Abbey Singers is one of Cumbria’s leading small choirs performing a wide variety of music throughout the county and more widely. Based in Carlisle we draw our membership of some thirty singers from the city and the surrounding area. We are particularly renowned for the broad range of our repertoire, encompassing many musical genres and styles: sacred and secular, classical and popular, spanning choral music of six centuries with diversity from Bach to the Beatles.

Since our foundation in 1962 we have been at the forefront of Cumbrian musical life and have maintained consistently high artistic standards. We perform a capella, with organ or piano accompaniment or with professional orchestras. We also combine with other local or visiting choirs of a similar standard and with professional soloists to present larger scale works including the great choral masterpieces, giving local people the opportunity to hear superb interpretations of these without the need for travel to larger cities. We are also fortunate to have professional singers within our ranks who act as soloists for our regular smaller-scale concerts. Click on the photo to see a larger image.

The Abbey Singers promotes its own concerts, participates in local festivals and welcomes enquiries for concerts and for singing at private functions including weddings. We have a strong tradition of touring beyond our region both in the UK and abroad. Jeremy Suter, our current director and Master of the Music at Carlisle Cathedral has successfully built on our strong foundations to broaden and strengthen our capabilities still further with many recent performances winning critical acclaim both locally and nationally. For more details of the choir’s origins and history please visit our History page.

The next concert is A German Christmas at the church of Our Lady & St. Joseph, Carlisle (Wednesday 21 December at 19:30) featuring probably the first UK performance of Hugo Distler's Die Weihnachtsgeschichte.

See (C) for details & reviews of the two most recent concerts

See (K) for reviews of our previous performances