We are delighted to introduce our Choral Scholars for the 26/27 season, Emily Clifford and Polly Stirland.
This year, the successful candidates were both sopranos, and the soprano section of the choir has already felt the benefit of having them singing amongst their ranks! We hope that Polly and Emily will enjoy the experience of singing big choral works in a large choir which contains a range of singers from new starters to those with decades of choral experience. In contrast, we look forward to future opportunities to hear our scholars singing in small ensembles or solos.
Emily comes from Kent and has just started her second year studying vocal performance at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
“Having previously sung in choral societies, I am incredibly excited to get back to singing larger-scale works again. I am delighted to be involved with BFCS this year as a scholar, and I am really looking forward to the wonderful opportunities and experiences the year will bring”
Polly grew up in Derby and has recently completed a degree in Musical Theatre and Dance at Performer’s College, Birmingham. She is in this year’s cohort of the Genesis Sixteen and is currently a member of the National Youth Choir and National Youth Voices.
“In 2022 I took part in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Birmingham Festival Choral Society playing the roles of the youth and an angel, so I’m really excited to be involved with the choir this year and to be surrounded by people that love music as much as I do! I am very grateful for this opportunity!”
Photo: Polly singing with Alexandra Wynne and Molly Barker in the Elijah concert.
We all wish Polly and Emily success and happiness in their year singing with Birmingham Festival Choral Society!
Refreshed from our summer break, the singers of Birmingham Festival Choral Society are looking forward to starting rehearsals again. The first two rehearsals, on the 2nd and 9th September, will be Open Rehearsals, when prospective singers are encouraged to come and give us a try and see if it is the choir for you. Come at 7pm and you will receive a friendly welcome and be introduced to someone on your voice part who you can sit with.
The concert posters below show the fabulous music that we will be learning in the next two terms. The concerts will be held in the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire – a special treat!
To find out more about joining our choir, check out this page. We hope to meet you soon at one of our rehearsals.
Join us at St George’s Church Edgbaston on 11th July for an uplifting evening of spirituals, rhythmic and soulful. We’re really looking forward to singing with the mezzo soprano Lufuno Ndou and musicians playing bass guitar, drums, piano and saxophone!
The main item in our concert will be John Rutter’s arrangements of a variety of spirituals in his work ‘Feel the Spirit‘.
Other items include:
Hogan – Battle of Jericho
Hogan – My soul’s been anchored
Hogan – Elijah Rock
Washburn – Balm in Gilead
Bartholomew – Little Innocent Lamb
Bartholomew – De animals a-comin’
Chilcott – Didn’t it rain
Chilcott – Every Time I feel the spirit
Chilcott – All my trials
FEEL THE SPIRIT
Saturday 11th July 2026 19.30
St George’s Church, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3DQ
Birmingham Festival Choral Society
David Wynne – conductor Lufuno Ndou – Mezzo soprano
Kevin Gill – piano Jim Griffiths – bass guitar Julian Powell – drums Nicky Fox – saxophone
Join us in Leamington on Saturday 21st March for a musical voyage through works inspired by the sea!
Experience the vastness of the ocean and the spirit of exploration in Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony – a masterpiece for choir, soloists and orchestra, inspired by the poetry of Walt Whitman.
The theme of the sea is continued in Stanford’s Songs of the Fleet, a stirring early 20th century patriotic song cycle for choir and baritone, reflecting Britain’s strong naval tradition.
As an extra treat, our soprano soloist will sing The Seal Man by Rebecca Clarke, with piano accompaniment.
A Sea Symphony Vaughan Williams
All Saints Parish Church, Leamington Spa, CV31 1AA
Sat 21 Mar 2026, 7:30PM
Birmingham Festival Choral Society Leamington Chamber Orchestra
David Wynne – Conductor, Kevin Gill – Piano and organ Carrie-Ann Williams – soprano, Jamie Hall – Baritone
The first rehearsal of term is always an Open Rehearsal and Wednesday 7th January is no exception. Come along to Selly Oak Methodist Church B29 6HT at about 7pm, where you will receive a friendly welcome. Experience a rehearsal with us, and see if our choir feels right for you. More details can be found on our ‘Join our Choir’ webpage.
This term we will be rehearsing Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony for performance in Leamington Spa on 21st March. What a treat!
Join us for an hour of joyful Christmas music, followed by seasonal refreshments!
The carols and Christmas songs will be sung by the Birmingham Festival Choral Society (music director David Wynne) and the Bournville Village Primary School Choir (conductor Rachael Stidwill). Our organist/pianist is Kevin Gill.
It is even rumoured that Father Christmas might make an appearance!
A speaker from the charity ‘Helping Hands of Birmingham’, will tell us about their work amongst homeless people in Birmingham, and we will all have a chance to make donations at the end of the concert.
On Saturday 15th November St George’s Church, Edgbaston was filled with the sound of beautiful French choral music.
The main works in the first half were Louis Vierne’s Messe Solennelle, and Jean Dattas’ Messe ‘Cum Jubilo’. Sylvie Dattas, one of our sopranos, had introduced us to her father’s music when we went on tour to Burgundy in 2016, and we were delighted to be able to sing it again. Fauré’s much-loved Cantique de Jean Racine brought the first half to a close.
