A COMMUNITY choir is to mark its 90th anniversary with a transatlantic concert at Steam.

The Swindon Choral Society will team up with the Choral Society of Middle Georgia, USA and the children’s choir The Janice Thompson Singers, to offer a special performance on May 25.

Special projects manager Kath Danswan said: “Preparations for this concert started two years ago with the invite being sent to the Choral Society of Middle Georgia.

“We started rehearsing in March and we sang all together for the first time yesterday evening.”

More than 30 singers from America will join the Swindon choir. “We’ve sent a recording of the song and a DVD and CSMG replied saying they would love to join us,” said Kath.

“You have to look for something that is similar to yourself, a choral that did similar work and we found them.”

They will perform a song composed by current musical director Robin Nelson and poet Mike Polack.

The Atlantic Odyssey was first performed in 2013 and takes its inspiration from the journey of the Artic tern, a bird also known as the most impressive migrants of the world. Robin has a real interest in birds and always wanted to write about this theme. He added that the song addresses a wide range of themes, from global warming to slave trade.

Kath said: “We have done big performances before, but this arguably will be the most exciting, as we will be singing a piece specially composed for us by our musical director and having the Americans singing with us as well as the singers from Janice Thompson.

“Ninety years is a special anniversary.”

She added: “The whole year we are celebrating 90 years of making music in Swindon as we don’t know the actual date of the anniversary.

“We’ve done big concerts over the years, some of us went to America, we’ve done tours in Italy, we sung in Bruges. Before that we went to Budapest on tour.

“In October, we will fly out to Venice and we’ll perform there. And we will do a small tour this year.”

The show on Saturday will last for about two hours and will start at 7:30pm.

Approximately 300 people are expecting to turn up to the event and the choir will be fundraising during the show to cover their own costs. They will also raise funds in aid of Brighter Futures.

The show will start at 7:30pm and tickets cost £20 each.

For further information or to book a ticket visit: www.swindonchoral.org.uk

Plans are also being made for two other performances on September 14 at St John Baptist Church in Cirencester and December 7 at Christ Church in Swindon.

The group is always looking for new singers. “We’ve got over 100 people who joined choir, and it’s varied - the oldest is in the 90s and the youngest is in her 20s.” said Kath.

The group rehearses at Freshbrook Church on Thursday evening. Subscriptions are free for those aged under 20 while singers under 30 are offered half price.