The City Of Oxford Choir

One of Oxford's leading amateur choirs.

The City of Oxford choir is a chamber choir with 30-35 singers performing each concert. Members are drawn from all realms of life in Oxford and surrounding areas. Formed in 1977 to host a visiting choir from Leiden in the Netherlands, one of Oxford's twin cities, it has created a strong following and a unique place in the musical life of Oxford. The choir is fortunate to have Duncan Aspden as its Musical Director and the world-renowned Billy Purefoy as its voice coach. The choir registered as a charity in October 2007, enabling it to make better use of its funds for its aims and objects.

Concerts include much a cappela repertoire but sometimes solo instrumentalists or small ensembles are included. The choir's musical programming is varied and innovative, drawing on music from the Renaissance to the present day from around the world including both sacred and secular music. The Choir has a special relationship with Oxford composers, a number of whom have written music especially for the choir.

The choir gives three or four concerts per year and programmes often follow themes tracing musical traditions, setting composers in the context of the environment in which they lived and worked. Performances are often given in the intimate and architecturally or acoustically inspiring surroundings of a variety of college chapels as well as in the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, the Sheldonian Theatre, and further afield.