Ramsey Choral, Isle of Man, UK

Ramsey Choral (Kior Rhumsaa in Manx) is a 56-strong friendly community choir in the North of the Isle of Man.

We welcome everyone who loves singing and learning music together, regardless of age, talent or past musical education. Some of us can read music and some can't, but the joy of singing together, learning from each other and creating something really beautiful in the end is what has been holding us together for over four decades.

The choir started in 1980 with around 30 singers who were members of various local churches in Ramsey. They performed Handel's Messiah in their first concert at Easter of 1981. Since then, we have built up an incredibly rich and varied repertoire, from Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Franck, Fauré, Rachmaninov to Elgar, Vaughn Williams, Górecki, Larsson, Rutter, Mealor, Esenvalds, Whitacre and many more.

We have performed choral music in Latin, English, German, French, Russian and even in Maori once, and from time to time we include English and Manx folk songs too in our programmes.
Being an island nation in the treacherous Irish Sea with a seafaring history tainted by many tragedies, Ramsey Choral proudly supports the work of RNLI Ramsey Lifeboat by leading in song in their annual carol service.

Our involvement with Vox Anima London started with the accidental discovery of Dan Forrest's Requiem for the Living on YouTube in 2021. It was 'love at first sight' and has been an absolute favourite with each and every one of our singers.

Under the baton of our current Director of Music Dr Nigel Harrison (also principal clarinettist of the Isle of Man Symphony Orchestra), we decided to dedicate our Spring 2022 concert to those who lived and suffered through and survived the dreadful Covid pandemic.

Ola Gjeilo then soon entered our repertoire as a favourite with his Sunrise Mass, Dreamweaver and Northern Lights, and for the past three or four years we've not had a concert where we would not have included at least one piece by either Dan or Ola, or both.

A group of singers from Ramsey Choral went on to sing Dan's Requiem with Vox Anima London at Southwark Cathedral in July 2022, and a somewhat smaller group of us will be back to sing Ola's Sunrise Mass in the Barbican this June.

We feel so incredibly lucky to be living in this century to be their contemporaries and to be able to learn and perform their music.