Christmas is coming! The Birmingham Festival Choral Society Christmas concert will be held on Sunday 4th December at St Anne’s Church, Park Hill, Moseley. Take note of the 4.30pm start time
Our main work is Wassail! Carols of Comfort and Joy by Alexander L’Estrange – a lovely medley of Christmas carols written for adult and children’s choirs, accompanied by a jazz/folk band.
Listen to the composer introducing the work:
Adult choir: Birmingham Festival Choral Society
Children’s Choir: Eversfield Preparatory School
Band:
Andy Derrick: Double Bass Bethany Toulson: Recorder Julian Powell: Percussion Karen Street: Accordion Kevin Gill: Piano and organ
There will also be carols for the audience to sing, Christmas music from the performers – and a visit from FATHER CHRISTMAS!
Our Christmas concert on Sunday 5th December will be a real treat! It will include Christmas music, ranging from sacred to popular, from an adult choir, a children’s choir and a brass ensemble. It is also rumoured that a certain gentleman in red might make an appearance!
The adult choir is, of course, Birmingham Festival Choral Society, and the children’s choir is Eversfield Preparatory Singers – both led by David Wynne and accompanied by Kevin Gill. A dash of sparkle will be added by the Midland Brass Ensemble. With families in mind, the concert will start at 4.30pm and will be no longer than 75 minutes long. Christmassy refreshments will be provided after the concert.
We are looking forward to singing the lovely carol ‘From the Stable Floor’ in the presence of the local composer, EA Walker.
There will be an opportunity to donate to Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice, the very worthwhile charity chosen by the singers of Eversfield School.
The Christmas concert will also take place in a new venue – Our Lady of the Wayside Church, 566 Stratford Road, Shirley, B90 4AY. Click for map. The church is noteworthy for its architecture and works of art. Details of the church, the artworks and their symbolism can be found in this article on their website.
We look forward to sharing the best of the Christmas season with you!
Last Saturday, 14th December, David Wynne put on his Christmas Suit (!) and led the singers of Birmingham Festival Choral Society and their friends and family in an evening of Christmas music and readings.
It’s hard to imagine a Carol Concert without music by Rutter! Our audience was treated to three of Rutter’s carols, as well as Christmas music by Tchaikovsky, Joubert, and many arrangements by David Willcocks. One highlight was The Three Kings, by Cornelius, with the baritone solo sung beautifully by Barry Jones , standing in at short notice for a croaky David Wynne. David’s voice was good enough, though to read out Christmas cracker jokes between the items!
We also heard readings from A Christmas Carol, (Dickens), The Oxen (Hardy) and Journey of the Magi (Rust)
We were pleased to have a chance to sing Ring the Bells by Paul Fincham once more. We were one of 15 choirs singing this new carol in performances on Saturday 14th December – the listing on the London Philharmonic website showed many performances during December, with all proceeds from the sale of the music going to the charity Crisis.
Our charity for this year was The Cameron Grant Memorial Trust, set up after Cameron took his own life in 2014. Cameron’s father told us how the charity aims to support young people with mental health difficulties, and to encourage them to seek help and talk about how they feel. Our generous audience and singers put £600 in the collecting buckets.
Our concert finished with an enthusiastic rendition of Jingle Bells, with members of the audience invited to join in by shaking their keys! Then it was time for the mulled wine and mince pies and a chance to chat to friends and family.
We are delighted to present the flyers for our four main concerts in the 2019/20 season. They cover a wide range of choral music, including works by the Baroque composer, Handel, the 19th Century Operatic composer, Rossini and 20th and 21st century composers inspired by Jazz and Blues.
Make sure that you save the dates – not forgetting the very popular Christmas concert.
Whether singing or listening, we hope that you will enjoy them all!
Birmingham Festival Choral Society’s annual Christmas charity carol concert was held at Ladywood ARC last Saturday. The weather was bitter outside, but the atmosphere inside the church was warm and welcoming.
The concert started with a welcome: ‘Wolcom Yule’, from Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, arranged for higher voices:
The concert ended with festive refreshments- mince pies and mulled wine – and a chance to chat to our guests and put some money in the collecting buckets for BID services.
Many thanks to Mel, Marilyn and Bryan who sent us photos from the audience.
The friendly Birmingham choir singing the world's best choral music.
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