The Oxford Pro Musica Singers brought their 30th anniversary year to a close with a celebratory concert at the University Church last week - and what better music to choose for a celebration than two of Handel's Coronation anthems?

Opening with The King Shall Rejoice and closing with Zadok the Priest, the choir displayed the technical assurance that has made it one of the most respected choirs in the city, conducted with customary flair by Michael Smedley. Both anthems were performed with appropriate joyfulness and panache, to ensure a memorable start and finish to the evening. Sandwiched in between was an eclectic set of pieces, some marking the fact that the occasion also marked St Cecilia's Day, but all allowing the choir to demonstrate its full range of skills.

Most of the pieces selected hold special significance for the choir. The King Shall Rejoice was the opening piece at the choir's first-ever concert on November 22, 1977, in the same building. Another piece, Gabriel Jackson's Cecilia Virgo, was premiered by the BBC Singers in October 2000, and given its second performance by the Oxford Pro Musica Singers a few weeks later, at their St Cecilia's Day concert. Strangely, the choir sounded unusually tentative at the beginning of the piece last week; the sopranos in particular seemed to waver a little, and didn't always hit their top notes cleanly. They sounded similarly tentative at the beginning of Benjamin Britten's Hymn to St Cecilia, but improved as the piece progressed. They were on safer ground with two Bach motets, Lobet den Herrn and Jauchzet dem Herm, but one of the main highlights of the evening was Bob Chilcott's stirring The making of the drum, commissioned by the Oxford Pro Musica in 1997 for its 20th anniversary, and here given a heartfelt and confident performance.

On this showing, there can be little doubt that the choir will be around to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2017.