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.
3rd Birmingham Festival Choral Society Oratorio Competition.
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Bradshaw Hall.
26th November 2024
The final of the third BFCS Oratorio Competition was a wonderful celebration of song. The six talented finalists, introduced by Paul Wingfield, Head of Vocal and Operatic Studies at the Conservatoire, each performed three or four oratorio pieces, ranging from Handel and Bach to Tippet and Hindemith. The audience enjoyed discussing their favourites in the interval – should they judge on technique, difficulty of repertoire, communication with the audience, quality of the voice? Would their favourite three be the same as the three selected by the judges, David Wynne and Kevin Gill?
The judges, David Wynne (left) and Kevin Gill.
In the end, the judges were unable to choose between contralto Laura Toomey and soprano Beth Taylor and made them joint Prize winners!
The crystal trophy and cheques were presented by David Fletcher, the Chair of BFCS. We all look forward to hearing the results of the other part of the prize – a booking to sing at a future BFCS concert
Joint Oratorio Prize winners Beth Taylor (left) and Laura Toomey, with David Fletcher.
Tenor Joe Yates was a worthy runner up. The pieces he sang were:
Handel: Let festal joy triumphant reign, from Belshazzar
Haydn: A crystal pavement lies the lake, from The Seasons
Vivaldi: Peccator videbit, from Beatus Vir.
The six finalists
Laura ToomeyElissa StreetJoe YatesSophie HendersonMairi McGillivrayBeth Taylor
Left to right: Beth Taylor, Sophie Henderson, Laura Toomey, Joe Yates, Elissa Street and Mairi McGillivray.
The six finalists
The accompanists:
Jonathan French, accompanist for Sophie , Joe and ElissaSara Willander and Mairi McGillivrayAshley Wagner and Beth TaylorTomas Howell, accompanist to Laura ToomeyPaul Wingfield, Head of Vocal and Operatic Studies
The months leading up to our concert on 16th March included extra choir rehearsals and lots of study at home in order to master Bach’s wonderful but complex B minor Mass. All that preparation paid off handsomely, and performers and audience alike were able to enjoy the glorious work in the magnificent surroundings of Lichfield Cathedral. Aren’t we lucky to have such wonderful venues to perform in!
The performance was enhanced by the playing of the Musical and Amicable Society, using period instruments, and the four superb vocal soloists Emilia Morton, Martha McLorinan, Jack Granby and Andrew Tipple.
(Click on photos to enlarge)
Our audience, which had come from far and wide – North Wales, Sheffield and even St Andrews, Scotland – gave us long applause and even a standing ovation in some cases!
The concert might be over now, but Bach’s music is still going round and round in our heads. It was indeed ‘music that can change lives’!
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.
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.
Our concert in Lichfield Cathedral on 2nd July was a wonderful occasion! The choir, soloists and piano accompanists all came together under the leadership of David Wynne to produce a thrilling performance of Brahms’ A German Requiem and Finzi’s Lo, the Full Final Sacrifice. The main two works were supported by other Brahms compositions: Geistliches Lied for choir and organ, and Hungarian Dances no 5 and 8 for piano duet.
We are extremely grateful to photographer Michael Whitefoot for producing a superb set of photographs, from which these are selected.
Kevin Gill and Stephen Hargreaves, our impressive piano duo, played the piano duet accompaniment to Brahms’ German Requiem, and two of Brahms’ Hungarian Dances.
“The Finzi was the standout for me, but Brahms’ ‘A German Requiem’ was navigated confidently, and the combination of Birmingham Festival Choral Society, soloists and accompaniment brought together an ensemble showing real enthusiasm and commitment.”
Thank you to our professional musicians who made the concert so special! L to R: Stephen Hargreaves, Kevin Gill, David Wynne, Louse Wayman and James Davies.
Will Todd’s Mass in Blue and Passion Music are very different from our usual repertoire, but we’re really loving those jazz rhythms and blues harmonies! Listen to our singers and Music Director talking about the Will Todd music we’re learning for the concert at the Ruddock Performing Arts Centre on 26th March.
One of the thrills of performing works by a living composer is that it’s possible to actually meet them, and discover their views on the way they’d like their music to sound. For this reason, we were delighted that Will Todd was able to join in our choir workshop on Sunday 27th February, and share his thoughts on his Mass in Blue and Passion Music as we prepare for our concert on 26th March.
We all warmed to Will straight away, and soon we found ourselves doing something we would not have believed possible – improvising in Dorian mode! That put us in the right frame of mind to study Passion Music before the break and, fortified by tea and cake, Mass in Blue afterwards.
David (Wynne), our Music Director, led us in singing each section, and then Will made encouraging and helpful comments on the style and tempo of the music. He was not dogmatic – in fact, one of the features of jazz and blues style is that there is room for interpretation.
Click to enlarge photos
Kevin (Gill), accompanied us with those complex jazzy rhythms and unfamiliar blues harmonies on the piano. It is a source of amazement how Kevin can play complex accompaniments to works as diverse as Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Brahm’s German Requiem and Will Todd’s Choral Jazz works without being fazed at all.
As always, there was plenty of time for humour!
Will Todd introduces Passion Music: In this video Will Todd describes how he chose the texts and set the music, illustrated with lots of excerpts from rehearsals and performances.
Our Rossini concert on 30th October was a great occasion. It was wonderful to be performing live again – the first concert for 2 years.
Our concert in the Ruddock Performing Arts Centre, Birmingham.
BFCS had been ready to perform Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle in March 2020 when the pandemic caused the cancellation of the concert. We’ve been keeping it going during our Zoom rehearsals, so it was very well prepared! It was really enjoyable to sing it with such talented professionals – our soloists, Mimi Doulton, Rachel Gilmore, Ed Harrisson and Joe Kennedy, our accompanists, Ben de Souza and Kevin Gill, and our conductor, David Wynne. We were also very pleased to see so many of our friends and family in the audience.
Thank you to Alfred White for these lovely photos – a great souvenir of a wonderful evening.
Joe Kennedy (bass), Ed Harrisson (tenor), Rachel Gilmore (mezzo), Mimi Doulton (soprano)Ben de Souza (accordion), Kevin Gill (piano).David Wynne (conductor).
Birmingham Festival Choral Society singers. Click the arrows to see all four photos.
We hope that you will enjoy the Paris connection through images of the medieval stained glass in Sainte Chapelle.
This virtual performance was put together by Gareth Howell, using individual recordings sent from home by our singers. We look forward to a time when the pandemic is over and we can sing together in real life.
Wikipedia photo credits: Sam67Fr, Javi Masa, Oldmanisold, Grunt XIII.
The friendly Birmingham choir singing the world's best choral music.
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