Adult mixed-voice chamber choir The Crofton Singers have entered their 77th year of music-making at Bancroft’s School. Chairman Greg Hartwell reports on a local choir with a rich history
Our choir started life as a joint collaboration between the boys of Bancroft’s School and the girls of Loughton Girls’ High School – hence ‘Croft-ton’ Singers. In 1947, it became a choir of former students, who are still welcomed, now along with school staff, parents and indeed any singers from the community.
Bancroft’s School has continued to offer its support and hospitality for which the choir is enormously grateful. Unsurprisingly, no original members are still singing with us – although our founder conductor is still in contact! Raymond Warren was a sixth-former in 1947 and subsequently went on to become an eminent musical academic and composer before retiring from the post of Professor of Music at Bristol, where he still lives, now in his nineties. Since Raymond’s time, the choir has benefited from a number of excellent amateur conductors, but since 2009, we have been privileged to have a professional director of music. Currently, this is Jonathan Rathbone, who has had a remarkable career with the Swingle Singers. Under Jonathan’s guidance, we sing a wide variety of unaccompanied choral music from the 16th to 20th centuries.
Singers from a variety of backgrounds have spent time with the choir, including local music teacher Sheena Booth, whose father was a local vicar. When Sheena was a teenager, she went on a seaside holiday in Devon with her parents and sister. At the same hotel, they met two other teenagers from London – future composers Sir John Tavener and Sir John Rutter – and they developed a friendship that lasted for the rest of their lives. Very sadly, Sheena died comparatively young, and at a time when Sir John Tavener was working on a commission from the Tenebrae Singers – Mother and Child – which he dedicated to Sheena’s ‘everlasting memory’. It was premiered at the Salisbury Cathedral festival. The Crofton Singers were privileged to give the second performance in St Mary’s Church as a memorial to a valued singer and friend. The piece required a double choir, full organ and a large Hindu temple gong!
The choir operates with a small committee of volunteers. One long-serving chairman and life-long Woodford resident was Diana Newlands, a former pupil and later teacher at Woodford County High School. Although now retired from singing in the choir, Diana remains a valued and avid supporter.
I was personally attracted to singing as a young boy, not by the uplifting glories of choral music, but by a more worldly offer of pocket money for attending the choir at my local church. The magic worked, however, and I discovered further opportunities to sing, without payment. I have now been a member of The Crofton Singers for 25 years and extend a warm welcome to anyone wanting to sing good music in Woodford.
For more information on The Crofton Singers, visit croftonsingers.org.uk
