Watching and listening to the massed ranks of the Oxford Harmonic Society singing in the Town Hall, it’s difficult to imagine that the Society began life with just seven members.

Now more than 120 singers strong, the OHS this year celebrates its 90th birthday.

First called the Iffley Glee Club, much has changed since the choir moved into central Oxford in 1924, and became the Oxford Harm-onic Society: an unusual name which has stuck, even though it has sometimes caused confusion — one reviewer (surely not in The Oxford Times) referred to it as the Oxford Harmonica Society. No doubt much to the delight of members in the winter months, rehearsal facilities have vastly impr-oved down the years too, with modern accommodation at Oxford High School replacing draughty church halls, and even the University Museum, where Tyrannos-aurus Rex loomed overhead.

The choir has had a number of notable conductors during its 90 years, among them John Dykes Bower and David Lumsden, both of whom were knighted later in their careers. More recently, Philip Cave conducted the society for nine years, and Robert Secret took up the baton in 1990 — meaning that this year he celebrates 21 years with the choir. How, I asked Robert, did his app-ointment come about?

“At the time I was conducting the Oxford Symphony Orchestra, and we’d done a couple of concerts with local choirs, including the Oxford Harmonic. They needed a new conductor and liked what I’d done, so they called me up.”

Robert lives in Buckinghamshire, and has a nasty drive each week to get to rehearsals. What keeps him coming?

“The drive was much worse in the days before the A34, even though that road is a mixed blessing! It was a good society, they were prepared to tackle rather more adventurous works than your average choral society: they didn’t mind me pushing them into different areas.

“We did some of the big choral works by Max Bruch, for example, like Moses and Das Feuerkreuz. There were slightly unusual things like that, as well as the normal fare. But most of all, they are a lovely group of people, and I hit it off with them.”

And, Robert told me, the society may be 90 years old, but the interest in new repertoire hasn’t diminished.

“This season I’m doing a piece that’s just been published, Passion Oratorio by Karl Loewe. It’ll probably be the first performance of the work in this country, and there you’ve got a composer who has been looked upon as a sort of Schubert. I managed to get it past the society’s committee, and we’re doing it! It’s a fabulous piece.”

If, perish the thought, Robert Secret could only conduct the OHS in one more work, what would it be?

“That’s a very hard question! I think the obvious ans-wer would be Bach’s B minor Mass or Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. But if you take out the musical equivalents of the Bible and Shakespeare on Desert Island Discs, I would like to do Moses by Max Bruch again. It would be nice to revisit it — it’s intriguing how good a composer Bruch was.”

  • Oxford Harmonic Society performs Handel’s Messiah in Oxford Town Hall on Saturday. Tickets are available from Tickets Oxford.