The Golden Jubilee receded into memory, but the Goldsmiths Choral Union continued its activities against a background of ever-changing artistic fashions and funding possibilities. Through the 1990s, the choir had to get used to scaled-down performances in new venues, but it continued fighting its corner as an independent concert promoter in central London. It also began to travel more than it had ever done before.

Overseas and nationwide

In March 1989 a performance of Geoffrey Burgon's Requiem was given with the NCOS symphony orchestra at Goldsmiths College, followed a week later by a trip to Valencia, Spain, to repeat the work with the city's Orquestra Municipal, conducted by Manuel Galduf. During the charter flight, five choruses from Messiah were sung, one for each mile of altitude! The Valencia trip proved a great way of building team spirit, and everyone who went on it had great fun.

The choir was back with the NCOS on 1 June for a performance of Britten's War Requiem in the Royal Albert Hall (RAH). Sadly, this was our last association with the NCOS, which was disbanded at the end of the summer term.

Arguably the highlight of the year was a performance of Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts on 15 July in the RAH organised by the GCU in association with the National Federation of Music Societies – a mammoth "summer sing"! Brian Wright conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Robert Tear as tenor soloist. Over 1,600 singers from more than 30 choirs countrywide attended, and arranging the seating took some doing! There was a little room left for an enthusiastic audience as performers took up the whole of the arena, all the choir stalls and about a third of the main stalls. An experience never to be forgotten! Christmas saw our first British Telecom (BT) charity carol concert at the RAH; Peter Skellern and Richard Stilgoe starred.

Brian Wright conducted his third outstanding performance of Liszt's oratorio Christus with the choir in May 1990, which was broadcast. The Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel was among the soloists. A performance of Bach's B Minor Mass at the Barbican followed in November. August 1991 saw the choir performing at the Kings Lynn Festival with the London Choral Society and its conductor Ronald Corp. 1991 also saw fine performances of Verdi's Requiem in March at the Royal Festival Hall (RFH) and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at the Barbican Hall in September.

The summer of 1992 saw the choir take part in National Music Day on a sweltering Clapham Common. Christmas 1992 was also the last carol concert on behalf of BT.

The 1992/3 season was the choir's 60th anniversary and Brian Wright's 20th as Music Director. This was marked by a 'celebration sing' of The Dream of Gerontius at Southwark Cathedral in April 1993.

This was a memorable occasion when many former members turned out to join us in a sing-through of this wonderful work. The anniversaries were further marked by a concert in July at the RFH. This concert, given with the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra, included Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and Walton's Belshazzar's Feast.

Over the previous two or three years, the GCU had been taking part in a series of Opera Galas and Classical Spectaculars promoted by Raymond Gubbay. It was good therefore to be asked by him to perform Messiah at the RAH in December 1993. The GCU had been famous for its own annual performances of Messiah at the RFH under both Frederick Haggis and Brian Wright since its opening in 1951. But the verbal agreement that Mr. Haggis had had with the Greater London Council Arts Department to promote an annual December Messiah ceased following the demise of the GLC in 1986. The 1993 RAH performance for Raymond Gubbay was given under the baton of the famous violinist, the late Sir Yehudi Menuhin. It was perhaps not the most inspiring – we missed Brian Wright's special interpretation of this marvellous oratorio. Brian was back in charge the following year, however, and a GCU Messiah is currently an annual part of Raymond Gubbay's huge Christmas Festival at the RAH.

March 1994 saw a full public performance of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius at the RFH. This turned out to be our last visit there for seven years, mainly because of the difficulties mentioned above. There were two performances of Messiah this year: before the one in the RAH, the GCU performed it with the Maidstone Symphony Orchestra, of which Brian Wright is music director, at Westminster Central Hall with a choir of 400 voices.

We joined with the Guildford Philhamonic Orchestra and Choir in March 1995 for a concert at the cathedral, which included Berlioz's grand Te Deum. In May we gave our first performance at St James's Church, Piccadilly, which included Fauré's Requiem. A move from the larger concert halls during this period gave the GCU the chance to introduce into its repertoire a number of shorter works suitable for church settings. The choir used St James's frequently during the later 1990s; we transferred our Christmas carol concert there in December 1995.

March 1996 saw a first performance at the Barbican Hall of a new translation of Bach's St Matthew Passion by Neil Jenkins. This proved to be the start of an important association with Neil who has since made several other English versions of classic German oratorios and continues to be busy translating other works. Monteverdi's Vespers was a feature of 1997, when it was performed in May at the Barbican Hall. An unusual piano duet version of Brahms's A German Requiem, arranged by the composer, was the centrepiece of our autumn concert at St James's Church.

A concert of sacred pieces entitled Gregoriana, given at St James's in June 1998, was a precursor to a long weekend visit to give repeat concerts at Chateau Thierry and Reims Cathedral in France later that month. The choir had not been overseas since 1989, so this trip to France was welcomed by many members.

A sad event befell the choir in February 1999 when our chairman at the time, Geoff Brazier, died suddenly at home at the tragically young age of 44. The second of our Neil Jenkins concerts in March at the Barbican – a new translation of Bach's St John Passion – was dedicated to Geoff's memory.

In November we were invited to perform at The Royal Concert with other choirs in the presence of HRH The Duke of Gloucester. Carl Orff's Carmina Burana was the main work. Peter Skellern joined us for our carol concert at the QEH where we included his Five Carols. To bring in the millennium, Raymond Gubbay asked for a choir of 500 for the annual Messiah concert. This was duly supplied and proved to be a most successful performance, even with such numbers.

The year 2000 started with a fine performance of Bach's demanding B minor Mass with authentic instruments played by the Wren Baroque Orchestra at the Barbican Hall. Duruflé's Requiem was the main work of our summer concert at St James's Church. As in 1998, we took the same programme to Belgium, where we performed at the Ghent festival and at Kortrijk, a town in Flanders. The third of Neil Jenkins's translations, Bach's Christmas Oratorio, was performed at the Barbican Hall on 10 December with the Hanover Band. We again fielded some 500 singers for Messiah in 2000, a situation that seems set to be the norm!

We went back to the RFH in March 2001 for the first time for exactly seven years and gave a fine performance of The Dream of Gerontius with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the work that we had last given there in 1994. It was good to be back! The season finished in June with Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Dvořák's rarely performed Requiem at St John's Church, Waterloo, another of the churches we now use regularly.

In November 2001, in two performances, one at St John's, Waterloo, the other at the Church of St Mary of Charity, Faversham, Kent, GCU revived a work that it had premièred in 1957, Vaughan Williams's Epithalamium. This rare work was paired with Britten's St Nicolas. The choir was particularly honoured at St John's to welcome the conmposer's widow, Ursula Vaughan Williams, who had compiled the text for this delightful Wedding song. After carol concerts at St Paul's, Knightsbridge, and St James's, Piccadilly, we rounded the year of with another RAH Messiah for Raymond Gubbay Ltd.

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