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!
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 Рthe glorious Requiem by Maurice Durufl̩.
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.
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.
Ellen and Abigail sang the Sull’aria duet from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and the beautiful Flower duet from Lakmé by Delibes – a highlight for many.
(nb Ellen is on the right and Abigail on the left of the photos.)
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!
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 Musical and Amicable Society.
Kevin Gill – Organ
The competition for the second Birmingham Festival Choral Society Oratorio Prize, is to be held on Monday 30th October at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. The competition will take place between 7 and 8.45pm in the Recital Hall. You are invited to be in the audience to support the singers and enjoy this special event in the BFCS calendar!
Talented singers from the Conservatoire will compete for the prize which includes a trophy, a financial prize and a future engagement to sing the solo part at a Birmingham Festival Society Concert.
The winner of the 2022 Oratorio Prize was Baritone Jia Huang, and an account of that competition can be found here.
Directions to the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire can be found here.
Singing in a choir brings many benefits for body and mind, as Birmingham Festival Choral Society singers will confirm. We all look forward to singing on a Wednesday evening – and the feeling after giving a concert is tremendous! Added to that, it’s a great place to make friends, through sharing Wednesday rehearsals, weekend workshops and tours abroad.
Would you like to give us a try? Come along to our Open Rehearsal on Wednesday 6th September, where you will find a friendly welcome. If you come at 7pm there will be enough time to meet you and introduce you to a singing buddy who can guide you through the rehearsal. This is a ‘taster session’ to see if you feel this is the choir for you – there is no obligation.
If you’re not able to make it to the Open Rehearsal, you will still be welcome at any of our other Wednesday rehearsals.
Click to find out more about joining our choir.
Watch our video to see why we love Birmingham Festival Choral Society!
Birmingham Festival Choral Society singers and supporters always love ‘Out of Town’ concerts. Our summer concert this year was extra special, as it was the first time we had given a concert in the lovely Pershore Abbey.
Our concert, ‘And all the people rejoiced’, included many choral favourites. The two halves of the concert each began with stirring works which had been heard recently in the Coronation of King Charles: I was Glad and Zadok the Priest (from which the title of the concert was taken). There was another royal connection through Tavener’s Song for Athene, which had made such an impact on worldwide audiences in 1997 when it was sung as the coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales, was taken out of Westminster Abbey.
Three of the lovely works we sang were pieces that had kept us going through zoom rehearsals during the lockdown, culminating in ‘virtual choir’ recordings. How much better it was to sing Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine, Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus and Rheinberger’s Kyrie to a live audience in such a beautiful setting!
The concert also included works which were new to us: The joyful Jubilate Deo by Peeters and Laudate Dominum by Dupre, the sublime Ave Verum Corpus by Mawby, and Evening Hymn by Gardiner.
Alexandra Eve Wynne, our soprano soloist, sang beautifully as always. She sang Mozart’s Alleluia and Laudate Dominum (the latter with the choir). Alexandra and the choir also sang Mendelssohn’s Hear my Prayer/O for the wings of a dove, which we had recently performed together on tour in the Rhineland of Germany.
One of the exciting things about this concert was that the abbey organ was brand new. It had been installed at a cost of £800,000 just a couple of months before. Kevin Gill showed it off to its fullest splendor in his two magnificent organ solos – the 1st movement from Rheinberger’s Organ sonata in F minor, and the Toccata in F minor by Widor.
The final credit must go to the maestro who planned the concert, rehearsed the choir and introduced all the items at the concert – David Wynne. His high standards produced a marvellous concert, enjoyed by the choir and the capacity audience in the Abbey.
We would like to thank Michael Whitefoot for this fabulous set of photographs of our Pershore Abbey concert. You can see more photos from our rehearsal and concert in Pershore and Lichfield last year on Michael’s website.
Tuesday 6th December was an important date in the BFCS calendar – the Carol Service for Crisis, the charity for the homeless. This event, held at St Martin’s in the Bull Ring, has become a regular fixture for our choir, and we are pleased to help to swell the congregational singing, and to perform a couple of Christmas carols too.
The stories of the Crisis members are very moving, reminding us how homelessness can affect people from all walks of life. It is sobering to reflect on how the situation is still as bad as ever, and the charity’s initial aim to end homelessness is as far away as ever. It is, however, inspiring to hear how Crisis can help people with training to get back into work, as well as help with benefits and finding accommodation.
Thanks to the staff of Crisis for sharing photos and these two videos – one from the service and one from their Christmas Hamper distribution project (both with a background of BFCS singing ‘Ding dong merrily on high’.)
If you feel moved to donate to Crisis this Christmas, follow this link.
BLOOPERS…
The fun of rehearsing ‘Infant Holy’ at the same time as Crisis members were rehearsing ‘All you need is love’!
The Birmingham Festival Choral Society performance of Elijah on 5th November was a thrilling occasion, with many audience members saying that it was the best BFCS concert they had ever heard! The choir, orchestra and soloists were all on top form, performing to a full house at the Ruddock Performing Arts Centre.
We are very grateful to Ian Howarth for this review of the concert
Many thanks also to Alfred White for the photos of a concert to remember.
The role of Elijah was sung with great dramatic effect by opera baritone Byron Jackson. A star performance! Our reviewer said that Byron’s singing of Elijah’s song of despair: ‘It is enough’ was one of the most moving performances that he had ever heard. Byron’s position high above the choir and orchestra increased the drama.
Molly Barker (Jezebel, an angel), Alexandra Wynne (widow, angel), Polly Stirland (youth, angel) and Peter Davoren (Obadiah, Ahab) were also first class. Alexandra’s performance was even more impressive when people realised that she had stepped in at 24 hours notice!
An E mail sent by a member of the audience said that The soloists were ALL superb – and I was brought up on Isobel Baillie and Kathleen Ferrier, spent some of my earliest wages on the recording with Janet Baker, Nicolai Gedda, and Fischer-Dieskau, and have since acquired the Renee Fleming / Bryn Terfel version! The trio and quartets were exquisite, and it was such a good idea to bring the soloists in for the last few bars of the final chorus, not least for the tenors, who will I’m sure have been grateful for the help with that sustained top A after an evening of very hard work.
The trio of angels singing ‘Lift thine eyes to the mountains’ was another highlight of the concert, as shown by the comments on social media below this photo:
Voices from heaven (TP), Spine tingling, absolutely incredible beauty (MF), Beautiful (NW), This was so movingly sung. Absolutely superb. Thank you to the three of you. (JA). A truly wonderful evening. Our friends who attended were ‘blown away’ by the performance with one saying it was the best concert of BFCS’s that he’s attended….(DM)
It was wonderful to sing those big choruses accompanied by the Central England Camerata and Kevin Gill on the organ. The individual instruments brought so much depth to the arias and slow movements too.
Don’t forget the choir, who sang their hearts out, just as their predecessors had done at the Premiere in 1846. We can see why this marvellous work has been such a favourite with choral societies to this day.
Another extract from that Email sent by a member of the audience…
Fantastic performance of Elijah on Saturday night. It’s a work I know well and love greatly, and the trip over from Coventry proved more than worth the effort.
The choir was excellent, and certainly enacted that great rule of performance – make sure you start and end well! That first cry for help and the triumphant final Amen were both exhilarating.
(Click on photos to open in full.)
Finally, a special mention goes to David Wynne, who prepared the choir so well, and brought such a wonderful collection of musicians together to perform under his leadership. Thank you David!
