The first reference to a Newark Choral Society goes as far back as 1845, with a programme for a “Concert of Sacred Music” given in the Town Hall on February 25th. How good the society was then is unknown but it did attract some influential patrons including the M. P. for Newark, the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone and the Earl of Lincoln. The society’s growth and development then seems to be chequered with periods of time when it did not exist and a number of re-formations when it flourished. Clearly there is a link between how talented leading musicians in the town were and their interest in choral singing. A prime source for such musicians is the Song School of St Mary Magdalene’s Church, Newark. There are archives showing the society to be active in 1880, 1887 (with an orchestral section), 1921 (with the YMCA and YWCA), and in 1923 with concert programmes reflecting different strengths of the singers of the time. In 1924, the society’s programmes included choral works by Coleridge-Taylor, Mendelssohn, German and Gounod, “Gems from the Operas”, Handel’s “Messiah” and Mendelssohn’s “Elijah”.

In 1930, having now become Newark Choral and Orchestral Society , under its new conductor Dr. William Hall, Master of the Song School, the Society performed Elgar’s cantata “King Olav” with a chorus and orchestra of no fewer than 150 performers. By this time however members were demanding a move away from the mainstream repertoire towards lighter music and operetta. In 1936 the Society, having now added Operatic to its title, mounted its first stage production “The Mikado”, and annual Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas then followed at the Palace Theatre; by 1938 it had become merely Newark Operatic Society.

In 1951 a choir was formed to give a week’s performances of German’s “Merrie England” in the grounds of Newark Castle as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations. Later that year a performance of Handel’s “Messiah” was given with many of the same singers and soloists taking part. Both events were conducted by Reginald Thorne, then also Musical Director of Newark Amateur Operatic Society, but though it gave several concerts in the early 1950s it disbanded in 1957 after Mr. Thorne’s death. There was a further flowering of the Society in the 1970s under the direction of Edna Kirton. This brings us to the formation of the present Newark Choral Society, which has two “parent” groups. In 1980 the non-student singers in the choir of the Newark Technical College decided to form an independent concert choir called the Castle Singers. Then in 1986, shortly after his appointment as Master of the Song School, John Webster formed a small mixed choir, called the Magdalene Singers. This group was to fill the role of a secondary voluntary choir to sing services at the Parish Church on special occasions, and to give small-scale concerts at churches in the area.

In September 1995, when the Castle Singers were without a conductor and the Magdalene Singers were looking to increase numbers, the opportunity arose for the two chamber choirs to rehearse and perform together under the baton of Roger Bryan, then Master of the Song School. The decision was taken to amalgamate the choirs in January 1996 under the title of Newark Choral Society. The aim of the society was to enable singers in the area to participate in the preparation and performance of a regular and varied concert programme of major works from the choral repertoire, and to offer Newark audiences the opportunity of enjoying them once more. Newark Choral Society continues to maintain the policy of both founding choirs of bringing smaller-scale concerts of a lighter musical nature to surrounding villages. In past years, Newark Choral Society has worked with, John Rutter, Bob Chilcott, Southwell and Bingham Choral Societies, the Ryton Chorale (Worksop), Lincoln and Nottingham Symphony Orchestras, the Ransome Band, the Nottinghamshire Society of Recorder Players and with a range of soloists in an ever widening repertoire.

Newark Choral Society has tested its ability by accepting challenges in the choral repertoire including Britten’s St Nicholas Cantata, Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms (in Hebrew) and Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem and the Liebeslieder Waltzes (both in German). Following a worrying time for choral societies in 2020 and 2021, Newark Choral Society was faced with a dilemma when the society’s founding music director, Roger Bryan relocated to Cheshire. So the choir restarted but with an unsure future. However, in January 2022, Robert-John Edwards accepted the invitation to be the Music Director of the society, so the next chapter began.