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About the Choir
Eltham Choral Society (ECS) is a registered charity that offers a welcoming environment for singers of all abilities. The choir is directed by our talented conductor Naomi Butcher. Members come from all over south London and north Kent. Parking is available in the surrounding streets and the venue is served by buses and Eltham railway station.
Concerts often feature professional soloists and orchestras. With a strong emphasis on community, ECS has collaborated with other choirs on a number of major projects. Generally, we perform locally but sometimes at prestigious venues such as St John’s Smith Square, Southwark Cathedral, Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square and the Blackheath Halls. Every couple of years the Choir goes on tour either abroad or in this country.
The Choir supports young vocal talent by awarding scholarships to choral students and offers reduced rates to singers 25 years and under. The Anita Bursary is available to enable young people to join and benefit from the choir.
As well as having a long history, ECS is proud of its commitment to new music, having commissioned works from renowned composers including Bob Chilcott and Peter Maxwell Davis and young composers such as Gareth Treseder and Esther Bersweden. The choir is also proud to support the local community by performing informal concerts and carol singing to raise money for local charities.
Naomi Butcher – Conductor
Naomi was born and bred in South East London. She had her first piano lessons at the Blackheath Conservatoire and as a teenager studied at Junior Trinity, part of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Greenwich. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with a first class honours degree and subsequently studied on the Royal Philharmonic Society Female Conductors Programme, under Alice Farnham, (Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Women Conductors with the Royal Philharmonic Society).
Naomi has nearly ten years experience leading amateur choirs, ranging from workplace and small community choirs to choral and philharmonic societies, performing major symphonic repertoire. She is currently Music Director of Tonbridge Philharmonic Society, conductor of Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra (Training Orchestra) and conductor of Norfolk County Youth Orchestra Springboard programme. Naomi is delighted to be returning to her roots in South East London to conduct Eltham Choral Society.
Andrew Lenon – Accompanist
Andrew Lenon learned to play the organ at the Sidcup church where his father was the vicar. He was later Organ Scholar at Lincoln College, Oxford with responsibility for training the chapel choir. As part of his modern languages degree course, he spent a year in France studying the piano at the Toulouse Conservatoire and gave an organ recital at Mirepoix Cathedral. Andrew is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and currently the organist of St Mary’s Church, Wimbledon. He also accompanies the church choir when they sing at St Paul’s Cathedral and other prestigious venues. He recently accompanied the choir of the Old Royal Naval Chapel, Greenwich on its first foreign trip to Malta. He has also played the continuo for the Choir of the 21st Century’s performance of Bach’s St John Passion with soloists including Nicholas Mulroy and James Newby.
Our Team
The whole is much more than the sum of its parts. Meet our team!
Sue Quirk
Chair
Carole Homan
Vice Chair
Clodagh Woodall
Secretary & Enquiries
Safeguarding Officer
Timothy Nunns
Treasurer
Stephanie Johnson
Social Secretary
Terry Barcock
Librarian
Keri Hacker
Membership Secretary
Alto Section Rep
Martin North
Data Controller, Meetings Secretary & Making Music Representative
Eileen Cox
Refreshments and publicity
Andrew McGechie
Concert and rehearsal venue manager
Social Media
Bill Sterling
Assistant treasurer & concert publicity
Mary Nunns
Friends Secretary
Alto Section Rep
Sylvia Stevens
Soprano Section Rep
Henriette Raison
Tenor Section Rep
Peter Waugh
Bass Section Rep
Timeline of ECS
1882
Eltham Choral Society Founded
1908
Performance of Haydn’s Creation was Reviewed
1975
Miriam Coe becomes Musical Director of ECS
2000
ECS European Tour to Chartres, France
2000
Missa cum Jubilo
ECS gave a preview performance of Edmund Jolliffe’s commission for the choir, Missa cum Jubilo, prior to its premier at Holy Trinity Church, Eltham.
2001
Nicholas Jenkins becomes Musical Director of ECS
2002
ECS European Tour to Bruges, Belgium
2004
ECS European Tour to Amsterdam, Holland
2005
The Kestrel Road
ECS participated, with a number of other choral societies, in the joint commission of The Kestrel Road by Peter Maxwell Davies
2006
ECS European Tour to Barcelona, Spain
2008
ECS European Tour to Montecatini, Italy
2008
100 Years Since First Review!
The Society commissioned a work by Bob Chilcott for performance as part of the celebration of 100 years since the choir’s first documented review in 1908.
2009
Peter Asprey becomes Musical Director of ECS
2010
ECS European Tour to Rouen, France
2012
ECS European Tour to Koblenz, Germany
2012
London Olympics
To celebrate the London Olympics, ECS ran a competition for young composers in which UK Students under 19 years old were invited to submit an olympic themed choral work of their own composition. A short list of three of the contestants was chosen to be presented at the summer concert, 2012 to which ECS was delighted to welcome John Rutter, CBE as the judge.
2014
ECS European Tour to Brussels, Belgium
2016
ECS European Tour to Nîmes, France
2016
Max Barley becomes Musical Director of ECS
2017
In Flanders Fields
The choir commissioned a new work, a war cantata, “In Flanders Field” from composer Gareth Treseder. The World Premiere was held in the March of that year, in commemoration of the 1914-18 world war.
2017
Andrew Lenon becomes Accompanist for ECS
2018
ECS European Tour to Lisbon, Portugal
2024
ECS perform Mendelssohn’s Elijah with an orchestra at Holy Trinity Sloane Square
June, 2025
ECS Tour to Dorset, UK
Sept, 2025
ECS Choral Scholarship Launched
ECS successfully launches and appoints four choral scholars. To inspire new talent, an annual stipend of £1,000 has been fundraised for each scholar.
Interested in Joining ECS?
Come along to one of our Thursday evening rehearsals at St Luke’s Eltham Park
Church SE9 1XQ from 7.30-9.30pm in school term time. You can try us out for a
few weeks to see how you like us before we will ask for any payment or commitment.