From the first hundred years our church there is no data about a chorus. Considering that the church already had an organ in 1748, we can assume that it may have had a chorus as well.
Civilian choir-singing had demonstrable tradition in Balassagyarmat since 1863. Its processed history reveals that the civic choir and the chorus of the church were in close relation from the very beginning. The first fact to prove this supposition is that the second choir-master of the Balassagyarmati Polgári Dalárda (Civilian Choral Society of Balassagyarmat, founded in 1863) became Balázs Raák Roman Catholic cantor. The second choir-master of the newly formed Balassagyarmati Dalegylet (= Liedverein) of 1872 was (from 1873 for one year) Károly Szkladányi Roman Catholic cantor. These choirs were male choirs, the Balassagyarmati Női Dalkör ( Female Choral Circle of Balassagyarmat) was founded in 1884, which made it possible to perform works for mixed choir - in the church as well .
It is known that the Balassagyarmat Dalegylet participated in the consecration ceremonies of the Catholic Church's 4 new bells, on 24th November 1889. When in 1891 the Civic choirs suspended their activities, „in 1892 Catholic cantor and organist Károly Szkladányi organised a mixed church chorus, partly from members of the Dalegylet and Női Dalkör, and partly employing new singers. This mixed chorus has taken the role of the choral society in ecclesiastical programmes.” - as it can be read in the history of the Balassagyarmati Dalegylet.
József Éder (Magyarized name from 1905: József Erdélyi; 1878-1952) cantor, born in Léva (at present Slovakia), came to Balassagyarmat in 1898; during his 40-year work as a chorus-master the choral and musical life of Balassagyarmat went through a great improvement. Under his leadership, the Dalegylet and the church's chorus meant practically the same ensemble. In 1904 the Orchestra of the Dalegylet was formed, which frequently participated in the so-called musical masses, and concerts of church music. There were musical masses only on the greatest ecclesiastical festivals. The male chorus was occasionally completed by female members in the 1910s, and from 1920 on the mixed construction became more and more frequent. The repertory had also changed by the 1920s: apart from the ordinary dalárda-material, they quite often performed classical and contemporary pieces. In 1924, the high-level activities of József Erdélyi were honoured with the Franz Liszt bronze-plaquette, distributed for the first time in that year by the Országos Dalosszövetség (National Choral Society); he was its provincial co-leader between 1920-27, national leader in 1927, then national co-leader and regional leader until 1936. The top of the ecclesiastical repertory in the Balassagyarmati Dalegylet is represented by the following works: in 1927 they performed Haydn's The seven words of Christ on the rood-tree, in 1936 Kodály's choirwork Jesus and the pedlars, in 1937 they performed excerpts from Liszt's St. Elisabeth legend. The chorus was in its prime in the 1930s. This can be proved by some contest-triumphs: regional I. prize in 1932 and 1935, national I. prize in 1938.
Alajos Straub (1907-78) cantor, born in Nagymányok, came to Balassagyarmat in 1937. He started working with the chorus with the assistance of József Erdélyi, which work was made impossible by the series of call-ups to the world war in 1942. In 1946, after the war, he started reorganizing the Balassagyarmati Dalegylet. His main intention was for the town not to let those successes achieved by József Erdélyi get lost. In 1947 the civic choral society was formed once again, owing to the organizing work of József Erdélyi and his son, László. As its choir-master, the grammar-school director and nationally known songwriter Szerdahelyi János was appointed. With the leadership of Alajos Straub the chorus of the Catholic parish was also established. However, for the sake of more successful functioning, it was soon incorporated into the civic choral society. The directorate of the choral society appointed József Erdélyi as eternal honorary choir-master, Alajos Straub as choir-master and János Szerdahelyi as bandmaster.
A „choral calendar” survived from 1948, which reports the training of a new piece.
The 1948 issue of the Balassagyarmat Catholic Almanach, after mentioning the ecclesiastical performances, states that the achievements of the society „do not resemble the cultural character of a provincial town, but rather reflect the high standard musical and singing culture of metropolitan churches and episcopal cathedrals ”.
From 1948 Communist and socialist forces gained bigger grounds in Balassagyarmat, due to the political frays. With the advance of them, those communities which had ecclesiastical relations got into a hard situation. Alajos Straub had to decide, whether to conduct his ecclesiastic activities as a cantor - and thus get into the background -, or to separate himself and continue teaching and conducting the Choral society. He chose the cantorship. He kept on leading a chorus, however, many members dropped out, as from a political point of view it was not respectable to sing in a church-chorus. This was the hardest period in the history of the chorus .
The life of the Balassagyarmat church chorus was revived in 1969 by the chorus-master János Varga (*1939), born in Terény. It is his merit that, from the beginning of the 1970s, every Sunday the chorus has been singing on one of the masses (which is even nation-wide a curiosity), and it was under his leadership that the chorus adopted the name of St. Felician. (St. Felician is a martyr, whose body lies on one of the church's side-altars, in a glass-coffin.) In 1977 he asked father Dénes Szedő to write a hymn of St. Felician. The repertory of the chorus - especially in the 1970s - was influenced by the liberal eclecticism of the casting about after the II. Vatican synod: popular church-music, of polyphonic pieces mainly the works of 20th century Hungarian composers, some items of the Small Hungarian Usualis.
Our church has given place to cantor-training courses, the lectures being held by nationally known experts, such as: László Trady, Péter Ullmann.
János Varga, during his 32-year mastership has arranged several church concerts, with the participation of guest musicians and the St. Felician Chorus. In this period among the performers were:
organists: Ferenc Gergely, Endre Kovács, István Koloss, András Virágh, István Baróti, Judit Hajdók, István Ruppert, Anasztázia Bednarik, Gábor Lehotka, Xavér Varnus, László Attila Almássy, Lajos Zeke, Gábor Bence, Hyun Hee (South-Korea)
singers: Etelka Csavlek, Katalin Pitti, Szilvia Sass, Kodályné Sarolta Péczeli, Laura Faragó, Éva Andor, Rózsa Kozma, József Simándy, András Molnár, Tamás Gyarmati Tóth, Tamás Csurja, Boldizsár Keönch, the Children's Choir of the Opera-house, with Gupcsó Gyöngyvér conducting.
instrumental soloists: István Kern - violin, Ferenz Petz, Miklós Tóth - trumpet, Mária Demeter - cello, Zoltán Demeter - flute
In 2001 the conduct of the chorus was taken over by József Zsolt Unterwéger (*1966), who was born in Balassagyarmat, and his church-music studies sprang from the St. Felician Chorus. Between 1980-84 and 1988-93 he frequently accompanied the chorus conducted by János Varga, and as an organist, participated in concerts of church music. As a chorus-master, he thinks it to be the most important role of the chorus to provide the Sunday masses with weekly service, to which he tries to give liturgical values by the regular use of singing book Éneklő Egyház ( Singing Church ). Considering polyphonic chorus-material, he principally leans on 16-17th century light classical pieces. Church concerts are also continued, the chorus has made several guest-appearances (for more details see the Concerts entry).