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
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.
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.
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.
St John’s and St Peter’s Church, Birmingham, B16 8TF
 Sunday 8th December 2024, 4.30pm
Come to our concert of Christmas music, carols and Christmas refreshments. We are also expecting a visit from a certain Christmas gentleman!
Birmingham Festival Choral Society will be joined by the choir of Bournville Village Primary School, directed by Rachael Stidwell. Kevin Gill will be accompanying from both the piano and organ, and David Wynne is the Music Director.
A collection will be taken for St Basils, the charity helping young people find and keep a home. This charity was chosen by the Bournville Village Primary School choir.
One week until our Music from America concert! Come and listen to a feast of exciting and beautiful music by American composers. Click here to see the full vocal programme.
Our venue, St George’s Church Edgbaston, is a well known landmark, situated on the island by Simpson’s Restaurant. As well as street parking, we have negotiated free parking in St George’s School, Calthorpe Road, and Edgbaston High School for Girls, further down Westbourne Road. Finally, there are public car parks (payable using the RinGo app) associated with The High Field and The Physician, both in Highfield Road.
16th November 2024. 7.30pm.
Music from America
St George’s Church Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3DQ.
Birmingham Festival Choral Society Conductor: David Wynne Piano and organ: Kevin Gill Percussion: Tom Peverelle
On Sunday 14th July we gathered together in the Ruddock Performing Arts Centre for an wonderful afternoon of opera music. The choir sang a wide variety of opera choruses, from baroque composers Handel and Purcell, to Verdi and Wagner. Verdi’s Anvil chorus and Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves were particular favourites.
We had really enjoyed leaning these wonderful melodies over the past term – and the struggles of learning words in Russian, French, Italian and German finally seemed worthwhile. We all enjoyed being opera singers for an afternoon!
Click to expand any photo
One of the special delights of this concert was that it featured Ellen Smith, the 2023 prize winner of the BFCS Oratorio Competition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Part of the prize was a booking to sing at a BFCS concert, and this concert gave the perfect opportunity to showcase her wonderful skills in singing operatic works from composers such as Bizet, Handel and Walton.
The second soloist, Abigail Baylis, had also been a finalist in the Oratorio Competition, reminding us how high the standard was in that final. Her solos ranged from the pathos of Purcell’s Dido’s Lament to a fearsome bridezilla in It’s my wedding by Jonathan Dove.
The audience was treated to a surprise when one of our basses, Jason Schaub, whipped out a gold patterned jacket and came forward to sing the wonderful Tchaikovsky aria Vy tak pechalny, from Pique Dame! Jason also sang Verdi’s Alzati eri tu macchiavi in the second half. Very few of the singers had realised what a wonderful talent we have amongst us – Jason had been a professional musician and singer before taking up his academic career at the University of Birmingham.
In contrast, the talent of our accompanist , Kevin Gill, is well known to our singers and audience. Kevin can turn his hand to whatever style of music we perform – whether it be traditional choral masses and requiems, choral jazz or opera. While the choir took a rest to listen to the solos, Kevin was accompanying every single item in the concert to his usual high standard.
Another person who didn’t have a chance to take a break was our Music Director, David Wynne, who was conducting the whole concert. He also introduced all the items, and you can see from the expressions of the choir that there was plenty of humour!
The tenors and basses had their chance to shine in The Soldier’s Chorus from Gounod’s Faust, and the Priest’s Chorus from The Magic Flute by Mozart. Nick Lampert and Jason Schaub (basses) and James Bullin (tenor) also had short solos in the Waltz Scene from Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky.
The sopranos and altos had to change demeanor from being peasant girls to witches in their two choruses! They sang The chorus of the Peasant Girls, from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and Verdi’s Witches Chorus from Macbeth.
The final applause came and flowers were distributed to all the performers – but then an encore! A semichorus stepped forward from the choir, to be joined by Abigail and Ellen, and we sang the magnificent rousing Easter Hymn from Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni.
An E mail from an audience member who had travelled from London for the concert said “…soloists and choir were terrific and the Mascagni encore was even more thrilling, in my book, than the version I heard a few months ago at Covent Garden”.
What an ending to a wonderful concert!
Photo credit: Mike FordPhoto credit: Kyle Simms
Many thanks to Alfred White who took all of the photographs, except for the three otherwise labelled.
Come and hear the majestic space of Lichfield Cathedral filled with the music of Bach’s supreme masterpiece, the B minor Mass!
The Mass is a culmination of Bach’s lifetime of composition, with many of his pieces brought together to form this final major work. A Catholic Mass written by a Protestant composer, the B minor Mass is a profound musical expression of the Christian faith for believers of all backgrounds.
The Birmingham Festival Choral Society is looking forward to singing this wonderful work with The Musical and Amicable Society, the renowned orchestra of period instrument specialists, and four superb vocal soloists.
Saturday 16th March 7.30pm.
Birmingham Festival Choral Society
David Wynne – Conductor
Emilia Morton (Soprano), Martha McLorinan (Mezzo soprano), Jack Granby  (Tenor), Andrew Tipple (Bass).
The second Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Oratorio competition, sponsored by Birmingham Festival Choral Society, took place on Monday evening, 30th October 2024. The six finalists treated the audience in the recital hall of the conservatoire to an evening of performances of the highest standard, singing music written by composers ranging from Bach and Handel to Durufle and Joubert.
BFCS’s big claim to fame is that we were the choir that performed the premiere of Elijah in 1846, so it was particularly good to hear three solos from that popular oratorio.
Ellen Smith, mezzo-soprano, was placed first, winning a financial prize, a trophy and a future engagement with BFCS. Ellen’s programme consisted of Es ist vollbract , from Bach’s St John Passion, Yet can I hear that dulcet lay, from the Choice of Hercules by Handel, and Pie Jesu from Durufle’s Requiem.
Second prize went to baritone Oliver Barker, who sang Lord God of Abraham from Mendelssohn’s Elijah, The Man he killed from the South of the line by John Joubert and Revenge, revenge, Timotheus cries, from Handel’s Alexander’s Feast.
Tenor Joe Yates was placed Third, after singing Domine Deus from Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle, The enemy said, from Handel’s Israel in Egypt, Deposuit potentes from Bach’s Magnificat and finally If with all your hearts from Mendelssohn’s Elijah
Abigail BaylisDaniel MarlesGabriella Rea Fanyvesi
Tenor Daniel Marles and sopranos Abigail Baylis and Gabriella Rea Fanyvesi also delighted the audience with arias by de Lalande, Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart and Mendelssohn.
All 17 performances were expertly accompanied by Jonathan French on the piano.
The adjudicator for the Oratorio competition was our BFCS Music Director, David Wynne. Many in the audience were glad that they were not in David’s shoes, as it was so difficult to chose between the singers! Tracy Piotrowska , BFCS Vice-Chair made the presentations.
Congratulations to all the singers for such great performances. We’ll enjoy following their future careers in music. We particularly look forward to working with Ellen when she takes up her prize as the soprano soloist at one of our future concerts.
Postscript May 2024: Ellen Smith and Abigail Baylis were the soloists at our ‘Opera in the Afternoon’ concert on Sunday 14th July 2024.
The friendly Birmingham choir singing the world's best choral music.
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