About Windsor & Eton Choral Society

The WINDSOR & ETON CHORAL SOCIETY (WECS) prides itself on combining sociability, ambition, and high standards with a broad choral repertoire performed in wonderful venues, delivering exciting events and concerts.

We are proud to have as our patron His Majesty King Charles III, who succeeded our previous patron Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Our Musical Director and Conductor is the inspirational Tim Johnson, Pre­centor and Director of Music at Eton College where we rehearse and often perform.

Friendly
We are a sociable group, enjoying our rehearsals, concerts and social events. Tim Johnson creates a welcoming, stimulating and friendly environment for wonderful singing, and we regularly welcome new singing members.

Ambitious
We strive to achieve the highest standards of choral singing and performance. We enjoy concerts with professional soloists and orchestras, creating many highlight concerts and very special events. We perform a wide range of compositions alongside much of the standard choral repertoire. 

Active 
We perform in three large scale concerts each year: in January, in March and in September in The Windsor Festival. Additionally, at Christmas we present our popular ‘Family Carols’, which is very much a local institution. We also run a ‘Come and Sing‘ event in May, when other singers are welcome to rehearse and perform with us.

Prestigious
We are fortunate to have a very long-standing relationship with Eton College, where we rehearse, and we often perform in College Chapel or in School Hall, both wonderful venues. This originates back to the founding of WECS, which gave its first public per­formance in 1837 (making us one of the six oldest Choral Societies in the UK). We also put on concerts in St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, and throughout its history WECS has given performances for members of the Royal Family. ​​​​

Exciting
A recent highlight was our concert in St George’s Chapel with Ryan Wang just a few weeks before he became 2024 BBC Young Musician of the Year. We have participated in many celebrated televised special occasions including a Falklands commemoration ceremony from Horse Guards Parade, the Royal Windsor Tattoo featured on BBC1 and the much acclaimed ‘Music on Fire’ at Sandhurst attended by 22,000 people.

WECS also sang Zadok the Priest at Her Late Majesty's 90^th Birthday Celebration at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, the coverage for which won a BAFTA award, and our choir was chosen to sing the National Anthem at The Patron’s Lunch on The Mall in front of many of The Royal Family.

In 2021 WECS members joined digitally to perform Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus for YouTube.