree
Director of Music
Robbie Carroll
Assistant Director of Music
Sandra Paine
Chair
Julie Hopkins
Secretary / Membership Secretary
Jon Smith
Treasurer
Sarah Anderson
Concert Manager
Mary Burslem
Website Editor / Online Tickets Manager / Friends Secretary
Kevin Elliott
Committee Member
Jonathan Gardiner
Assistant Treasurer
Jocelyne Wilson
Orchestra Secretary / Acting Publicity Manager
Sub-Committees 2025-2026
We have a couple of sub-committees this year, which are made up of a mixture of committee and choir members. These include:
Tour 2026 (Barcelona) Sub-Committee:
Julie Hopkins
Jocelyne Wilson
Social and Fundraising Sub-Committee:
Mary Burslem
Caroline Lakeman
Personnel
Our Patron is the Right Reverend Doctor Jonathan Gibbs, the Bishop of Rochester.
Our President is the Very Reverend Doctor Philip Hesketh, the Dean of Rochester.
Non-committee roles
The Committee are very grateful to members of the choir and Cathedral staff for all their help throughout the year, including:
- Sanjit Bansal from Panoramic Design for his assistance and advice regarding the website;
- our Safeguarding reps for their work in supporting the Society’s safeguarding arrangements;
- Paul Steinson and Sue Russell for their assistance with the programme;
- Caroline Lakeman for organising the rehearsal teas;
- and the Voice Reps – Debbie Collins (S1), Jeni May (S2), Roz Cummins (Alto), Ian Fleckney (Tenor), Tim Beveridge (Bass).
Music-Making in Medway since 1873
Rochester Choral Society, one of Britain’s oldest-established choral societies that is still going strong in the twenty-first century, has always striven to achieve high standards of singing, from the great choral works to traditional folk songs. While we are a secular society and welcome singers from all beliefs and backgrounds, we have, ever since 1922, performed regularly in Rochester Cathedral, a prestigious venue that we regard with great affection.
We have kept a balance between the much-loved Baroque and Classical works – as well as the music of living composers, many of whom have become popular favourites. While we celebrate the anniversaries of the likes of Bach, Handel, Mozart and Purcell, we also relish the opportunity to sing works by contemporary musicians, such as John Rutter, Jonathan Dove, Karl Jenkins and Bob Chilcott.
We perform three or four concerts a year, often with an orchestra composed of a most talented group of players. They come together as the Rochester Sinfonietta. It is a pleasure and a privilege for an amateur Choral Society to be associated with such fine musicians, professional and amateur. As amateurs, we also get a thrill when performing with renowned professional soloists.
Benefits to Friends and Sponsors
Of course, it costs a lot to put these concerts on, and, while we cover as much as we can from our members’ subscriptions, and by fund-raising, the support of the Friends and Sponsors is important.
A Friend’s single membership costs £30 per annum (life membership £300), and for couples, £50 (life membership £450), for which they receive a discount for concert tickets and free programmes. Besides good value for money, being a Friend also enables people of ordinary means to support top quality in music, something normally thought of as the reserve of wealthy organisations.
Sponsors, large and small, are associating themselves with such high quality. We value their contributions, made through advertising in our programmes or financial donations, and we do our best to return good value to them. For example, we can provide refreshments for their clients at our concerts, carry advertisements in our quality programmes, and make mention of them in press releases. We are always receptive to other ideas, appropriate to performing in a cathedral.
Community Involvement
People are inclined to laugh when we tell them that it all started by a Nutter, but, in fact, it was the Revd. Canon W. H. Nutter, Precentor of Rochester Cathedral, who founded the “Rochester, Strood, Chatham and Gillingham Choral Society” on 29th July 1873. What became the Rochester Choral Society in 1934 owes a lot to that far-sighted man. Today, we are regarded as one of the finer choirs in the South-East. It’s a reputation that we strive to live up to.
2004 was the 1,400th anniversary of this wonderful Cathedral, and our summer concert that year formed part of the festival of the Friends of Rochester Cathedral. Over the years, the organists and their assistants have taken increasing roles as directors, conductors and accompanists. Today, our relationship with the Cathedral is as strong as ever, and is greatly valued.
In 2006, the Society’s members and sponsors raised money for the purchase of concert staging, which is stored in the Cathedral, and is made available for use by others. This enhances the quality of musical performances and gives the Cathedral a useful facility for extending its outreach to to organisations, which use the Cathedral for social purposes. A Business Plan showed this to be cost-beneficial to our Society, compared with the costly hire of staging. The purchase represented a significant investment for the Society at the time, but provided a long-term benefit by giving RCS its own concert staging. A key incentive was to improve and sustain the excellence of public performances, our key “selling point”, impossible to achieve without concert staging.
Also in 2006, with a Heritage Lottery “Awards for All” grant of £5,000, we undertook a year-long programme, working with young people and their families and schools, under the heading “Celebrating Mozart in Medway”. This brought out musical and related skills among young people of various ethnic backgrounds, and engendered an understanding of an important part of our musical heritage. The project formed an important part of the Society’s community outreach at the time.
We’d like to welcome you
Some members of our audiences have become Friends of the Society, many attend our concerts regularly, some come whenever they can, and there are some who come for the first time. All receive a warm welcome. There is a wonderfully intimate atmosphere in Rochester Cathedral, which is as fine inside as it is beautiful outside.
Singers are welcome to come and introduce themselves at the Tuesday evening rehearsals, which take place at St. Nicholas Church, 126 High Street, Strood, ME2 4TR [map] from 7.30 to 9.30 pm. This enables them to get to know us and feel comfortable before seeking a simple voice assessment. This is not an ordeal, but helps in a singer’s development, and to ensure that she or he is in the right section of the choir.
If you are a singer and would like to come to rehearsals with a view to joining, you will be welcomed and given every encouragement. Our members and audiences come from all around the Medway, Swale, Gravesham and Maidstone areas, as well as far beyond.
If you are interested in becoming a Friend or Sponsor, please contact our Friends Secretary. If you are interested in joining the choir, please see our Join Us page. For forthcoming concerts, venues and ticket information, please see Tickets & Concerts.