About Treverva Male Choir

We are a dedicated male voice choir based in Mylor Bridge, Cornwall, performing at various events, sometimes in support of local and national charities, and sharing our musical journey. In addition to traditional concerts, we enjoy singing for that special occasion be it for a wedding, birthday, anniversary event, barn dance, funeral or perhaps outdoors for fetes, open gardens or sporting event with repertoire to suit the occasion. VERVA SOUND will create just the right atmosphere.

Our Choir History

Explore our rich history, listen to our musical tracks, and discover how you can become a part of our vibrant community.

Formed by Edgar Kessell MBE in 1936 in the small Cornish village of Treverva, the choir now practices from 7-30pm on Mondays at The Ord Statter Pavilion, Mylor Bridge, Cornwall.

From such humble beginnings the choir quickly grew in numbers to a peak of about seventy choristers which brought success at international and regional competitions including Llangollen International Eisteddford, and top awards at Blackpool, South Wales, the Cornish Open Championships and winning the coveted Cheltenham Gold Cup for the most outstanding choir at the festival.

The choir has an ethos of constant renewal and reinvention to keep things fresh. Learning from and performing with different choirs who have different styles and techniques has been important which was certainly the case when we toured California, Belgium, and Holland. We also cannot forget the adrenalin pumping moments when we sang in the grand inspiring venues of St Pauls Cathedral, the Royal Albert Hall, Wells, Gloucester, and Truro Cathedral in which we celebrated our 80th anniversary in front of an audience of in excess of 1000 in 2016. We still remember the feeling we had when we received a standing ovation in such verified atmosphere.

Singing should be fun so we are not averse to taking on more extraordinary ''gigs'' some memorable ones being 700 feet down a Cornish tin mine recording carols for the BBC, in a jumbo jet at 37,000 feet, and on a tall ship during the Tall Ships Race out of Falmouth. In 2023 we performed with the Oggymen, a local Cornish folk group, at The Hall for Cornwall.

In 2023 we were so pleased to appoint Robert Norman as our new Musical Director. Robert who studied music at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, is during the day Director of Music at Truro High School, Cornwall and in the evening and weekends when he is not directing our choir, he is leading the Oggymen a successful local Cornish folk group. Robert has brought an underlying joy to our singing and introduced new modern repertoire while retaining our trade mark VERVA SOUND.

The choir accompanist Ruth Best has been with Treverva, off and on, from the age of sixteen, firstly as deputy and later , following her graduation from Southampton University , as the choir's full time and highly valued accompanist. Ruth has a BA and Masters Degree in music performance and also plays the organ, violin and teaches piano.