When Tim Reynolds retired in 2022, he told friends travel was at the top of his to-do list. He had always enjoyed travel – especially for holidays, and especially to other countries.
During his 22-year tenure as artistic director of the Hilton Head Choral Society, while also serving as a part-time music director at local churches, travel around the holidays was based on seasonal concert schedules.
“December was always just the push to get through, between church services and gigs and all that, so starting in about 2010, I would fly out every year on December 26 and go to London for 10 days – because there’s no more festive place for Christmas than London!” Reynolds said.
Tim Reynolds, left, with Richard Cooke, director of the Royal Choral Society, at a September rehearsal.
“So, the year I retired, I went to London the first week of December and went to a bunch of concerts, then took a side trip, and I came back and spent the last week of December back in London.”
A couple of those concerts were at the Royal Albert Hall, a London landmark built by Queen Victoria in 1871. One of the concerts was a performance by the impressive 200-member Royal Choral Society. “I had seen them in a concert there a couple of years before,” Reynolds said.
Fast forward to late 2024, when Reynolds decided that visiting London occasionally wasn’t enough; he wanted to move there. “I’ve always had a love affair with London,” he said with a smile.
And, if he was going to live there, he wanted to entertain the possibility of singing with the esteemed chorus. “I’ve been running around a lot for the past two and a half years, but I haven’t been doing anything musical – other than being an attendee,” Reynolds said. “So I thought it was time, while I’ve still got something to offer vocally.”
Christmas at the 5,000-seat Royal Albert Hall in London, featuring the Royal Choral Society with full orchestra.
The Royal Choral Society was originally formed as the house chorus for the Royal Albert Hall, first performing in 1872, with Verdi conducting his Requiem for the first time. “They have a significant historical past,” Reynolds said.
In September 2024, Reynolds emailed the auditions chairperson, “just kind of scoping out what was involved – what was the rehearsal schedule, how many rehearsals could you miss and still participate,” he said. When all the answers came back suitable for his participation, he set up an audition time for May 2025.
The audition was held just prior to the group’s regular Monday night rehearsal. “It’s you and the conductor and the accompanist, and he has you do some vocalizing, just to kind of figure out your range,” Reynolds said. “And then you sing a prepared piece – and I think this is a brilliant idea: Everyone who auditions for chorus sings the same thing. It’s a Handel aria called ‘Where’er You Walk.’ As a choral conductor, I could see that it tells the director everything you need to know. It’s got awkward leaps in it. Then you do some sight reading just to prove that you can read notes, because the big thing is you don’t come to rehearsal to learn notes; you come to rehearsal to make music. I mean, to put a Brahm’s Requiem together in six rehearsals, you’ve got to know your stuff.”
Reynolds was delighted when the conductor informed him immediately after the audition that he had passed, and then welcomed him as a new member of the Royal Choral Society. He attended his first rehearsal that evening.
A bonus to being a member is that, after rehearsals, a group of choristers goes to the nearby pub for a cold beverage. “I built an immediate social life,” he said.
Royal Albert Hall at Christmas time.
A PLACE TO LIVE
Once Reynolds decided to move to London, he began scoping out potential neighborhoods in the general vicinity of Royal Albert Hall. Even if he hadn’t been accepted to sing with the Royal Choral Society, he would still attend events there. And if he was accepted, that area would be convenient.
“Most importantly, I wanted to be near the tube stop [subway station] for easy access all over London, including the airport,” Reynolds said. “I’ve never lived in a big city for an extended period of time. I’ve never functioned without a car. I pretty much knew where I wanted to be, because I know London pretty well, and I wanted to be in central London – I want to be able to take advantage of what the city has to offer.”
When he visited in March 2025, he narrowed his search for a flat that was turnkey – fully furnished and complete with internet and utilities. “There’s not a lot of that around,” Reynolds said. “So, I had it pretty much down to one set of buildings that are all interconnected. I looked at some units in the building and then when I went back in May, I could finally see what might be available, because I didn’t need anything until September. There was only one unit that was going to be available starting mid-August. I said ‘OK, I’ll take that one.’”
His flat turned out to be perfect. “There’s a tube stop at the top of the street that goes to where I need to go for rehearsals. The same tube stop will take me to the train station that I need to take to the airport. I really tried to think all of that through,” he said. In addition, “there’s a grocery down the street, there’s a better one a little further down the street, there’s a liquor store across the street. Lots of restaurants,” he said. “I really felt prepared when I went for the audition, that if it’s going to all come together, I’d be ready.”
Reynolds chose not to sell his house on Hilton Head, so he always has a place to stay when he returns to the island for business or other visits.
Asked if he thought a lot of folks in his new locale had heard of Hilton Head Island, Reynolds chuckled and said, “Several years ago I was in Harrods, the big store, and I was in one of the stairwells when I looked up and there was Harbour Town on a digital billboard. I actually took a picture of it! It was something about golf, because golf is so British, but it just cracked me up. There was this huge promotion for Hilton Head, with the lighthouse and the golf course in the background.”
CONCERTS
Rehearsals began in September for an October concert – Reynolds’ first with the choir – the Verdi Requiem. It was the 150th anniversary of the first time the Royal Choral Society performed the piece – which was the UK premiere, with the composer himself conducting in the new Royal Albert Hall.
Immediately following was the onslaught of Christmas programs, which began December 13 with “Carols at the Royal Albert Hall.”
“We have 16 concerts in December – and they’ll all be sold out,” Reynolds said. “I’ve been to those concerts before and it’s pretty amazing. And sometimes you have two or three a day at the end of the week before Christmas. It’ll be 11:00 in the morning, 3:00 in the afternoon, 7:00 at night.”
Reynolds was pleased that his sister and brother-in-law were able to attend an early Christmas concert. And closer to Christmas, his good friend and former accompanist from Hilton Head, Janice Creech, came for a visit and to see the final concert on Christmas Eve.
After Christmas, the dust settles until March, when an evening of classical music will be performed at Southwark Cathedral. Then, on Good Friday is the 150th annual production of the full Handel Messiah, again at the Royal Albert Hall.
Concerts continue through July, then the chorus takes a month off.
The PERFORMANCE SPACE
Royal Albert Hall is a London landmark that opened with great ceremony in March 1871. Queen Victoria dedicated the building to her beloved husband, Prince Albert, a staunch patron of the arts, who had died about 10 years prior.
The Royal Choral Society was formed as the “house chorus” shortly thereafter, providing outstanding choral music for significant events since the beginning.
But choral concerts aren’t the only events presented in the large space.
“It’s a really big, circular building, seats 5,000 people, and it’s sort of a cross between – I don’t know – maybe Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden,” Reynolds said. “It could be literally a symphonic concert tonight and Cirque de Soleil tomorrow night, and a sumo wrestling thing the next night.”
Reynolds is fascinated with the space, and recalled seeing a production of The King and I years ago. “The arena (around the stage) was flooded, and there were boats floating around to represent Siam. The space is amazing. I want to just get into the guts of the place and see how it works!”
