About Us

The Birmingham Male Voice Choir is a dynamic group of men from various age groups. We sing for enjoyment and entertainment, performing in four-part harmony and showcasing a diverse range of music, including classic pop hits, show tunes, and uplifting hymns.

Above all, it’s about building friendships and fostering community. We cherish the camaraderie that comes from gathering and singing together, and we warmly invite and encourage new members to join us. If you have a passion for singing and wish to enhance your vocal skills, come and be a part of our choir.

Our full name is ‘The Birmingham Canoldir and Birmingham Icknield Male Voice Choir.’ We use ‘The Birmingham Male Voice Choir’ for our performances. The full name reflects the rich history and merger of two long established and prestigious choirs: ‘The Birmingham Canoldir Male Voice Choir’ (founded in 1966) and ‘The Birmingham Icknield Male Voice Choir’ (founded in 1900).
or us.

Birmingham Icknield Male Voice Choir

Compulsory education for children began in 1880 and to help their uneducated parents Quakers, such as Cadbury, founded the Early Morning Adult Schools. These offered the opportunity for adults to acquire education, life skills and fellowship. In time this came to include music, and because the classes were not mixed they formed ladies and men’s choirs.

One of those male choirs was our choir, the snappily titled ‘Icknield Street Early Morning Adult School Male Voice Choir’. Our choir must have been established at some time between 1880 and 1900 and will have performed many concerts in the Hockley area of Birmingham.

In 1910 our choir showed it’s quality by winning a competition for adult school male voice choirs the large shield for which the choir still has.

In time we simplified our name to the Icknield Male Voice Choir. We celebrated our 100 year anniversary with a concert at the Symphony Hall in 2000, and about that time moved our rehearsals to the City Centre.

Most male choirs have names that start with where they are from, so “Where is Icknield?” was what we were always being asked. So we changed it to Birmingham Icknield Male Voice Choir.

There have been many other changes over the years but our choir still helps men learn and offers fellowship while sharing a love of making great music together. Our motto, Friendship through music, sums us up.

Our Musical Director is Steve Roche, who, with accompanist Chris Walk, work that brilliant alchemy that takes our very ordinary musical efforts and transforms them so that the music we make together is pure gold.

We have great times as a choir. Memorable concerts, tours, social events and especially every Tuesday evening our rehearsal, where fun and hard work go hand in hand with friendship.

Birmingham Canoldir Male Voice Choir

In the beginning, it was a rugby match which brought together the Welsh exiles. More importantly, it was after a rugby match held on St David’s Day in 1966 and a few pints later that the singing began. Somewhere between Cwm Rhondda and Sospan Fach those present realised that singing was fun and the seeds were sown to form a Male Voice Choir, and so Canoldir was born.

An initial Group assembled, a rehearsal room was hired, a teacher of music was persuaded to take up the baton and the wife of a group member was coerced into becoming the accompanist.

To swell the membership it was agreed to seek men from all corners of the land and it was this blend of accents and personalities which made this choir unique.

The name ‘Canoldir’ roughly translated from the Welsh stands for ‘Middle Land’ and many people have looked in vain on maps to find this mythical town.

The choir having been formed, rehearsals commenced and the hard work began to blend the voices and reflect the Welsh influence.

With successful performances established, it was decided that competition was the next goal and with small beginnings and successful results the choir started to grow in confidence and attract new members.

At its peak Canoldir had over 120 members and continued to enjoy, under the baton of its founder Clive Griffiths MBE and later James Llewellyn Jones, many years of successful singing in both competition and performances.