Welcome to the North Norfolk Chorale website.

The North Norfolk Chorale was formerly the North Walsham Choral Society founded in 1873. It had its origins in the Fisher Theatre opened in North Walsham in 1828 in Vicarage Street. Later it was re-named the North Walsham Theatre. In those days theatres often featured two plays and had musical entertainment of singing and dancing in between. The musical side developed to a point where they put on comic operas like Sweethearts and Wives and musical farces which graduated to full opera in 1830 when they staged The Barber of Seville at the special request of Mr and Mrs Petre who owned the Westwick Estate.

A recession caused the North Walsham Theatre to be sold, and it then became a National School. However a nucleus of singers and musicians remained who continued to meet together and entertain. Music and musical entertainment ranked far higher in society in those days, as there was precious little alternative. So the group grew and flourished and eventually were formally designated as the North Walsham Choral Society in 1873. Despite recession and two world wars the society continued to meet, though often with fluctuating membership. During their 130 years they have sung almost every type of music. Ballads, madrigals, operetta, oratorio and in the last decade we have sung the great choral works of Handel, Brahms, Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Fauré, and Haydn.

The name of the North Walsham Choral Society was changed in 1997 mainly in order to reflect our changed and changing membership, more than half of whom were coming in from towns and villages outside of North Walsham, i.e. North Norfolk. We wished to encourage this wider catchment area of talent, and at the same time emerge from under our Victorian mantle; thus we became The North Norfolk Chorale.