BCOS - a friendly Bicester-based group of singers & performers with a difference, presenting choral concerts AND fully staged West End/Broadway musical performances. BCOS is a performing musical society with a difference: we rehearse and present works from both the choral and operatic disciplines, usually performing a staged musical production in the spring, and a choral work in the late autumn, b
oth often supported by orchestra. We draw our soloists from both the society's membership and from professional singers in the music industry. Our concerts are normally presented in St Edburg's Church and the staged productions in The Performance Hall at The Cooper School, Bicester. We rehearse on Wednesday evenings in St Mary’s School, off Queen’s Avenue (near the Sports Centre), Bicester, from 7:30-9:30pm. New members will be required to take a simple voice test, to establish which voice section you're best suited to. BCOS had its origins when members of Fringford Women’s Institute formed a small choir. The choir combined with other village choirs to perform joint concerts in Oxford. In 1963 the choir was formally launched at Bicester School and also sang in support of Bicester Music Society. By 1965 it was handed on to Mr Brian Cresswell, the enthusiastic head of music at the then newly created comprehensive school and by 1968 the Society was producing two shows a year: one light operetta and the other a large opera in partnership with Bicester School. By 1974 choral works were being performed as well as opera, and before long a regular pattern was established: a choral work and a staged production, a pattern which we still follow today. The Society is a registered charity (No. 1109779 ) with a formal constitution, and is managed by a committee derived from its membership.
