CMVC
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The Croydon Male Voice Choir has been singing for more than 40 years. From modest beginnings, when we advertised for recruits in newsagents' shop-windows, we have grown to our current strength of almost 70 members. We sing at a variety of venues, from local halls and churches to the Royal Festival Hall.
We have a rich and diverse repertoire, including British and American folk song, hit numbers from the great musicals, resounding English and Welsh hymns, American spirituals, classical pieces from opera, and great set pieces such as the Hallelujah Chorus.
We take part in festivals and tours, and have competed in the prestigious international choir competition in Truro, Cornwall. Our increase in size has gone hand-in-hand with ever-rising standards and ambitions, enabling us to be ranked among the most accomplished male voice choirs in Britain.
The choir on tour in Suffolk in 2017
We are immensely proud of our success and above all enjoy communicating our pleasure to our audiences. Over the next pages of our website, you can read about our latest achievements, our history, our directors and soloists, and our repertoire.
You can find out how to book us for concerts and how to buy our CDs. You will find contact details for our officials and how to join the choir. Use the menu on the lefthand side of this page to find the information you want and to move between pages.
For any details you cannot find on our website, please get in touch via the links on our Contacts page.
Our registered charity number is 1112732.
Ben Kennedy
MARCH 10 2017: We are very sorry to report the death of Ben Kennedy, our hard-working and popular treasurer and second tenor. The photograph below, which shows Ben handing over a cheque for £380 to Rita Sandland on behalf of Croydon Vision, was taken just two months ago at the choir's rehearsal rooms. The choir extends its deepest sympathy to Ben's wife Sue and to the rest of his family. A tribute to Ben appears in our Obituary section.
Ben Kennedy at Sandilands on January 5 (photo Trevor Watkins)
Choir blows away mayor
MARCH 19: Croydon's mayor, Wayne Trakas-Lawlor, came to our rehearsal on Thursday, March 16 to receive a cheque from chair Kim Ormond for British Home, one of the mayor's favourite charities. As our photograph shows, the mayor was deeply impressed by how much we had collected for the charity - £380 - at our Whitgift Christmas appearances.
Mayor Wayne Trakas-Lawlor blown away by size of cheque
New choir CD on the way!
APRIL 4: The Croydon choir has started recording its next CD. On Saturday, April 1, a full choir contingent spent the afternoon in our regular recording studio – otherwise known as St Mark’s church in Purley – laying down nine tracks for our new CD, which will go on sale next year.
Richard Hoyle conducts baritones and basses
Springtime in Greenwich
APRIL 10: The choir enjoyed a great day out and made lots of new friends when it sang in Greenwich on Saturday, April 8. We performed fifteen pieces from our current repertoire to a packed audience at the newly-restored Old Royal Naval Chapel – designed by Sir Christopher Wren, with a fabulous acoustic.
The choir at sunny Greenwich
Particularly affecting, given that the chapel was built for returning injured seamen, was our First World War Medley, with its haunting final refrain reflecting on the boys who did not come home.
Choir home from scintillating tour
JULY 18: We are just back from an outstandingly successful choir tour to Suffolk, where we sang three times in a range of delightful settings, had a wonderful audience response, and made lots of new friends.
The choir at Woodbridge - our third Suffolk venue
We began the tour on Friday July 14 with a 45-minute sing to a sizeable lunchtime audience at the cathedral of Bury St Edmunds. That evening we performed at the spectacular Holy Trinity Church at Long Melford, one of the great fifteenth-century Suffolk wool churches.