The World Festival Choir was originally formed in
1984 by Bjorn E. Simensen, then director of the Symphony Orchestra in Gothenborg,
Sweden, and by Jan Jensen, then Director of the Vestfold County Choral and Music Association in
Norway. First known as the Norwegian Festival Choir, the groups initial goal was to build on the potential of 120 singers to evolve a choir capable of a festival performance of Händel's Messiah to mark the tricentennial of the composer's birth the following year, in Gothenburg. Response outstripped expectation: at the premiere performance in January 1985 under the direction of Charles Farncombe, the Choir was
2500 voices strong and ovations and engagements to sing elsewhere followed.
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