RRCS began in 1941 when a professional pianist, Geoffrey Tankard, called a meeting of local musical people at his house, Clairville, in Wray Common Road. Early members included local residents and members of the armed forces stationed locally.

The first rehearsal was held in Redhill on 2nd December 1941, and was conducted by Dr WH Reed with 34 sopranos, 29 altos, 5 tenors and 11 basses. The first concert was Handel’s Messiah in April 1942 at Central Hall Redhill, which has long since disappeared.The society then moved to Shaw’s Corner for its Tuesday evening rehearsals taken by Geoffrey Tankard.

The first concert presented was Handel’s Messiah and since then we have been proud to present not only the great choral masterpieces, but new and unusual repertoire which has both delighted and challenged our members and audiences.

Many of today’s top soloists began their careers singing solo roles with amateur choral societies, and we are no exception. The pattern began with our performance of Elijah in 1942, which featured Isobel Baillie as one of the soloists. The trend has continued since then; examples from subsequent decades include John Shirley Quirk in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in 1964, Philip Langridge in Dyson’s Canterbury Pilgrims in 1970, Catherine Wyn Rogers in our 1984 performance of Elijah, and Katerina Karnéus in Bach’s Mass in B Minor in 1994.  The eminent soprano and vocal professor Patricia Rozario OBE is not only a more recent soloist but our current President.

Not all of our previous soloists progressed as singers. Included here are Roger Norrington (now Sir Roger) as the tenor soloist in the 1964 Messiah,who is now better known as a conductor, and Brian Kay, the baritone soloist in the Fauré Requiem we performed in 1971 who now pursues a busy career as a conductor and Radio 3 presenter. Most notable amongst those who have subsequently excelled on the podium is our music director in the 1956 Season, Sir Colin Davis, who was the Society’s President until his sad passing in 2013. Further details of our past performances can be found in the archive; this includes details of the repertoire we have performed, together with details of the soloists, conductor, orchestra, date and performance venue.