MORE than 150 people filled Christ Church with song on Saturday.

The Swindon Choral Society was joined by the Bracknell Choral Society and 40 guests who fancied having a bit of a sing-along at the church.

They rehearsed Bach’s St Matthew Passion all day before giving a full hour-long performance in the afternoon.

The piece will be performed by the two choirs with a full orchestra and professional soloists in Marlborough next month.

During the Christ Church ‘Come and Sing’ event, singers were accompanied by an organist and conducted by Greg Hallam.

Swindon Choral Society member Kath Danswan organised the event.

She said: “It was a long day but a fun one.

"Christ Church is such a beautiful venue and the acoustics inside are lovely.

“The atmosphere was wonderful, everyone enjoyed themselves and it was fantastic to have so many people of all ages singing together.

“Some had never sang the piece before and it’s quite difficult - it requires two choirs and they’re often singing against each other - but they did very well.

“We were all quite tired by the time we got to the performance at the end but that gave us a chance to sing through all that we’d rehearsed,and we had a few guests come in to watch us perform.”

Kath explained how the ‘Come and Sing’ event came about.

She added: “We thought it would be nice to raise funds for the society, have a day of singing through the work and invite other people to join us.

“We had more than 40 people come along who weren’t part of a choral society - they travelled from Wroughton, Highworth, Devizes, even Nottinghamshire.

“We contacted as many people as we could and thought we would get around 80 people in total so to have more than 150 at the event was wonderful.

“People have already asked us to do it again so we’ll be looking to do something similar in future.

“It would be wonderful for Swindon to have this become a regular event.”

The Swindon Choral Society includes around 110 amateur singers who stage, on average, four choral concerts in and around Swindon each year.

The main performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion by the Swindon and Bracknell Choral Societies will be at the Marlborough College Chapel on Saturday March 24 at 6.30pm.

Tickets are available for £15 each from the Swindon Choral Society’s website.

One person aged 18 or under can attend for free with each adult who pays for a ticket.

The concert is being held in aid of Marlborough Brandt Group.

For more information and to book a ticket, visit swindonchoral.org.uk