Stourbridge Choral and

Orchestral Society

Registered Charity Number: 1124608

The origin of the Society is to be found in the popular "Penny Singing Classes" in the town of Stourbridge during late Victorian times. A committee decided that an amalgamation of similar bodies would be mutually advantageous and on 18th January 1884 the "People's Choral Concert Society" was formed. The first concert was given on the 23rd February of that year.

In the following years concerts were staged making use of the newly-built Town Hall and in 1900, for the 70th concert, the name was changed to the "Stourbridge Concert Society". Over the subsequent years despite many difficulties when finance became even more of a problem than usual and it seemed the Society might founder, regular concerts were performed.

Matters improved in the 1930s when Frank Edwards became conductor. The concerts became significant events in the social calendar and the Society enjoyed a specially successful period after the austerity of the Second World War.

In the post-war year years amateur music flourished and expanded. New associations were formed catering for different interests and appealing to different audiences and in 1985 the name of the Society was again changed to the present one in order to represent more clearly the repertoire.