More About Us

This small group of dedicated young singers quickly became renowned across the North of England for the high standard of their performances. As their fame spread, so did the locations of their concerts. In 1956 the choir found themselves on their first, of what would become many, trips abroad. They had been invited to attend the twinning ceremony of Doncaster with St. Germain-en-Laye in France. This exciting experience whetted the choir’s appetite and European tours became an important part of the choir’s development. The most exciting of its tours was in 1994 when it was invited to sing in South Carolina, U.S.A. More recently in 2007 the choir performed a number of concerts in Jersey in the Channel Islands and raised over £1200 for local charities whilst there.

Countries Visited

During its history the choir has visited: Ireland, France, Spain, Sweden, Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary and U.S.A. Some of these countries on more than one occasion.

Change Of Direction

The choir remained under the musical direction of John Barker until his death in 1982. At this point it was his wife who took up the baton as conductor. She initially led the group from the piano but Ken Jackson was appointed accompanist in 1985. Both Mrs. Barker and Mr. Jackson remained with the choir until their resignation in 1999. The role of Musical Director then passed on to an ex-singing member - Ula Weber, a music graduate from Hull University, who held this position for the next two years, bringing a new freshness and enthusiasm to the group. Ula has since taken up a teaching position in Birmingham and had to hand over the role of MD to Angela Needham, at that time a Doncaster peripatetic music teacher. Angela led the choir until she had an addition to her family in June 2005 at which time Ula returned and shared the role of MD with Angela, until Stephen Burnage took over as regular MD in 2006. Steve is still with the group today. Simon Corner, another Hull University music graduate became our regular accompanist when Ken Jackson left in 1999 and is also still with us today proving a major asset not only as accompanist but as stand-in MD when required.