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Stretton Choral Society is a friendly, community-based choral society for the Strettons and surrounding area, non-auditioned and open to everyone regardless of skill or experience, but still aiming to produce the best music we can.  We rehearse and perform in Church Stretton.

Spring 2026

We kick off Spring Term 2026 on Thursday 15 January 2026 with a Come and Sing evening (7.30pm, URC Hall).  We will try out some music, have some tea and cake, and gather thoughts on what repertoire people want to sing this term.  All welcome whether previous members or not.  Rehearsals will continue on Thursdays at 7.30pm, and the concert will be on Saturday 9 May.

Quiz Night 2026

Following the very successful 2025 Quiz Night (which was full to capacity), the next Quiz Night will be on Friday 20 February, 7.15pm, at the Silvester Horne Institute.  Our Quiz Nights raise funds specifically for our outreach activities - we sing some of our repertoire from each concert at a local residential home, and we work to introduce choral music to the school - see more below.

Christmas 2025

We performed excerpts from Bach's Christmas Oratorio along with other seasonal works and audience carols on Saturday 13 December 2025 at the Silvester Horne Institute.

Partnership with Church Stretton School

We are building links with Church Stretton School, working with the Head of Music there, Andrea Chapman.  In the Autumn 2025 we sponsored a singing competition at the school; the winner, Issy Chapman, as well as receiving a cash prize (as did two runners up) got to join our choir to sing a solo at our Christmas concert - the solo from Howard Goodall's Paslm 23, better known as the theme from The Vicar of Dibley.  We were to be joined in the second half of the concert by the school choir, until flu ripped through them - another time!

Through these activities, we aim to strengthen links between the school and the town, but also to introduce more children to the pleasures of choral singing.

 

 

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Who we are

Stretton Choral Society, in its present format, was founded in 1977 and currently meets once a week in the newly refurbished United Reformed Church, Church Stretton, between September and May to rehearse for at least two public concerts each year.

A concert in December usually consists mainly of music related to the Christmas season and includes some Christmas carols for the audience to join in.  A spring concert in early May allows for more substantial works in the classical and modern repertoires.

We welcome members both from the Strettons and from the surrounding area.  

Our musical team

Musical Director: Michael Turner

Michael is now in his fifth year leading us.

From Birmingham, Michael Turner studied violin and viola, before settling on percussion as his main instrumental study.  As a singer, he has been a member of the CBSO Chorus, along with a number of other choirs across the Midlands.

Michael has attended conducting courses with John Carewe and George Hurst and studied under Hilary Davan Wetton, with whom he settled on adopting the conducting technique favoured by Sir Adrian Boult.

A music graduate of Leicester University, Michael has conducted several amateur and professional ensembles and choirs including the Birmingham Singers, Proteus Chamber Orchestra, the More Singers, the Telford Orchestra, the Marches Choir and the Phoenix Singers.  He made his professional debut with the Milton Keynes City Orchestra and has also worked with the Manchester Camerata.  Michael has been Music Director of the Bloomsbury Chamber Orchestra since 1996, was Music Director of the Oswestry Sinfonia from 2014 - 2020 and became Musical Director of the Stretton Choral Society in September 2021.  He has been an ensemble conductor for Shropshire Music Service since 2016.

Michael has composed extensively, with works including a Horn Concerto, several orchestral and choral works, instrumental music and pieces for percussion and wind ensemble.

Michael lives in South Shropshire with his wife.  They have three sons. Between them, the Turners play bassoon, guitar, horn, oboe, piano, recorders (of various sizes), viola and violin, with one boy currently a Cathedral chorister.

Accompanist: Gill Styles

Gill was born in West Yorkshire. She studied music at Goldsmiths’ College, London where she focused on piano and voice.

For over thirty years Gill has been a junior school class teacher with responsibility for music.  Throughout her career she has enjoyed accompanying singers and instrumentalists, as well as playing chamber music, performing as a vocal soloist and singing in local choirs.