Saint Hilda’s Festival Chorus is a mixed choir of some 50 singers which rehearses generally on alternate Sunday afternoons in St Hilda’s Church, West Cliff, Whitby. The choir was formed in 1991 and performed its first concert, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, in November of that year under the direction of Stephen Maltby. The concert was accompanied by many local musicians who joined forces specifically for this occasion and later became known as Saint Hilda’s Festival Orchestra. St Hilda’s Church has excellent acoustics and a fine Harrison and Harrison organ.
It was also recognised that a performance of Elijah would not be complete without four highly competent soloists. Consequently, a relationship developed with Professor Mark Wildman of the Royal Academy of Music, London and Mark was only too pleased to provide us with excellent young student soloists from the Academy for this and many subsequent concerts.
Since that first concert in 1991 the choir and orchestra have performed many works together.