Bollington Festival Choir

Next event: English Voices, 9 June 2013

On Sunday 9th June 2013 we will present English Voices: Solo and choral songs and piano music by English composers inspired by poets including Emily Brontë and culminating in Parry’s Blest Pair of Sirens.

Full details 01625 281933 or www.fun.to/bfmt

New members are always welcome: ring 0161 225 4680 for further details. 

"Bollington Festival Choir and Orchestra are in excellent form, achieved by a sustained renewal during these last few years. They gave a stimulating performance of works by Mozart and Haydn, and included an organ prelude by Buxtehude. There has been a marked change in the choir from concert to concert over the recent period of time" May 2011.

"Happy, confident singers ..."From a review of Rossini’s ‘Petite Messe Solenelle’, June 2010

Full details 01625 281933 or www.fun.to/bfmt

Bollington Festival Choir is a friendly choir which retains its village roots while welcoming singers from a wide area. Giving three concerts a year in local churches and hosting the annual ‘Messiah for All’ at the Arts Centre, it is known for imaginative programming and high standards of performance. All this is achieved by welcoming all who wish to sing, and without auditioning any of our members.

The Choir was founded by Dr John Coope MBE (1928-2005) for the first Bollington Festival in 1964. John conducted the Choir with great distinction for 37 years. Surely few amateur choral societies can have covered such a wide range of music - large and small scale, accompanied and unaccompanied, mainstream repertoire and 'rarities'.

Since Donald Judge became the conductor in 2001, the Choir has maintained its traditions and sense of adventure. Major works he has conducted include Handel ‘Saul’; Vaughan Williams ‘A Sea Symphony’; Honegger ‘King David’; Haydn ‘Creation’; Bach ‘St John Passion’ and ‘Magnificat in D’; Mendelssohn ‘Elijah’; and the Requiems by Brahms, Faure, and Mozart. Less familiar works include Charpentier ‘Messe de Minuit’; Mass settings by Joseph Jongen and Antonio Caldara; Nielsen ‘Springtime in Funen’; Flanders and Horovitz ‘Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo’; and Andrew Carter ‘Benedicite’. The Choir is very pleased to have given performances of two fine pieces by the contemporary composer Cecilia McDowall: ‘Christus Natus Est’ and ‘Ave Maris Stella’. 

The Choir has premiered several of Donald’s own pieces, including ‘The Nightingale’ (words Keats): ‘Shipwreck’ (Emily Dickinson); ‘The Donkey’ (G K Chesterton), and most recently, ‘May Magnificat’ (words G M Hopkins) His arrangements of ‘Death is a Shadow’, a 16th century Italian song; and Edmund Pascha's ‘Czech Christmas Mass’, performed with a plethora of early and folk instruments played by Tapestry of Music, delighted both singers and audiences.

The Choir has performed at every Bollington Festival. The past four have included Carl Orff ‘Carmina Burana’; Berlioz ‘Grande Messe des Morts’; Verdi ‘Requiem’; Gershwin ‘Porgy and Bess’ and Jonathan Dove ‘Tobias and the Angel’. 

Choir members and others pack the Arts Centre on the Tuesday following our Christmas Concert to perform Handel's evergreen masterpiece ‘Messiah’ with 'home-grown' soloists and orchestra. All proceeds from this event are donated to local charities.

The Choir has an outstanding accompanist, Andrew Cummings. For at least one concert a year, we engage soloists from the Royal Northern College of Music and an accomplished orchestra.

More information can be found at www.fun.to/bfmt