CELEBRATING 90 YEARS IN 2022
Goldsmiths Choral Union has brought the finest classical music to appreciative London audiences since 1932
We’re a friendly choir with up to 120 members based in South Kensington. We enjoy singing and really love performing in great venues. We work hard to continue to promote concerts in London’s major venues singing with professional soloists and orchestras.
Patrons: Sir Thomas Allen, Neil Jenkins, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
Music Director: Jack Apperley
Accompanist and Assistant Conductor: Stephen Jones
GCU’s performances of works from the traditional choral repertoire, ranging from Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation and Bach’s B Minor Mass to Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, have been praised for their freshness, clarity and emotional commitment. Equally, GCU has performed less familiar works, such as Franz Liszt’s oratorio Christus and Sir Michael Tippett’s The Mask of Time.
British premières given over the years include Stravinsky’s Les Noces and Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied, and the first UK broadcast of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.
GCU was founded in 1932 in South London by Frederick Haggis at Goldsmiths College, University of London. At the outbreak of World War II the college was evacuated, but while other choirs disbanded, GCU continued to rehearse and perform in central London.
Since then, GCU has built up an enviable reputation, first under the baton of Mr Haggis and later under Brian Wright. Recently, Jack Apperley has been appointed as Music Director.
Turn the pages of our recent concert programmes
Parisian Spring. St John’s Smith Square, 22 March 2024
Austrian Exuberance. Cadogan Hall, 7 November 2023
Bach: Magnificat and Roth: A time to Dance. Cadogan Hall, 28 March 2023
Haydn: The Creation. Cadogan Hall, 8 November 2022
McDowall: Da Vinci Requiem, Warlock: Capriol Suite, Haydn: Mass in Time of War. Cadogan Hall, 25 March 2022
Music Staff
Jack Apperley - Music Director
Jack graduated from the Royal Academy of Music where, under the tutelage of Patrick Russill, he obtained a Masters in Choral Conducting. He was awarded a Distinction and received the Sir Thomas Armstrong Choral Leadership Prize. He studied Music at the University of Birmingham where he was mentored by Simon Halsey CBE.
Previously Jack was an assistant Chorus Director of the London Symphony Chorus where he helped prepare the chorus for conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Antonio Pappano and John Adams.
As Music Director of Goldsmiths Choral Union, he has conducted the choir in performances of Haydn’s The Creation, McDowall’s Da Vinci Requiem, Haydn’s Mass in Time of War, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine, and Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass. Recent performances include Bach’s Magnificat, Alec Roth’s A Time to Dance, John Rutter’s The Sprig of Time, Eric Whitacre’s Five Hebrew Love Songs, Haydn’s Te Deum and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor.
Currently he is the Music Director and Conductor of the Epsom Chamber Choir and the chamber choir Concordia Voices. Jack is increasingly in demand as a conductor and chorus master, both in the UK and Europe. He has recently worked with the Hungarian National Choir, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and Choeur de Radio France.
See Jack’s website for more information about him: https://jackapperley.com/biography
Stephen Jones - Accompanist and Assistant Conductor
Stephen Jones studied piano at London’s Trinity College of Music with John Bingham and singing with John Huw Davies.
Over the years he has sung with the London Sinfonietta, St Paul’s Cathedral choir, Collegium Musicum of London, and the choir of St Peter’s Eaton Square, as well as an Evangelist and oratorio soloist.
He is Founder Director of the award-winning City Chamber Choir and Hertfordshire based Aeolian Singers, and is widely experienced as conductor, repetiteur, continuo player, singing teacher and composer.
For more information, see www.citychamberchoir.org.uk.