The Choir
The St Hilda's Festival Chorus is a mixed choir of some 70 singers that rehearses generally on alternate Sunday afternoons in St Hilda's Church Whitby. The choir was formed in 1991 and performed its first concert, Mendelssohn's Elijah, in November that year under the direction of Stephen Maltby.
The concert was held in St Hilda's Church, Whitby and was accompanied by many local musicians who joined forces for the concert and thus later became known as St Hilda's Festival Orchestra. St. Hilda’s church has excellent acoustics and a fine Harrison & Harrison organ.
It was also recognised that a performance of Elijah would not be complete without four highly competent soloists. Consequently a relationship with Professor Mark Wildman of the Royal Academy of Music, London developed and Mark was only too pleased to provide us with excellent young student soloists from the Academy for this and many subsequent concerts.
Since that first concert in 1991 the choir and orchestra have performed many works together.
A feature of recent programmes has been a biennial concert in support of “Voices for Hospices” which have raised significant funds for the local St. Catherine’s Hospice. These are generally of a lighter nature and conclude with a “Last Night of The Proms” style programme.
Stephen Maltby – Musical Director
Stephen studied music at the Colchester Institute of Higher Education. He was organ scholar at St Mary-le-Tower, Ipswich and was taught the organ by Harrison ‘Fred’ Oxley at St Edmundsbury Cathedral.
In 1979 following postgraduate studies in early music and organ building / design at Dartington College of Arts, he became Assistant Director of music at Great Grimsby Parish Church. He then went to Liverpool University to train as a teacher, continuing his organ studies with Noel Rawsthorne. He was an alto lay-clerk in the Metropolitan Cathedral Choir and sang in the University Chamber Choir.
In 1985 he became Organist and Choirmaster at Rainhill Parish Church and directed the Halton Orpheus Choir in major choral works including Carmina Burana by Carl Orff and the B minor Mass by J S Bach.
He moved to Whitby in 1989 to take up the post of Organist at St Hilda’s Church, Westcliff and Head of Music at Caedmon School. Since arriving in Whitby he has taken up the positions of Musical Director of The Dalesmen Singers and St Hilda’s Festival Chorus and Orchestra.
With the Dalesmen Singers he has toured both home and aboard, especially to Sweden, Norway, France and Canada. Stephen has directed many major works with the St Hilda’s Festival Chorus, including St Matthew Passion, Judas Maccabeus, Elijah & Creation to name but a few.
In 2006 he completed an MA in Music and liturgy at Leeds University, and is now Musical Director of the Tuesday Singers and has become Head of Creative Arts at Caedmon School.