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Tiptree
Choral Society, formed in the late summer of 1945, is made up of a group of
people who love to sing and enjoy making music together. Its aim was, as it is
today, to provide the people of Tiptree and the surrounding area with high
quality musical entertainment. Mr E Coates, the local headmaster, initially led
the society, followed by Miss Joyce Goodman, Mr Snape and then Mr Rankin Busby,
who taught music at the Colchester Institute. Malcolm Boulter, a former pupil of
Rankin Busby, led the choir from the mid 1960’s until he took up a teaching post
in Chichester when a colleague took over until Malcolm returned
to Essex in 1976. Miss Goodman became the Society’s president in 1984, showing
her continued support by attending almost all concerts until her death in 2006.
The Society’s current President, Mrs Ruth Le Poidevin, was for many years the
choir’s accompanist and now sings alto with the choir.
The society currently has about sixty singing members and its repertoire ranges
from light popular music to major oratorios. It has an excellent reputation for
presenting concerts of a high standard and in addition to using its own
soloists, regularly engages professional singers and musicians to take solo or
orchestral roles to accompany the choir. The choir has performed in several
languages: it recently sang the Brahms’ Requiem in German, and has also sung in
French, Welsh and Czech, Latin and of course English!
During the last several years, the choir has performed in France, Switzerland
and also closer to home in Wales. In September 1995 the choir travelled to
Montcornet in France to perform with ‘Les Baribons’, and in October 2010
returned from a visit to the Gironde / Lot-et-Garonne area, where it performed
two very well-received concerts as guests of the Chaplaincy of Aquitaine.
In 2003 the choir flew to Geneva as guests of The Geneva Amateur Operatic Chorus. The Society was delighted that the Geneva choir was able to travel to Essex to sing with Tiptree Choral again in 2005 as part of their 60th Anniversary celebrations. Crossing the border into South Wales in the summer of 2007, the choir sang with the Morlais Male Voice Choir in Ferndale, and subsequently hosted the Morlais choir for their very successful visit to Tiptree in the spring of 2009. The choir also performs in local venues when the opportunity arises and has given concerts in Mersea Island, Layer Breton and Prettygate in Colchester, as well as travelling a little further afield to Chingford and Cromer. Currently, the choir is planning for a visit from the ‘Glenfaba Chorale’ of the Isle of Mann in the spring of 2011.