EAC text
Home About us Leslie Olive Friends Forthcoming events Hear samples Buy CDs & tickets Contact us Members' site

Welcome

The English Arts Chorale is an ambitious, auditioned choir of some 70 members based in Reigate, Surrey.

Founded by its conductor, Leslie Olive, in 1980, the EAC has broadcast for BBC radio, sung at the Royal Festival Hall and the Barbican, and worked with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, under conductors including Klaus Tennstedt and Sir Roger Norrington. Its soloists have included a galaxy of highly-regarded names including Sir Willard White, Susan Gritton, Sheila Armstrong, and Ian Bostridge.

It has also sung Messiah in a muddy field (at the Greenbelt Festival), Carmina Burana in a public park (at Reigate Summer Music Festival), and all three Elgar oratorios (The Apostles, The Kingdom, and The Dream of Gerontius) in the same week. It has sung Vaughan Williams' Pilgrim's Progress in Dorking and A Sea Symphony at Snape Maltings and The Dream of Gerontius in the spectacular Smetana Hall in Prague. It has been coached by Brian Kay, Jeremy Jackman and Robert Dean.

It has raised thousands of pounds for charity, and ran one of the first choral training programmes for adult beginners, introducing hundreds to choral singing.

The English Arts Chorale routinely performs at least one major work per season entirely from memory, creating performances of immense energy and focus. This autumn, the Chorale will begin a series of recordings, starting with Brahms' original two-piano version of Ein Deutsches Requiem.

Your chance to perform with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is coming to the Hawth Theatre in Crawley to present a programme that will include Beethoven's Egmont Overture, Mozart's Piano Concerto no 21, 'Elvira Madigan' and one of the most popular classical pieces for choir and orchestra, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.

The English Arts Chorale will form the nucleus of the choir that will give voice to the multilingual text of Carmina Burana, but would like to invite experienced, enthusiastic singers with youthful voices to join us in this wonderful opportunity. Ideally, you will have sung the piece before, but if you are able to learn quickly you will be equally welcome. Full details

EAC Recordings

Reflective Requiems CD cover

A highlight of our 2006-7 season was an acclaimed performance of the Fauré Requiem and Brahms Requiem at The Menuhin Hall.

The double-CD recording of this concert is now available for purchase on-line. Click here.