History
The Oriana Singers were founded in 1966, and celebrate their 40th Anniversary in 2006 - the same year as the 400th Anniversary of Tunbridge Wells.
John Francis founded the Oriana Singers in October 1966 as a group of 14 singers drawn from around Tunbridge Wells . The choir met for its first rehearsal on Sunday 9 October 1966 at 8 pm. The first appearance in public was for a 'Recital at Evensong' at St Michael and All Angels , Withyham on 23 October 1966, with a programme ranging from Weelkes and Gibbons to the 20th Century. John Anstey was organist. A collection was taken for the Welsh Disaster Fund.
In the early days, the choir's line up was 4 Sopranos, 4 altos, 3 Tenors and 3 Basses. Membership has slowly increased to allow the performance of more ambitious music, and now stands at up to 24. John Francis remained Musical Director until 1990, when Caroline Johnson took over. Caroline was succeeded by Sally Moss Tallon in 1996 and then by Peter Collins in 2003. We are glad that John Francis has remained our Patron.
The Oriana Singers made their first Cathedral visit on 7 March 1970, singing Evensong at Guildford Cathedral. Their first full weekend of services was on 2 and 3 January 1971 at Salisbury Cathedral. Inspired by this, they set out to sing at every one of the 26 Medieval Cathedrals in England. They achieved this in April 1982 with a visit to Carlisle Cathedral. The Oriana Singers went on to sing at all the 16 post-medieval foundations as well, crowning the achievement by singing the services for the week of 5-11 August 1996 at Truro Cathedral. Among the choir on that occasion were founder members Eric Wills, who had sung in all 42 Cathedrals, and Peggy Flood, who had sung in all except Wells. Eric is still singing with the Oriana Singers as we work our way round England for the second time. Tony Bourne also managed to sing in all the Cathedrals except Winchester while with the Orianas.
Besides the visits to Church of England Cathedrals, the Oriana Singers have appeared on radio and television and sung in many other historic churches - Cathedrals, Abbeys, Royal Chapels and Parish Churches - both in England and Wales and abroad. These haveincluded Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, St George's Chapel at Windsor,the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London, St Martin in the Fields, St James's Piccadilly, St Paul's Covent Garden, Notre Dame in Paris, Chartres Cathedral and Bruges Cathedral(where the Oriana Singers were the first non-Roman Catholic choir to be invited to sing). We have continuing links, through performance, attendance or individual choir membership, with many Churches of different denominations in the Tunbridge Wells area.
You can see photographs of the Orianas from the 1960s (including the programme for our first concert) up to the present.
Oriana
The Oriana Singers' name reflects the choir's early specialisation in 16th Century English music, in which Queen Elizabeth I is often referred to as "Oriana". The best-known example is Thomas Morley's " The Triumphs of Oriana " of 1601. This is a collection of 25 madrigals by leading composers of the time, each of them ending with the words "Long live fair Oriana" . The picture below, which you can enlarge, shows the frontispiece.
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See a list of other Oriana choirs.
