Toward the end of the 19th century several choral groups were meeting in the Kirkcudbright area, but according to the “Kirkcudbrightshire Advertiser” for Friday, the 28th of October 1892, the previous Monday evening, at their weekly practice, the Kirkcudbright Musical Society formally constituted itself by the election of officials and a committee. In 1900 the name seems to have altered its name to the Kirkcudbright Choral Society.
The following February the group gave its first concert with orchestra! With the exception of a brief break during the First World War, the Choral Society has continued unabated to this day. The repertoire has changed and evolved over the years from song medleys and instrumental tunes, to many years of very popular light operas.
The gallery below shows some of the operas that we performed from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Toward the end of the 1960’s the still highly anticipated Christmas concerts began. Since 1982 the Society has focused on major works, including several Requiems.
When Michael Appleford took over as Musical Director in 2009, the group again began to do larger more ambitious works incorporating orchestral accompaniment.
We celebrated our 120th anniversary in 2012 with a large-scale performance of “Carmina Burana”.
Geoff Davidson became Musical Director in 2019 but then we had an interruption of our activities through the COVID years.
Helen Keating led the choir from 2022 to 2023 until the arrival of Rosemary White, our current Musical Director.