Crouch End choir joins Symphony of a Thousand at first night of the Proms

Picture: Chris Christodoulou / BBC

Local choir, the Crouch End Festival Chorus joined three other choirs and the BBC Symphony Orchestra to sing on the first night of this year's BBC proms. In commemoration of Gustav Mahler's birth 150 years ago, they performed Mahler's majestic Eighth Symphony.

The work is known as the Symphony of a Thousand because when it was first performed in 1910, the combined forces of choirs, boys' choir, huge symphony orchestra and

For the recent Proms performance uur local choir was joined by singers from the BBC Symphony Chorus, the Crouch End Festival Chorus, the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and choristers from St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral. Together they made a chorus of 400 singers.

The fervour of their opening hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus made quite an impact. Apparently the sheer volume of the choral sound they made was so great that at times threatened to outdo the orchestra.

The Guardian's Erica Jeal reckoned this year's first night was worthy of being an event in it's own right, rather than a prelude to the month-long concert season:

More than that, it was a celebration of the voice. In the final stanza, the choirs breathed together into an unaccompanied pianissimo, which grew and grew until it was capped by the extra trumpets pealing echoes of the opening Veni Creator Spiritus from the top balcony; and right there, that was what choral singing is all about. If the creative spirit does not descend on the rest of this year's Proms, it will not be for lack of invocation.

Formed in 1984 after its founders handed out leaflets outside a supermarket, it's been quite a year for the Crouch End Festival Chorus. They travelled to the Royal Albert Hall fresh from an appearance at the Glastonbury festival where they sang Waterloo Sunset with The Kinks' Muswell Hill born Ray Davies in front of 60,000 people.



The choir has 150 members and rehearses on Friday nights. They are currently recruiting tenors and basses for their 2010/11 programme of concerts.

So if you've a yen to singalong with Berlioz at the Choir's next appearance at the Barbican on 9th October, get in touch with Catherine Best pronto.

You can also find CEFC on Facebook.