Epping Chorus

The High Sheriff of Essex, Nick Alston, speaking after the choir's well received performance of Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man in January 2023.

In 1972, a choir was formed to bring local church choirs together - it was called Epping Church Choirs Association (ECCA for short). It quickly gained a strong reputation and sings a wide variety of music both sacred and secular (click here to see a list of our ‘Past Performances’ ).

In order to broaden the appeal of the choir it was decided to change the name to Epping Chorus; it remained a choir open to all but sadly, after 53 years, numbers in the choir have gradually fallen and the difficult decision was made to close the choir after its Good Friday concert in 2025. For the record, here are the details of that concert:

Friday 18th April 2025 at 7.30pm

St John's Church, Epping, CM16 5DN

Farewell Concert

Charles Gounod ~

Messe solennelle

de Saint Cécile

Gabriel Fauré ~

Cantique de Jean Racine

Soprano: Julia Wilson-James

Tenor: Robert Jenkins

Bass: Matthew Duncan

Organist: Roger Bluff

A message from our Chairman

I’m sorry to say that the Good Friday concert that took place on Good Friday 2025 was the last performance by Epping Chorus. Having been founded in 1972 as Epping Church Choirs Association, this choir was part of the musical life of Epping for 53 years. It began with a performance on Good Friday so we thought it fitting to end on Good Friday too.

Closing the choir wasn't an easy decision. However, like many choirs, we struggled to recruit new members as members either retired or moved away meaning that the choir was much smaller than it once was. Despite recruiting a few new members since Christmas 2024, this was not sufficient to increase the numbers in the choir to a size that would enable us to perform the type and quality of music we would want to.

In addition, our financial position didn't improve in any significant way. Even though we made the decision to start charging for our concerts we weren't able to break even for any concert we performed. We continued on a very ‘hand-to-mouth’ basis, reliant on the donations of individual members to afford to put on the concerts we have over the past few years.

On behalf of the choir, I want to thank the soloists, musicians, accompanists and conductors who have worked with the choir over the past 53 years. And I want to thank you and all our audiences during that time for your support and for the appreciation of the music we have performed. Finally, as the Chairman, I want to thank all the current and past members of the choir, our choir presidents, and our Musical Director, Simon.

“Our voices may fade, but the memories we’ve created will resound for years to come.” (author unknown)

Jeremy Walling

Chairman