The second half of the concert was the main item – the glorious Requiem by Maurice Duruflé.
Rhiain Taylor (mezzo-soprano) and Matthew Nuttall (baritone) treated us to some French songs, in addition to their wonderful solo parts in the Requiem. They were accompanied by Kevin Gill, who also played the complex and challenging organ accompaniment to the choral works.
The whole concert was prepared and conducted by our talented Music Director, David Wynne.
And now for the applause…
Thank you to Alfred White for taking these great photos at the concert.
We invite you to a concert of folksongs and madrigals – perfect for a summer afternoon!
“MIDSUMMER FOLKSONGS” features a selection of songs from the English madrigal school and includes popular pieces by Weelkes, Morley, Wilbye and Gibbons, together with folk song arrangements by Holst and Vaughan Williams. The composer and conductor Sir John Rutter, familiar to many for his much-loved Christmas carols, is represented in the concert by two extended song cycles: “The Sprig of Thyme”, an arrangement of traditional folk songs; and “Birthday Madrigals”, which incorporates settings of poems by Shakespeare and others.
April 12th 2025 was a night to remember! A choir of 194 singers and a full orchestra came together to perform Elgar’s choral masterpiece Dream of Gerontius, under the inspiring direction of David Wynne.
The planning for this project had begun long ago, when we started talking about what would be a suitable work to mark the 175th anniversary of the formation of the Birmingham Festival Choral Society. Joining with other choirs would be wonderful – but would we be able to find a venue big enough? In the end, Covid and lockdowns intervened, and it didn’t seem possible.
Fast forward to 2025, and here we were, celebrating BFCS’s 180th anniversary by singing Dream of Gerontius in All Saints Church Leamington Spa! Our fellow singers in the large chorus came from Coventry Philharmonic Choir (MD David Wynne) and the Athersone Choral Society (MD Kevin Gill). Singing such a major work with wonderful professional soloists and the Leamington Chamber Orchestra was a great experience.
The evening had started with a talk by David McLoughlin, Emeritus Fellow, Birmingham Newman University. He put John Henry Newman’s whole poem in context , from the thoughts and feelings of Gerontius before his death, to his journey in the afterlife before finally coming before the Almighty. Performing the work as a whole, rather than in sections for rehearsal, was very inspiring, whether one took it from the point of view of Christian faith, or from the point of view of seeing Elgar’s musical vision fulfilled.
We were very fortunate that a singer of such quality as Matthew was able to come at relatively short notice, when Gwion Thomas, the baritone advertised on the posters, had to withdraw.
Kevin Gill also played a major part in bringing this piece to fruition. He prepared the Atherstone Choral Society for the concert, as well as accompanying the Birmingham Festival Choral Society’s rehearsals and playing the organ in the performance.
The Leamington Chamber Orchestra lifted the performance to greater heights!
David Wynne was the man who brought it all together, visualising the initial concept, spending many hours training his choirs to such a high standard, and finally bringing out the very best of the choirs and orchestra at the performance. Bravo!
The final important component of a wonderful concert is an appreciative audience! The tickets completely sold out and a handful of people had to sit in the half-price overflow seats behind the choir.
Here are a couple of examples of the feedback we received after the concert:
….What a wonderful evening and so beautifully and brilliantly performed. It was so moving. I totally loved the way the dynamics came across, given the large choir and orchestra, it was unbelievably beautiful and produced quite a stunning effect. I got quite emotional several times, especially during the second half…
FH former BFCS singer
I would just like to say how much I enjoyed the performance of ‘Dream of Gerontius’ on Saturday evening. The performance was stunning and the organisation of the event was also very professional, and for me the evening will leave a lasting impression.
Birmingham Festival Choral Society will be joining Coventry Philharmonic Choir and Atherstone Choral Society to perform Elgar’s magnificent choral setting of John Henry Newman’s poem, the Dream of Gerontius. We will be accompanied by the Leamington Chamber Orchestra.
The concert will take place at All Saints’ Church, Leamington Spa, on Saturday 12th April 2025, 7.30pm, and will be preceded at 7pm by a talk by David McLoughlin, Emeritus Fellow, Birmingham Newman University.
Birmingham Festival Choral Society (celebrating its 180th Anniversary) Atherstone Choral Society Coventry Philharmonic Choir Leamington Chamber Orchestra David Wynne – conductor
Louise Crane – Mezzo soprano Tom Raskin – Tenor Matthew Nuttall – Baritone
This 2025 performance of Dream of Gerontius will, of course, be very well prepared and performed to a high standard. The premiere in 1900 was the complete opposite! An interesting history of the background to the composition of the poem by John Henry Newman, the commissioning of Elgar to write the work for the Birmingham Festival and the first performance can be found here on the Birmingham City Council website.
We recommend that you buy your tickets soon, as this is proving to be a very popular concert and the large number of performers means that seating is limited.
The friendly Birmingham choir singing the world's best choral music.
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