The Choir’s repertoire ranges widely from staple works such as Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Handel’s Messiah to more unusual and rarely heard works by composers such as Jonathan Dove and the Choir’s music director Jonathan Rathbone. We recorded Richard Maunder’s new edition of Mozart’s Requiem under our former music director Murray Stewart, and in 2009-10 the Choir released a CD of its repertoire, Where’er You Walk, to celebrate its 60th anniversary season.
Jonathan Rathbone took over in September 2002 as only the Choir’s fourth music director in its history. The highlight of the Choir’s 2018-19 season was a performance of Britten’s War Requiem, performed jointly with South West Essex Choir in Walthamstow Assembly Hall to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War. The season also featured Mozart’s Requiem and a concert of songs of love and loss, including Jonathan Rathbone’s new choral arrangement of Schumann’s Dichterliebe. In November 2018 the Choir visited Strasbourg to join a French choir in singing Jonathan Rathbone’s They Shall Grow Not Old on Armistice Day. Our Covid recording of Theyshall grow not old is on YouTube, The 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons were somewhat disrupted by Covid, but rehearsals and performances continued on Zoom.
The 2023-4 season included Mendelssohn's Elijah and Bach's B minor Mass, with Mozart's Mass in C Minor performed in November 2024 and Dvorak's Stabat Mater in May 2025.. The ‘Art of Song’ concert in March 2025 comprised songs arranged for chorus by Jonathan Rathbone, as did A Day at the Fair in July 2025
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'A wonderful piece, beautifully sung by the choir - and the pianist was fantastic'
'Thoroughly enjoyed it. A lovely piece and I loved the way you were all dressed'
'We thoroughly enjoyed the music … I liked the colourful costumes – they complemented the music beautifully!’
‘A magical evening, from the Pimms and cake, the extraordinary setting of St Mary’s Church Walthamstow to the wonderful music. In a one hour concert, the songs took us through a day at the fair mixing fast and slow, dark and light and happy and sad moods all beautifully rendered by the choir. It was a really engaging evening including a superb pianist and the composer conducting’
'A Day At the Fair - The choir looked amazing in their beautiful jeweled colours which complemented the sun-lit stained glass above them in St. Mary's church. This set the scene for the exhilarating and enchanting piece of music to come. I was soon swept up in the Fairground world including a ghost train and pickpockets to a barrel-organ and a huge variety of fair 'shows'. The final poignancy of the jilted lad dropping '2 tickets to Gretna to the mossy ground' was very hard to take! It had been very difficult not to clap after each section so, as 'The Glorious Day' came to an end, we all erupted into enthusiastic and appreciative applause! Thank you all!'
Audience comments A Day at the Fair concert 6th July 2025
'It was a delightful occasion: the cakes were delicious…And as a choir, you produced luscious sounds and harmonies! At least twice I was moved close to tears, eg Haendel’s Did you not hear my lady, and Schubert’s Staendchen. I was intrigued by all the German songs, too, some by obscure poets. Did not know that Grieg put so many to music… Fabulous concert.’
Audience comment, The Art of Song concert 1st March 2025
Audience comments, the Christmas concert ‘Night of Wonder’ Dec 2025
‘Your collective performance last night was the best ever from LFC. My experience goes back as far as 1983’
‘The choir sounded marvellous – it was a treat to hear’
Audience comments, the Bach Bminor Mass concert 18 May 2024
‘London Forest Choir’s assured and blended singing delivered a persuasive and deeply moving account of Fauré’s Requiem’
‘I thoroughly enjoyed Saturday’s concert, theFauré was lovely and the other two works were spirited, and sung with gusto’
‘Such a full, beautiful sound’
Audience comments, the Fauré Requiem concert 20 May 2023
‘… the sheer quality, elocution, and meticulous preparation of the choir’
Review of ‘A Better World is Possible’ (25 Feb 2023) in Church Times
“I enjoyed the performances, and the sheer variety was terrific. It must have been difficult to rehearse so many pieces …. the tone was lovely and the momentum and pulse of the individual pieces was convincing.”
The Art of Song, 20 November 2021
