The Keswick Hall Choir and Geoffrey Lacock

Keswick Hall Choir was established by the late Geoffrey Laycock in 1969 as an amalgamation of the Choral Society and Madrigal Choir of Keswick Hall College of Education. Its membership then comprised students, former students, staff and friends.

Following the college's absorption into the University of East Anglia in 1981, the choir developed an independent existence.

The choir's origins actually go back to 1962 when, under the initiative of Geoffrey Laycock, a group of about sixteen students and staff formed a small choir within Keswick Hall College, which became known as the 'Madrigal Choir'. By 1969 the choir had a membership of 40 singers and had already built up an enviable reputation through its many concerts in the Norwich area as well as for the BBC and ITA.

The Keswick Hall Choir was born out of the need to fill a niche in the area for performing non standard repertoire or large scale choral works. Its first engagement was on 17th November 1970 when the choir gave what is believed to be the first public concert in St John the Baptist Catholic Church in Norwich - now the Roman Catholic Cathedral.

The current choir, which still exists in Norwich, is particularly renowned for its interpretation of early music, a reputation that was initiated by Geoffrey Laycock when, in December 1971, he conducted the newly formed Keswick Hall Choir in the first ever performance in Norwich of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610.

In 1975 Geoffrey Laycock took the choir and the work to London's Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Click on the choir picture to see Geoffrey Lacock in 1970.