About Us

Founded in November 2023 by its present Artistic Director, Robert Marshall, the Borders Chamber Choir exists to share its members’ love of making music with its audiences, performing excellent music to an exceptional standard. It has a wide and varied repertoire under its belt so far, and it already enjoys a reputation as one of the most exciting and dynamic choirs of its kind in Scotland.

Following a round of auditions in October 2023, we officially launched at the start of November 2023 with an afternoon rehearsal, immediately followed by a ten-minute slot in a Borders Chamber Orchestra concert at Melrose Parish Church. The BCO are good friends of ours, and we were especially grateful to them for allowing us a spot in their inaugural concert to announce our arrival on the scene — with music by Purcell, Bairstow, and MacMillan. And ever since then, we’ve had enormous fun growing and developing as a choir.

Highlights of our journey so far include J. S. Bach’s St John Passion (March 2024) and St Matthew Passion (April 2025), Mozart’s Requiem, Vaughan Williams’s Mass in G Minor (both September 2024), Finzi’s Lo, the full final sacrifice (June 2025), and a whole host of treats from glorious Scottish renaissance polyphony and bombastic pieces from German baroque composers (complete with brass band!) to Edwardian partsongs and arrangements of English and Scottish folksongs. When the repertoire requires it, we enlist internationally renowned soloists, who only serve to further enhance the professionalism and polish of our work.

Our membership consists of about thirty singers, comprising a mixture of seasoned semi-professionals and experienced amateurs, all of whom have undergone an audition testing their vocal technique, their sight-reading, and their musicianship. We rehearse weekly during term-time at Melrose’s glorious Parish Church, and our rehearsals tend to focus on the closest concert, as well as looking ahead to building repertoire for future concerts; there’s always time for a tea break and a chat too.

If you’re interested in becoming a member of the Borders Chamber Choir, please email borderschamberchoir@gmail.com or contact us here.

If you’d like to find out more about our leadership and choir management, you can do so here; and some members’ profiles are available here.