About us
Felicitas is a chamber choir directed by Simon Winters. We were originally formed to sing sacred and secular a cappella music from the 16th and 17th centuries but have subsequently extended our repertoire to include a wide range of works from the mediaeval period to the 21st century. The choir prides itself on its high musical standard and friendly welcome.
Felicitas has recently enjoyed several competition successes: we were one of five winners in Classic FM’s Making Music Carol Competition in December 2024 for our recording of Gabriel's Message by Jonathan Rathbone; and we won the Throne Challenge Cup for best amateur choir at the 2025 Stratford & East London Music Festival.
In 2022, 30 years after being founded by Chrina Jarvis and Maggie Snook, we celebrated our three decades of making music together with a well-received Anniversary Concert at Waltham Abbey for which our Simon composed a new setting of 'O Sing Joyfully'. We also enjoyed a highly successful tour to Paris where we performed at Saint Germain-des-Près, Saint Sulpice and the American Cathedral. On previous tours the choir has sung in Chartres, Paris, Tuscany, Budapest, Barcelona, Krakow, Edinburgh and Belgium.
Based on the London/Essex border, Felicitas has performed frequently in and around London including at the Roundhouse and as part of the Brandenburg Festival. In 2017 the choir celebrated our 25th Anniversary with a concert in London's St Lawrence Jewry; and at our 20th Anniversary Concert in Southwark Cathedral, the choir gave the first live performance of Will Todd's 'Vidi Speciosam', commissioned by the choir especially for this event. Felicitas has also released five CDs.
Further details, including information about how to join our Mailing List and Friends' Scheme, can be found on our CONTACT page.
How it all began - by Chrina Jarvis
I blame my mother. Knowing that I had in the past enjoyed singing madrigals and belonged to various groups at various times, she presented me, at Christmas 1991, with The Penguin Book of English Madrigals for Four Voices, hoping, and expecting, me to put it to good use. A kind thought but not easy to sing all four parts by yourself! At another choir's rehearsal, and ignoring the fact that I was supposed to be concentrating on learning the Mozart Requiem, I suggested, sotto voce of course, to my fellow alto and good friend, Maggie Snook, that perhaps a few of us could get together and sing some madrigals for fun on an ad hoc basis, utilising my new book. The response was more than enthusiastic! Let's form a choir, she said - and without further ado we planned and plotted, that evening, the beginnings of Felicitas!