A large community choir is marking 40 years as a major force in choral music in the South West.

The Callington Singers perform sacred choral music from all eras in many major cathedrals in the UK and Europe. Hermione Roberts, from the choir, said: “We are a large community-based choir and have performed sacred classical choral music now for 40 years in the South West and across the UK, including major Eurpoean cathedrals. We play Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven and others’ works. We’ve sung at evensong, masses and perform hymns and anthems in St Peter’s in Rome, St Mark’s in Venice, Budapest and Sicily and most significantly, at St George’s Chapel Windsor shortly after Harry and Meghan were married there. Of course we love going to our local churches like Yelverton, Gunnislake and Menheniot, to name a few.” Callington Singers will be performing at Buckland Abbey at the Great Tudor Frost Fair. During December, their big Christmas concert will be at Stoke Climsland on Saturday, December 9. To mark the 40th year, a completely new piece of work composed by choir musical director Andrew Wilson will be performed, with Christmas carols. The singers were founded by former musical director Graham Williams in 1983 and the first c

oncert was at St Mary’s in Callington performing Vivaldi’s Gloria, Handel and Bach. Anyone wanting to join the choir can come to a rehearsal. New singers are not auditioned and the ability to read music is not essential. Rehearsals are at Callington Primary School on Thursday evenings between 7.15pm and 9pm.