CELEBRATING 90 YEARS IN 2022
Goldsmiths Choral Union has brought the finest classical music to appreciative London audiences since 1932
We’re a friendly choir with up to 120 members based in South Kensington. We enjoy singing and really love performing in great venues. We work hard to continue to promote concerts in London’s major venues singing with professional soloists and orchestras.
Patrons: Sir Thomas Allen, Neil Jenkins, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
Music Director: Jack Apperley
Accompanist and Assistant Conductor: Stephen Jones
GCU’s performances of works from the traditional choral repertoire, ranging from Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation and Bach’s B Minor Mass to Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, have been praised for their freshness, clarity and emotional commitment. Equally, GCU has performed less familiar works, such as Franz Liszt’s oratorio Christus and Sir Michael Tippett’s The Mask of Time.
British premières given over the years include Stravinsky’s Les Noces and Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied, and the first UK broadcast of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.
GCU was founded in 1932 in South London by Frederick Haggis at Goldsmiths College, University of London. At the outbreak of World War II the college was evacuated, but while other choirs disbanded, GCU continued to rehearse and perform in central London.
Since then, GCU has built up an enviable reputation, first under the baton of Mr Haggis and later under Brian Wright. Jack Apperley was appointed as Music Director from September 2022.
Turn the pages of our recent concert programmes
Baroque Inspirations. Cadogan Hall, 7 November 2024
Gift of Life. Holy Trinity Church, 21 June 2024
Parisian Spring. St John’s Smith Square, 22 March 2024
Austrian Exuberance. Cadogan Hall, 7 November 2023
Bach: Magnificat and Roth: A time to Dance. Cadogan Hall, 28 March 2023
Haydn: The Creation. Cadogan Hall, 8 November 2022
McDowall: Da Vinci Requiem, Warlock: Capriol Suite, Haydn: Mass in Time of War. Cadogan Hall, 25 March 2022
Music Staff
Image: Pablo Strong
Jack Apperley - Music Director
Originally from Stourbridge, Jack grew up playing the piano, the viola and singing.
After studying at the University of Birmingham under Simon Halsey CBE, he then completed his Masters at the Royal Academy of Music with Professor Patrick Russill, graduating with distinction, winning the Sir Thomas Armstrong Leadership prize.
As the Associate Chorus Director of the London Symphony Chorus, Musical Director of Goldsmiths Choral Union and Concordia Voices, and Conductor of Epsom Chamber Choir, Jack has established a reputation for thorough rehearsals filled with energy, humour and precision, as well as compelling concerts, championing new works alongside classical mainstays.
He is increasingly in demand as a choral director both in the UK and abroad. Recently, Jack has worked with the London Symphony Chorus, the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Chorus, Brighton Festival Chorus, University of Birmingham Voices and Royal College of Music Chorus. He has been engaged by some of the best choirs in Europe including le Choeur de Radio France, Gothenburg Symphony Chorus and Vocal Ensemble, and the Hungarian National Choir.
Jack is a prize-winner in several choral conducting competitions in Hong Kong, Latvia, Slovenia, and London. He has also participated in several masterclasses with the BBC Singers, Berliner Rundfunkchor, Stuttgart Kammerchor, Hungarian National Choir and St Jacob’s Kammerchor.
In addition to his regular musical commitments, Jack is frequently engaged to lead choral workshops with choirs including Goldsmiths Choral Union and Sevenoaks Philharmonic Society and promotors such as the Buxton International Festival.
Recent London concerts include Handel’s Coronation Anthems, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Buxtehude’s Ad Manus, Caroline Shaw’s To the Hands, Haydn’s The Creation, Bach’s Magnificat, Alec Roth’s A Time to Dance, Cecilia McDowall’s Da Vinci Requiem, and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, all performances at Cadogan Hall, and the Fauré and Duruflé Requiems at Smith Square Hall. Other recent highlights include Steinberg’s Passion Week with Epsom Chamber Choir, Palmeri’s Misa Tango with Concordia Voices and Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles with the Hungarian National Choir.
See Jack’s website for more information about him: https://jackapperley.com/biography
Stephen Jones - Accompanist and Assistant Conductor
Stephen Jones studied piano at London’s Trinity College of Music with John Bingham and singing with John Huw Davies.
Over the years he has sung with the London Sinfonietta, St Paul’s Cathedral choir, Collegium Musicum of London, and the choir of St Peter’s Eaton Square, as well as an Evangelist and oratorio soloist.
He is Founder Director of the award-winning City Chamber Choir and Hertfordshire based Aeolian Singers, and is widely experienced as conductor, repetiteur, continuo player, singing teacher and composer.
For more information, see www.citychamberchoir.org.uk.
The History of the GCU Leo
It isn’t easy to miss the golden ‘Leo’ warn by the women of GCU at our concerts. But how did the tradition begin?
The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths (more usually known as the Goldsmiths’ Company) is one of the twelve Livery Companies of the City of London, with a history going back more than 800 years. In 1300, King Edward I passed a statute requiring gold and silver to be of a defined standard, and requiring ‘les Gardiens du Mester’ (the Guardians of the Craft) to test the gold and silver, and mark it with a leopard’s head. This leopard’s head was taken from the royal arms, and later became known as the King’s Mark. This is the first legal recognition of the Goldsmiths’ Company (and also the beginning of hallmarking in Britain).
In 1891 the Goldsmiths’ Company founded The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute, in New Cross, London. It was renamed Goldsmiths' College after being acquired by the University of London in 1904. Goldsmiths Choral Union came into being in 1932 as an evening class at Goldsmiths' College, under the direction of Frederick Haggis, Professor of Music at the college. During the Second World War the college was evacuated to Nottingham (a wise decision as it turned out, since the main building was struck by an incendiary bomb and gutted in 1940), and the choir became independent of the College, although retaining the Goldsmiths name.
For the choir’s 40th anniversary in 1972 its chief patron, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, commissioned the design of ‘a new badge to be worn by members of the choir’. This ‘badge’ – which became the choir’s logo – was in the shape of the leopard’s head taken from the Company’s arms, and quickly became affectionately known as ‘Leo’, and the women of the choir have affectionately and proudly worn their Leo for all GCU performances ever since.
