O UR STORY:
In September of 1993, following a summer of grass-root recruitment, forty-eight singers came together under the direction of local choir director and organist, Eric Brown, to prepare a holiday musical program. Three months later, 'A Christmas Concert' was performed for a small, yet overwhelmingly appreciative crowd at the Memorial United Methodist Church of Taunton, Massachusetts.

The name of this very young, but extremely enthusiastic ensemble was The Bristol-Plymouth Community Chorus. It's goal was to give local audiences and members alike the opportunity to experience a bold approach to choral performance through the presentation of fun, high-spirited and colorful choral productions.

Word of this new community group and its dynamic young director quickly spread, and soon the group had added more singers and nearly doubled its audience. During those early years, the chorus experimented liberally with its fresh approach by incorporating costumed soloists, choreography, and whimsical scenery into its performances. 'Enthusiasm + Variety = A Great Experience' had been humbly coined as an early BPCC motto, yet 'Expect the Unexpected' quickly became the underlying and overpowering mantra for the dynamic group.

Artistic director Steven Sprague first joined BPCC in 1995 as a novice singer in the group's tenor section. Inspired by the unrestrained energy of the chorus and its director, he quickly began to envision a tremendous future for the still young ensemble.

In the summer of 1996, Mr. Sprague produced his first concert for the group titled '3D Etc.'; a wildly successful caberet-style production staged at a renowned local landmark, the Roseland Ballroom. The event represented several firsts for the group, not the least of which was that it drew the chorus' single largest audience to date. Nearly 1000 enthusiastic fans crowded the historic ballroom to cheer the spectacle production, which featured costumes, a guest dance troupe, and special effects lighting.

1996, in many ways, represented a major turning point for the chorus. The Roseland Ballroom event was the first time the group had ventured away from its home at Memorial United Methodist Church. It was that year that the creative partnership between Music Director Eric Brown and Artistic Director Steven Sprague was forged, and it was then that this new team first began considering a name change for the group. The name change was postponed, but it was decided then that the principal goal for the group would be to find diverse venues in a variety of locales where the chorus could perform.

Over the following years, concerts were staged everywhere from the ample auditoriums of high schools in Somerset, Middleboro, and Taunton, to the towered and majestic sanctuaries of Taunton's First Parish and St. Mary's Church, to the historic beauty of the recently restored Middleboro town Hall.

Further priorities would be to hire professional orchestral accompaniment for all of the group's major concerts, as well as requiring members to perform during these concerts from memory, without the assistance of sheet music. The strategies proved to be very successful for the group, which continued to see steady membership growth and regional recognition over the next five years.