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!
Going on tour is one of the highlights of singing in Birmingham Festival Choral Society! In the past 30 years we have been to many places, the tours to Eastern European countries being particularly interesting and well received. We are really looking forward to keeping up this tradition when we visit Romania between 27th May and 2 June.
The choir and family supporters will stay 3 nights in the capital, Bucharest, followed by 3 nights in Brasov, Transylvania. Our plans include a flash mob in a bookshop, an informal sing in “Dracula’s Castle” (Bran Castle) and four main concerts.
Our programme will include well known choral classics, a selection of music by English composers, and some arrangements of folk songs from the British Isles. Kevin Gill will provide organ and piano accompaniment , and David Wynne will be the Music director. It is a special treat to have David’s wife, Alexandra, as our soprano soloist, and family support will be provided by their baby Sidney and his grandparents!
One of the more interesting aspects of touring abroad is meeting local people. In Bucharest we look forward to sharing a concert with the Youth Choir Cor cu Dor, and in Brasov we will visit the charity Asociata Nevazatorilov for the blind and visually impaired, to give them the money that was donated by Birmingham singers and supporters at our last concert. We look forward to learning more about the valuable work they do.
Finally, no tour would be complete without the informal concert party, at which singers show a full range of musical and comedy talents! Much fun is had on tour, and friendships made. We’re not known as the Big Friendly Choral Society for nothing!
Thanks to the Birmingham Music Library for this lovely Blog about BFCS!
We are delighted to announce that David Wynne is to be our new Music Director.
David will take up his new post in January. It promises to be an exciting future!
David has been Music Director of the Ryton Chorale since 2013 and Arrow Vale Singers since 2012. He graduated from Birmingham Conservatoire with a Masters degree in Vocal and Operatic Performance (studying as a bass-baritone) and has been a soloist in both oratorio and opera. While at the Conservatoire he was awarded a scholarship to study choral conducting with the influential conductor Paul Spicer.
In addition to his conducting posts David is closely involved in educational work: he is co-founder of the St Chad’s Choral Outreach Programme in Birmingham, and teaches and conducts at the Birmingham Junior Conservatoire.
Further information will be found on the link below.
If you’d like to give us a try but missed the Open Rehearsal last week, it’s not too late! New singers would still be welcome this Wednesday.
Ten new singers came for the first time last week – here are some of their comments:
I can hardly wait for next week! The choir sounded brilliant and I heard wonderful reports of the tour. Everyone I spoke to does seem full of excitement about everything to come!
I really enjoyed the sing last evening and am looking forward to coming again next week.
It was lovely to have such a warm reception from everyone.
It was a lovely evening last Wednesday
I did enjoy the evening, and was most impressed with the standard of singing, sight reading and the general organisation.
I will be back for more next week!
A great article about our Choir and Open Rehearsal on 7th September:
