Glasgow Lyric Choir was founded in 1950 as Clydebank Lyric Choir. Following the move in 1983 into the West End of Glasgow the choir was renamed Glasgow Lyric Choir.
Under its present conductor, Julian Evans, the Choir sings a wide repertoire of choral music from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods and traditional Scots and Gaelic songs. We are a mixed voice choir numbering around 30 at present.
We gave three concerts in Glasgow during the 2018-2019 season: in December we presented a Christmas programme including Haydn’s St Nicholas Mass; in March we sang Schubert’s Mass no 4 and Pergolesi’s Magnificat; in June we offered a programme of classical and popular music.
Choir members enjoy many social as well as musical events together. We regularly run events for family and friends such as our annual Associates' Night, quizzes and Burns' Suppers.
In 2009 the Choir was chosen to participate in a venture called "Adopt a Composer" which brought the opportunity to be partnered with Nick Chamberlain, an emerging composer from Birmingham, who wrote a piece for us which we premiered in the RCS concert hall.
We have travelled widely to give performances and to link up with other choirs. In 2012 we participated in the St Petersburg International Singing Festival and in 2014 we were invited to Montpellier to sing with the Choeur d'O. In April 2016 we went to London as the guests of the Hackney Festival Chorus where we had the pleasure of singing Rossini's "Stabat Mater" with them. They, in turn, joined us in our West End Festival Concert in Glasgow. In April 2018 we travelled to Italy to sing with Canti Corum of Milan and sang alongside choirs in Barga in Tuscany. We plan to keep these connections and to present more joint concerts in the future.
No two seasons follow the same pattern with Glasgow Lyric Choir but all aim to offer members and audiences a rich and rewarding musical experience.