From the time, in 1969, when a group of ex-Highcliffe Junior School pupils started coming back to sing with their former teacher on Friday afternoons after school, Highcliffe Junior Choir, based in Highcliffe, Dorset, has been a musical force to be reckoned with. That teacher was Mary Denniss and since those early days she has given countless children the chance to experience the joy, excitement, tension and satisfaction that being a member of a choir such as this can bring. Indeed, several past members have gone on to enjoy successful professional music careers.

Over the years the Choir has appeared at some very prestigious venues including the Royal Albert Hall, the Barbican Hall and the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and, more locally, Southampton Guildhall, Poole Arts Centre and Bournemouth’s International Centre, Winter Gardens and Pavilion. All these as well as numerous concerts in smaller halls, cathedrals and churches in this area and further afield. The Choir has also made many radio and television broadcasts such as Radio Three’s Advent Calendar, Radio Two’s Sunday Half Hour, Mary O’Hara and Friends, Come Sunday and the BBC’s Proms. They also featured in BBC’s coverage of the Sainsbury Choir of the Year Competition finals where they won the title of Youth Choir of the Year, 1996.