Celebrated Male Voices in Concert
The celebrated Cotswold Male Voice Choir will make a welcome return to St. Paul’s Church, in Cheltenham on Friday 28th November 2025 after a three-year absence.
Their last concert here in 2022 was met with rapturous applause from the audience.
The ever popular ‘Cotswolds’ are now in their 76th year and have a deservedly high reputation for entertaining audiences with a wide repertoire of songs that will thrill all ages. There’s nothing quite like the soaring sound of a male choir singing classic hymns like ‘Morte Criste’ or ‘Calon Lan’ to stir your soul or the sweet harmonies of a love song like ‘Let It Be Me’ or ‘Spanish Eyes’.
Help for those in need
Proceeds from the concert will go towards supporting Rapha Medical Outreach, located in North-East Nigeria, which is run by Dr. Paul and Mary Ushie; fully qualified medical professionals who have given up their medical careers to run this remote much needed hospital facility.
Working from their base with the help of a committed team, they provide essential basic, routine and critical life-saving medical care for the various tribes and religious groups who dwell on the Mambilla Plateau. They regularly embark on outreach to remote villages to give medical assessments, diagnosis and treatment to those who are unable to travel the distances to receive such care themselves
In addition, they provide health education, midwifery training, antenatal and postnatal care and ensure newly converted Christians receive the support they need to grow deeper in their faith.
Rapha Medica Project UK Registered Charity No. 145131
St. Paul’s Church
St. Paul’s is one of the most striking churches and concert venues in Cheltenham. Its acoustics enhance those wonderful soaring harmonies produced by a male choir. But as a place of worship, it holds a special historical position. The church was initiated by Revd. Charles Jervis in 1825, aiming to create a church for the working-class people of Cheltenham, who couldn’t afford to pay for church seats.
It was built between 1829-1831 to serve the poorer “artisan classes” as a “free church” where no seats were paid for. The land was donated by Joseph Pitt, and the building paid for by a grant from the Church Building Commissioners. The architect was John Forbes who designed it in the Greek Revival style.
The Cotswold Male Voice Choir
The Cotswold Male Voice Choir is one of the most established and popular male choirs in Gloucestershire. Originally founded as a works choir in 1949 at Smith Industries – now GE Aerospace, in Bishops Cleeve – the choir is now in its 76th year. The choir welcomes men of all ages and musical ability so long as they can learn to sing in harmony. It is a registered charity whose aim is “to promote music through public performance”.
The choir sings at every type of venue throughout Gloucestershire, the Cotswolds and beyond, in churches, cathedrals, concert halls, village halls and (of course) in pubs … from where many members have been recruited.
Helping our Community in Gloucestershire:
Through its concerts and public performances, the choir has raised many thousands of pounds for other charities and community causes.
Join the Choir
The choir rehearses every Wednesday evening at Helen Porter Hall, Dean Close School in Cheltenham (opposite the Bacon Theatre) from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm.
James Willshire – Music Director
The choir will be conducted by James Willshire who took over as Music Director in January. James is an outstanding conductor and choir leader.
He is an experienced music teacher and an outstanding concert pianist in his own right. Heralded for performances of ‘spectacular musicianship and technical brilliance’ (The Scotsman), ‘evangelizing urgency’ (International Record Review) and ‘freshness and lucidity’ (The Herald Scotland), James Willshire has performed at the BBC Proms, live on BBC Radio 3, and at the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican, Bridgewater Hall, St John’s Smith Square, Purcell Room, Glasgow City Halls, Queens Hall Edinburgh, Perth Concert Hall, St George’s Bristol, Caird Hall and the Fairfield Halls.