BBC National Chorus of Wales was formed in 1983. It has developed into one of the UK’s leading large mixed choruses. While preserving its amateur status, the Chorus works to the highest standards under its Artistic Director Adrian Partington and enjoys a close performing relationship with BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Most of the Chorus’s concerts take place at St David’s Hall in Cardiff, and in the BBC’s new concert hall in the Wales Millennium Centre, BBC Hoddinott Hall. The chorus also frequently performs at other venues in Wales, such as Brangwyn Hall in Swansea, the Nimbus Concert Hall near Monmouth, St David’s, St Asaph and Brecon cathedrals, as well as around the UK, including Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Exeter, Gloucester and Worcester cathedrals, and annually at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. It has formed a close working relationship with the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, with which the Chorus has performed in Paris and at the St. Denis Festival.

While most of BBC National Chorus of Wales’s concerts are of large-scale choral-orchestral repertoire from Beethoven to Messiaen, it also gives many smaller-scale concerts under the direction of Adrian Partington, often of works by leading Welsh composers such as Mathias and Hoddinott. The Chorus has also given first performances of major works including pieces by Daniel Jones, Sir John Tavener and John Hardy.

BBC National Chorus of Wales has made a number of recordings, including works by Honegger, Florent Schmitt, Mendelssohn, Elgar, Bridge, Dyson, and Leighton, as well as Stanford’s Songs of the Sea, which received a Gramophone Award in 2006. All its performances are broadcast on national or regional radio or television.