WELCOME to DORE MALE VOICE CHOIR
- Press play below to hear the choir perform Sanctus from the German Mass.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF DORE
Dore is a suburb of Sheffield, yet it is laid on firm Anglo-Saxon foundations and can trace its recorded history further back than the city itself.
The written history of Dore can be traced back to the year 829 and an entry (wrongly recorded as 827) in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – “And Ecgbert led an army to Dore against the Northumbrians and they offered him obedience and concord and thereupon they separated” and thus King Ecgbert became “Our Lord of the whole English speaking race, from the Channel to the Firth of Forth”.
The importance of Dore was its position on the boundary of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Mercia, recently conquered by King Ecgbert of Wessex, and Northumbria, the second most powerful kingdom. At the time, Northumbria was under pressure from Viking raids and unable to fight on two fronts, leading to the acceptance of Ecgbert as an overlord and effectively the first king of all England.
The event is commemorated on the village green by a gritstone monolith, with a black granite plaque in the shape of a Saxon shield, appropriately emblazoned by a Wyvern, the war emblem of Wessex which is also the Choir’s emblem.
THE CHOIR
Although the Choir celebrated its 59th Anniversary this year, its origins go back a few years before 1964. In the late nineteen fifties, a small group of ex-servicemen would meet at a bar for a beer and a sing. The numbers of this glee club started to grow and occasional outings to sing for servicemen’s clubs and other fellowships followed.
By 1964 numbers had grown to between 16 and 20 singers and the meeting place was switched to The Devonshire Arms in Dore, where Dore Male Voice Choir was formed.
By the early seventies, the choir was enjoying a high reputation and entered many festivals, including the prestigious Llangollen International Eisteddfod on 6 occasions, Huddersfield, Morecambe, Blackpool, and Eskdale and continues entering competitions, in 2013 winning 2 categories with distinction in The Worksop Music Festival.
The Choir currently has 72 members whose music repertoire covers the whole music spectrum from Opera, Musicals, Sacred, Spirituals and traditional folk songs. Their repertoire has included singing in Latin, Welsh, German, Russian, Xosa and Maori and always from memory without manuscript.
Click on Music to Listen To, where a selection of the choirs’ repertoire is available.
The Choir has also given performances in York Minster, The London Guildhall, The Royal Albert Hall on radio and BBC TV.
Bi-annual overseas concert tours have taken place in many European countries. In 2017 they toured the Umbria region of Italy performing in the evening mass at St Peter’s in the Vatican, They have also sung at the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate, Ypres. In September 2019 a concert tour to Sicily took place based in Taormina, the highlight of the tour was performing in The Duomo of Syracuse.
2021 overseas concert tour has had to be postponed due to covid pandemic but plans are going ahead for 2022. The tour is scheduled to be based in Padua an ancient university city between Verona and Venice with concerts in each of the cities. The big attraction for the choir will be singing in the Mass in St. Mark’s in Venice.
They are proud to have contributed thousands of pounds to charity over the years, from the money raised from concerts, donations, and CD sales. DMVC is a Registered Charity, No 514195
