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.
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.
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’!
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!
We hope that you will enjoy the images and music on this recording of Paul Fincham’s ‘Ring the Bells’, from the BFCS virtual choir. Hear the swinging bells in the different voice parts!
The composer wrote this Christmas piece in 2019 to raise money for ‘Crisis’, the charity for homeless people. Birmingham Festival Choral Society sang it at last year’s Crisis Carol Service in St Martin’s in the Bull Ring, and this year we’ve sent them this recording for their use.
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.
Our Christmas Concert is nearly here! It’s one of our favourite times of the year – Christmas music, mince pies and mulled wine in the warm and attractive venue of Ladywood ARC. We do hope that many friends, new and old, will be able to join us.
We will be supporting a charity that has grown out of great personal sadness. The Cameron Grant Memorial Trust has been founded to raise awareness and support mental health in young people. Please give generously.
Birmingham Festival Choral Society are pleased to be supporting Crisis, the charity fighting to end homelessness, at their Christmas Carol Service in St Martin’s in the Bullring.
To quote from their website:
Join us for Crisis Skylight Birmingham’s Carol Service at St Martin in the Bull Ring for an evening of carols, mince-pies and drinks as we gather together to kick-start our Season of Wellbeing and Celebration, honouring our achievements of the past and looking forward to a future without homelessness.
Tuesday 3rd December 2019 St Martin in the Bull Ring, Edgbaston St, Birmingham B5 5BB
Carol Service: 6pm – 7:00pm Refreshments: 7:00pm – 7:30pm
This is a free, public event but please click here to reserve a ticket so we can make sure we have enough mince pies for everyone!
To learn more about this worthwhile cause, please have a look at the Crisis website.
BFCS, and many other choirs across the country, will be singing the new carol ‘Ring the Bells for Christmas’. The composer, Paul Fincham, is donating all of his royalties from the purchase of the sheet music to ‘Crisis’. We are very pleased to support this fund raising venture.
UPDATE: They did it! The sponsored walk to raise money in memory of Alan Clawley took place on Saturday 5th October. £2022 was raised. Scroll down to read all about it!
Barry, one of our tenors, is doing a sponsored walk on Saturday 5th October in memory of our friend and fellow tenor Alan Clawley, who died in April 2018. The money raised will be split 50/50 between the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue CIO, a charity supported by Alan, his widow Hazel and family, and Birmingham Festival Choral Society, of which both Hazel and Alan have been longstanding members. Click here if you would like to donate.
Alan was an architect who was a passionate champion of Birmingham’s post-war architecture. As a Green Party activist he wanted to see buildings reused in a sustainable way rather than cast aside. He was very active in the community, and was described as ‘a “quiet colossus”; a thoroughly dependable man, the sort of person who just took care of the things that others wouldn’t volunteer for’.
Read the full Birmingham Live tribute to Alan here.
Barry’s Walk will take place on Saturday 5 October and is about 15 miles. He will be joined by a number of fellow singers. They plan to walk to venues in Birmingham where our choir has performed. They’ll start at Grand Central Station, then to Carrs Lane Church, St Martin’s in the Bull Ring, St Alban’s Highgate, Trefoil House, St George’s Edgbaston, Edgbaston High School, King Edward’s School, Bramall Music Building at Birmingham University, Lordswood Girls School Harborne, St Augustine’s Edgbaston, The Oratory, Ladywood ARC, St Paul’s in the Jewellery Quarter, St Philip’s Cathedral and back to Grand Central. Please support Barry and his friends and know that your donation will be split equally between two worthwhile, but very different charities
If you would prefer to give in cash, rather than donating online, please speak to a choir member, or E mail fundraising@bfcs.org.
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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