Conductor Robert Secret on Oxford Harmonic Society's new season

After 90 years of being known as the Oxford Harmonic Society, one of Oxford’s oldest and largest non-collegiate choral ensembles is now officially the Oxford Harmonic Choir.

It’s a rebranding that the choir hopes will reflect more accurately what they are all about.

“Oxford Harmonic Society doesn’t necessarily tell you it’s a choir,” says Robert Secret, who has been the choir’s conductor for 24 years. “So I thought it made it clearer what it was. We didn’t want to call it something like the Oxford Choral Society — it’s known as Harmonic, so it seemed a reasonable compromise.”

The choir began in 1921 as the Iffley Glee Club, changing its name to the Oxford Harmonic Society three years later. Since then it has expanded considerably, and now has about 150 members.

“Over the last two or three years there’s been quite an influx,” says Robert. “It’s got to the point where we’re having to be quite strict about having new people in because of the size of the Sheldonian and the Town Hall and fitting the choir in sensibly.

“We are an auditioning choir. It’s not necessarily a sight-singing audition, but people have to be able to read music, otherwise they’d be out of their depth.

“The interesting thing is we’re attracting quite a lot of younger members now, which is nice to see. It seems that belonging to choirs has become a more popular thing to do.

“Of course the problem with Oxford is its peripatetic nature. People come along, stay for a couple of years and then go. We do have a core membership — there are people who were in the choir when I first took it on, so it’s got some very loyal, established members, but quite a few new ones as well, so it’s a nice mix.”

Appropriately, the choir will be launching its new season and new name with one of the most spectacular pieces in the choral repertoire — Verdi’s magnificently operatic Requiem. As always, they will be joined by the Orchestra of Stowe Opera, along with a first-class line-up of soloists including soprano Helen Massey, mezzo soprano Lise Christensen, tenor Christopher Lemming and bass baritone Keel Watson.

The choir has a spectacular programme planned for 2015, too, including the rarely performed The Last Judgement by German composer Louis Spohr, which will be at Oxford Town Hall in March, followed by Gounod’s St Cecilia Mass and Schubert’s Mirjams Siegesgesang at the SJE in June.

“It’s good to do the masterpieces, but there’s a lot of choral music that’s not done so often,” Robert says. “Spohr was a very good composer when he was on form, and The Last Judgement was very popular in his own country in its time — so much so that he gets mentioned in The Mikado! So it’s nice to do that.

“Of course we don’t just do old works — we’ve done pieces by people such as Arvo Part and John Tavener, and we’ve done Britten’s War Requiem three times.

“So the future of the choir is very much about keeping that variety.”

Verdi’s Requiem
Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
Saturday, 7.30pm
Tickets: Call 01865 305305 or visit ticketsoxford.com