History of the Society
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The Exmouth Choral Society was founded in 1867 by William Vinnicombe, who was organist of St John the Evangelist Church, Withycombe Raleigh which had been built only two years before. The Society was reorganised in 1896 by Raymond Wilmot and by 1910 had performed 37 different works.
During the First World War concerts were abandoned but, from 1920 to 1934, regular performances were given. However, support waned after that and no more concerts were given until 1937, when Archibald Marcom took over as conductor. There have been no further gaps in continuity of performances. The Society performed regularly during the Second World War and in the immediate post war period hosted two music festivals. We had three musical directors for the 75 years from 1948: Donald White (1948 to 1983) and Brian Northcott (1983 to 2009) and Laurence Blyth (2010-2023). Matthew Jeffrey, our current MD, took over in September 2023. |
St John the Evangelist, Withycombe Village Road.
The opening concert of our 150th Anniversary year - J S Bach's St Matthew Passion - was held here. |