Summer Gala concert with John Rutter

cover pic

Saturday 20th June at 7.30pm, Colston Hall, Bristol

A concert with 250 singers and professional symphony orchestra celebrating the young and those who are young of heart. City of Bristol Choir is joined by Exultate Singers, Bristol Youth Choir, choristers from Westbury-on-Trym Parish Church Choir and the Bristol Ensemble.

Marking his 70th birthday, the celebrated composer John Rutter conducts his Mass of the Children, in which traditional texts are interspersed with settings of poems celebrating youth and life. The choirs and orchestra will also perform Jonathan Dove’s There was a child, a work which celebrates a life filled with vitality, energy and spirit. Singing the roles of Mother and Son are soprano Erica Eloff and the international star tenor Toby Spence. The concert is in aid of Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal for Bristol Children’s Hospital.

Tickets are £40 / £30 / £20, with tickets for under 18s priced at £10 available online from City of Bristol Choir  or from Colston Hall box office (with booking fee) by phone on 0844 887 1500, online or from the Colston Hall box office in person. The box office is open for personal callers from Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm

Exultate Singers: Mass in B minor

b-min-mass-cover

Saturday 28th March at 7.30pm, St George’s Bristol

Given as part of the St George’s Easter Passion festival, Exultate Singers and the Lochrian Ensemble perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B minor, undoubtedly one of the greatest works in the choral repertoire.

Famous for the beauty and power of the vocal and orchestral writing, this monumental work incorporates elements from compositions that span many years of Bach’s career, developed and refined during his last years of life to create a masterpiece of the Baroque era.

Read the 365bristol.com review of the concert here

St John Passion two day workshop

Johann_Sebastian_Bach-tidy-bg

Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th March, Dartington Great Hall

David will lead a two-day workshop on Bach’s St John Passion for Dartington Community Choir which is open to all singers to attend. Over the weekend the workshop will cover all the choruses in detail, culminating in an informal performance of the work accompanied by piano duet. More details can be found at the Dartington Community Choir website.

To book your place, download the application form

City of Bristol Choir: Spring in the Air

twitter cover pic

Saturday 28th February at 7.30pm, St Alban’s Church, Westbury Park, Bristol

For its Spring concert, City of Bristol Choir presents a programme of wonderful choral music from Austria and Germany. The main work is Anton Bruckner’s colossal Mass in E minor for choir and fifteen wind and brass instruments. The work contrasts beautiful, unaccompanied, serene choral writing reminiscent of Palestrina with passages for full choir and ensemble overflowing with drama and intensity. The 100-strong choir is joined by Quorum, a professional ensemble made up of some of the South West’s leading brass and woodwind players.

£18 adults, £16 concessions, £5 students/under 18s available from www.cityofbristolchoir.org.uk and from Opus 13 music shop at 14 St Michael’s Hill, Bristol, telephone 0117 923 0164

Exultate Singers: A Sense of the Divine

sotd-twitter-cover

Saturday 14th February at 7.30pm, St George’s Bristol

David conducts a programme of beautiful choral music on the theme of love. Sensuous motets by Renaissance masters Victoria and Palestrina setting words from the Song of Songs are contrasted with ravishing choral pieces by Finzi, Rütti, Whitacre and Daniel-Lesur. The choir will also give the world premiere of a new work by Bristol-based composer David Bednall, commissioned especially for this concert. Three Songs of Love sets words by John Clare, John McCrae and W.B. Yeats including his famous poem ‘The Cloths of Heaven’. Cellist Richard May and pianist Olena Shvetsova perform music by Chopin and Piazzolla. Tickets £12 to £24 from St George’s box office online or on 0845 40 24 001