About Us

Pangbourne Choral Society

Pangbourne Choral Society was formed in 1973. We rehearse on Tuesday evenings during term time in the Falkland Islands Chapel at Pangbourne College. We present two or three concerts per year with guest soloists and are usually accompanied by the Chameleon Arts Orchestra. Jonathan Brown took over as our Director of Music at the beginning of the 2006/2007 season.

Bach 'St John Passion' Feb 2008

Read about our first thirty years

We welcome keen singers of all ages. Our repertoire is mainly focused on the larger choral works, recent examples being: Bach's St John Passion, Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Fauré’s Requiem, Britten’s War Requiem, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart’s K339 Vespers and, last season, Verdi's Requiem. The summer concert normally consists of a more mixed programme like the recent ‘Music - the Food of Love’ which combined Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes with romantic music by Cole Porter and Arthur Sullivan.

The 2008/2009 season included a performance of Duruflé’s Requiem with the Chameleon Arts Orchestra, and Vaughan Williams' Toward the Unknown Region. In the summer of 2009, we enjoyed a 'Come & Sing' performance of Handel's Messiah, for which our numbers were doubled by the presence of over 120 visiting choristers from around the region.

Falkland Islands Chapel

Falkland Islands Memorial Chapel

Concerts and rehearsals are held in the Falkland Islands Memorial Chapel, at Pangbourne College. The Chapel was opened by HM The Queen in March 2000 and is dedicated to the memory of those who died in the Falklands war in 1982. The College uses it regularly for services, and its award-winning design makes it a popular concert venue. The impressive stained glass window is the building's focal point. The organ is a state-of-the-art digital instrument made by 'Cathedral Organs' and the Chapel also houses the College's Steinway concert grand piano.

Chapel window

Chapel interior

Old stained-glass windows

Jonathan Brown - Director of Music

Jonathan was a chorister at New College, Oxford, a music scholar at Sherborne School, and a choral scholar at Royal Holloway College, from where he embarked on a professional singing and teaching career. He is currently the Director of Music at Pangbourne College, where he conducted a service from the Falkland Islands Memorial Chapel in June 2007 in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen, the Prime Minister and assembled dignitaries, commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Falkland Islands conflict which was broadcast live on BBC1 around the world. He is also a Trustee for the IAPS Orchestra Trust.

Jonathan has toured and recorded extensively with a number of choirs – most notably Winchester Cathedral – touring Australia, the USA and Europe. Domestically, he has sung with the BBC Singers in two Promenade Concerts with the late Richard Hickox and Jukka-Pekka Saraste.

On the solo platform his repertoire ranges from Monteverdi to Lutoslawski, and he has performed with a number of orchestras: Florilegium, the Philharmonia, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonietta, amongst others. Selected works from his repertoire include Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, B Minor Mass and Christmas Oratorio, Handel’s Messiah, Dettingen Te Deum and Israel in Egypt, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, Haydn’s Creation, Mozart’s Solemn Vespers and C Minor Mass, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Puccini’s Messe di Gloria, Rossini’s Petit Messe Solonelle and Stabat Mater, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, Dona Nobis Pacem and Fantasia on Christmas Carols, as well as the requiems of Fauré, Brahms, Mozart, Duruflé and Howells. He has performed extensively around the world, and domestically in several cathedrals across England and also at the Royal Albert Hall. He is keen to explore the 20th-century English song repertoire (when time allows!) and future performances include JS Bach’s Magnificat and Verdi’s Requiem.

As a conductor, Jonathan is the Music Director of Pangbourne Choral Society. The current concert season includes a programme to celebrate this year’s anniversaries of Handel and Purcell alongside Mozart’s Requiem in Douai Abbey and the Falkland Islands Memorial Chapel.

Jonathan is married to Rebecca, a singer and cellist, and has two daughters – Jessica and Helen – who are both music scholars at Pangbourne College, playing an eclectic mix of violin, percussion, cello, saxophone and piano with lots of singing thrown in. Molly, the family spaniel puppy, has yet to declare her musical intentions!

Robert Hodge - Accompanist and Asst. Director of Music
Robert was born in Pembrokeshire, West Wales and on leaving school gained a place at Royal Holloway, University of London where he studied piano with James Kirby, violin with Alex Wood, and conducting with Levon Parikian.

Predominantly a pianist, Robert leads a busy life teaching and performing as both soloist and accompanist. He has been the pianist with Trio Preti for five years and with them has established a busy schedule performing across the UK. Recent engagements have seen performances in lunchtime concert series in St Albans, Shrewsbury, and Milton Keynes. Most recently the trio received an invitation to appear in the St Chad’s Music Festival in Shrewsbury. Plans for the coming season include return visits to Milton Keynes, St Albans, and Pangbourne.

Robert’s further interest in Jazz and Big Band music has led to performances with several ensembles, at county and three-counties level. In the summer of 2005 Robert was invited to play for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Wales and he was the musical director of Royal Holloway’s Big Band, ‘Undergraduated’.

During his time at Royal Holloway Robert conducted all of the major ensembles and in 2005 he received a distinction in the Royal Holloway Conducting Diploma. In 2006 he was selected as one of the six finalists for the Allianz and Cornhill Musical Insurance Conducting Prize. Current engagements have seen Robert working with regional orchestras and choirs and developing conducting technique workshops in conjunction with Reading Symphony Orchestra. Most recently Robert has founded ‘the taliesin players’ (formerly Pangbourne Sinfonia), a semi-professional orchestra, who gave their inaugural concert in March 2009 with a performance including Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony and Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 21 with soloist James Kirby. The 09/10 season will include music by Mozart, Dvorak, Copland and Tchaikovsky. Visit www.thetaliesinplayers.com for more details.

Robert works as Assistant Director of Music at Pangbourne College and is Director of Music at St James the Less Church in Pangbourne.