The John Lewis Partnership Music Society

The John Lewis Partnership is a major British retail group and it's first choir was founded in 1925. In 1928 a Committee for Music was formed, which, by 1938, had become known as the Music Society. During the War, musical activities largely ceased, but the Society was re-formed in 1947, and then embraced an opera group, a choral group, a gramophone committee and a music library.

The Society has since flourished and its aim of giving pleasure to any who wish to participate or listen has been fulfilled in a variety of ways - musical education, choral concerts, opera, operetta, musicals and evenings of light-hearted music. Choral work and musicals, in particular, have gone from strength to strength, and the numbers of performers have grown to the extent that the Society can continue to expand its activities for all.

It has been possible to add a more demanding repertoire for those with greater experience. This group, the Cavendish Singers, was formed in late 1995, and since then a small group of talented instrumentalists named the Cavendish Ensemble has also been added.

Last autumn the Society staged Cole! an entertainment based on the life and work of Cole Porter in the Westminster Theatre. The main choir performed extracts from Monteverdi's Vespers for their Christmas Concert and the Cavendish Singers took part in a Service of Nine Lessons & Carols in Westminster Cathedral, now a regular feature of the Partnership's Christmas celebrations. The Cavendish Singers also performed in the Classic fm concert recorded in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and contributed two recordings to the 1998 Classic fm Christmas CD.

The Mill Hill Music Festival is the first outing for the Cavendish Cabaret, a group of the Society's most talented and versatile performers in the field of musical theatre.

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