World s oldest choral society accuses No 10 of strangling choirs with draconian restrictions
Halifax Choral Society, founded in 1817, has condemned latest Government guidance which bars more than six choristers singing indoors
24 May 2021 • 8:33pm
Roger Harvey (R) chairman of the Halifax Choral Society, which has performed for over 200 years
Credit: Charlotte Graham
The world s oldest choral society has accused the Government of strangling choirs with last-minute draconian restrictions.
Under guidance issued last Tuesday by Downing Street only six choristers can perform indoors with thirty allowed outside.
This will affect over two million members of England’s 40,000 amateur choirs.
It marked an abrupt U-turn in Government policy which had previously allowed church choirs to perform indoors in groups over six in England from April 12.
Hugh Davies had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died peacefully at home. Mr Davies was born in Pembrokeshire and attended Fishguard County Secondary School – one of the first comprehensive schools in Wales. His mother was a secretary at the school and his father worked on the railway. His first organ teacher was Peter Boorman of St David’s Cathedral, but it was as a choral scholar that he went up to St Catharine’s College, Cambridge in 1970. At Cambridge he was strongly influenced by the teaching of Peter le Huray and later continued his organ studies with Gillian Weir.