About the choir

A mixed-voice chamber choir, dedicated to performing music to the highest standard, and to enjoying it. We hope our audiences enjoy listening too.

Fewer than thirty voices

With fewer than thirty singers, every voice matters. Writtle is our base, but we come from as far away as Dunmow, Braintree, Brentwood, Billericay and Walthamstow to make music (and eat home-made cakes) every Monday evening.

Good singing technique is at the heart of what we do. It's built in our warm-ups, led by our musical director Christine Gwynn, and in workshops with the internationally renowned vocal coach Ghislaine Morgan. Our soloists are almost always drawn from the choir.

We give at least four concerts a year, in spring, summer, autumn and at Christmas. Most are in All Saints' Church, Writtle, where we also sing at the annual Christmas Tree Festival.

Never afraid to mix the old with the new

Everything we've sung, A–Z

Our programmes put standard repertoire such as Stanford's Three Motets and Duruflé's Requiem alongside the new and unusual: Gabriel Jackson's To the Field of Stars, Janet Wheeler's Time Becomes a Song, and pieces by Pärt, Whitacre, McDowall and MacMillan.

Much of what we sing is unaccompanied. From time to time our musical director conducts from the piano, or we engage another pianist or organist. We've sung with a full orchestra for Bach's St John Passion, and with groups ranging from organ and saxophone to an ensemble playing Latin American music on theorbo, lute, guitar, Baroque violin, bass viol and percussion.

What the critics said

“This satisfyingly ambitious programme was one of the Singers' best.”
Michael Gray, reviewing Radiance: Music of Light, March 2011
“Their sound has a remarkable clarity, with carefully shaped phrasing and dynamics.”
Michael Gray, reviewing Recollections, November 2011
“…the Writtle Singers excelled themselves in this St John at St John's.”
Michael Gray, reviewing Bach's St John Passion, St John's Church, Moulsham, March 2012
“The music, sung with an impeccable sense of style…”
Michael Gray, reviewing Hispanic Treasures, March 2014

More recently, the composer Alan Bullard reviewed our March 2024 concert, Out of the Darkness. Read his review

Christine Gwynn, Musical Director

Since 1997

Christine has been musical director of Writtle Singers since autumn 1997. Together they have recorded three CDs, broadcast on radio and toured in the UK and abroad. A focus on vocal technique is key to the choir's work, and gives it a platform for exploring a rich and diverse range of music.

Christine's very varied freelance career involves many facets and styles of music and brings her into contact with musicians of all ages and levels of experience. She has run many choral and vocal workshops, both for established groups and for people new to singing, and is also active as a keyboard player and church musician.

Besides an extensive choral repertoire, her conducting career embraces orchestral direction and music theatre, from Dido & Aeneas to West Side Story and contemporary pieces.

Christine is also musical director of Valentine Singers, Crofton Singers and Jericho Ensemble.

Where we've sung

Most of our concerts are in All Saints', Writtle, but we've also sung in cathedrals, abbeys, stately homes and college chapels, from Chelmsford Cathedral to York Minster, and at the Royal Festival Hall. And every Christmas we're at historic Copped Hall, near Epping: spectacular log fires around the building, and Christmas jumpers to offset the draughts.

Christmas concert at Copped Hall, the audience in the foreground — Christmas at Copped Hall.

Writtle Singers in concert at Bolton Abbey — In concert at Bolton Abbey, 2007.

Venues

Chelmsford Cathedral
Royal Festival Hall
York Minster
Bolton Abbey
Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
Ingatestone Hall
Copped Hall, near Epping

Tours

April 2004AntwerpOur first tour abroad: High Mass in Antwerp Cathedral, and concerts in St Paul’s Church and in Sint-Lenaarts.
October 2005PragueMass at St Ludmila’s, and concerts shared with two Czech choirs.
April 2007YorkshireSt Mark’s, Harrogate, Bolton Abbey and York Minster.
June 2009CambridgeA concert in the chapel of Gonville & Caius College.
April 2011ZürichSung Eucharist and a concert at St Andrew’s, and an evening concert in Langnau am Albis.
April 2026ViennaWith the Valentine Singers: Mass and a short concert at the Stephansdom, the Piaristenkirche and the Schubertkirche.

Vienna, April 2026

Our most recent tour, with the Valentine Singers: Mass and a short concert at the Stephansdom, the Piaristenkirche and the Schubertkirche.

The choir in concert black on raised steps in a Gothic church, the conductor in front, stained glass above

The choir singing before the gilded high altar of a Baroque church

The choir seen from across a chequered floor, beneath tall Gothic windows

Hear us in Vienna

Gloria, from Schubert's Deutsche Messe. With pictures of the Schubertkirche, Lichtental by Andrew Cripps.

Dormono le rose, Bepi De Marzi. With pictures of the Piaristenkirche by Andrew Cripps.

We hold a very popular fund-raising quiz night every February, and a social event in the summer. Monday night often finds us swelling the numbers in Writtle's delightful Wheatsheaf pub after rehearsal.

Sing with us Come to a concert

Writtle Singers is a registered charity, No. 1056334.