Welcome to the Leicester Bach Choir!
Available now, a history of the Leicester Bach Choir.
Leicester Bach Choir hosts the Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Musical Events Diary here
Next 3rd December 2016
Duruflé Requiem; Messe "Cum Jubilo", & Fauré Messe Basse
With Simon Hogan - Organ
Follow Concerts link for details.
Last Concert 16th October 2016
Elgar: Dream of Gerontius
With the Bardi Symphony Orchestra, Leicester Philharmonic Choir and Leicestershire Chorale at the de Montfort Hall.
Past Concert 11th June 2016
Parry: Songs of Farewell - Dvořák: Mass in D Major
Conductor: Richard Laing
Organist: Ivan Linford
Past Concert 5th March 2016
Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle
Director: Richard Laing
Past Concert 28th November 2015
JS Bach: B Minor Mass
with Bach Camerata Orchestra
Director: Richard Laing
Sorano: Katie Trethewey Mezzo-Soprano: Cathy Bell Tenor: Edward Goater Baritone: Angus McPhee
Past Concert 6th June 2015
Morten Lauridsen: Lux Aeterna
Eric Whitacre :Lux Aurumque
A selection of Russian and European music
with Bach Camerata
Director: Richard Laing
Organist: Ivan Linford
Past Concert 28th March 2015
Vaughan Williams: Flos Campi
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Herbert Howells: An English Mass
Violin and Viola: Shulah Oliver
with Bach Camerata
Director: Richard Laing
Read a Review here.
Leicester Bach Choir wishes to thank the Herbert Howells Trust for their generous financial support of our March concert, when the choir performed An English Mass by Herbert Howells.
Past Concert 29th November 2014
Handel: Messiah
Past concert 7th June 2014
at St James the Greater
We were delighted that our President, Joanne Lunn was our soloist, and hope that those who have followed her career from Choirgirl of the Year to International Soloist were able to join us in this exciting programme featuring music with a Norwegian theme.
Mozart: Exsultate, Jubilate Laudate Dominum
Mendelssohn: Hear My Prayer
Grieg: Ave Maris Stella
Hvad est su dog skjøn
Blegnet, segnet
Rheinberger: Stabat Mater
Gjeilo: Dark Night of the Soul
Conductor: Richard Laing
Featuring: Joanne Lunn
Past concert 12th April 2014
at St James the Greater
Rutter: Gloria
Purcell: Funeral Sentences for Queen Mary
Parry: I was glad
Ireland: Vexilla Regis
Walton; Coronation Te Deum
Conductor - Richard Laing
Follow Concerts link for details.
Past concert 7th December 2013
Johann Sebastian Bach: Christmas Oratorio
With The Bach Camerata
Conductor - Richard Laing
Evangelist - Nathan Vale
Soprano - April Fredrick
Mezzo-Soprano - Cathy Bell
Tenor - James Geer
Bass - James Oldfield
Follow Concerts link for details.
Past Concert 8th June 2013
John Tavener: Svyati
Knut Nystedt: Stabat Mater
Ola Gjeilo: O Magnum Mysterium (Serenity)
Arensky: Oche Nash (The Lord's Prayer)
Glinka: Izhe Kheruvimyi (The Cherubic Hymn)
Tchaikovsky: Dostoino Yest (Hymn to the Virgin)
Arvo Pärt: Fratres
Following our successful collaboration with the cellist Oliver Coates we were delighted to welcome Rowena Calvert to join us for another concert of music for cello and choir, this time with a Northern European flavour. A prize-winning graduate from the Royal College of Music, Rowena now pursues a busy career as a soloist and chamber music player, notably as a member of the Cavaleri Quartet. Rowena performed the popular concert piece Fratres by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and movements from J. S. Bach’s sublime suites for solo cello. She also joined the Leicester Bach Choir in three modern classics for cello and choir by Tavener, Gjeilo and Nystedt.
John Tavener is well-known for his beautiful carol The Lamb and for his Song for Athene, performed so memorably at the funeral of Princess Diana. Svyati is an equally serene and beautiful setting of a Russian Orthodox prayer. This mood was sustained in the piece aptly titled Serenity, a setting of the familiar text O magnum mysterium, expressing wonder at the birth of by the young composer Ola Gjeilo, born in Norway but now resident in the USA. The third of our joint performances was of the Stabat Mater by another Norwegian, the veteran Knut Nystedt, an exciting and dramatic portrayal of the mother of Jesus at her son’s crucifixion, which nevertheless culminates in a radiant picture of Paradise.
The programme was completed by three settings of the Orthodox liturgy from great Russian masters of the 19th Century: Tchaikovsky’s Dostoino yest, a hymn to the Virgin Mary, Arensky’s Otche nash, a setting of the Lord’s Prayer and the beautiful Hymn of the Cherubim by Glinka. The luscious Romantic harmonies of these are suited perfectly to the wonderful acoustic of St James the Greater.
You can read a review of this concert here.
A big thank you to all those who were able to join our Come and Sing on Saturday 26th January 2013.
This year we sang Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.
Particular thanks go to
Our conductor - Richard Laing
Pianists - Rob Challinor and David Whittle
Percussionists - Darron Cleary-McHarg, Ben Carr, Ed Piccianno Moss, and Charles Sell
Soloists - Katy Dent, Robert Clarke and Charles Paterson
Musical Village Youth Choir
Past Event - June 2012 An Evening of Music for a Desert Island with Joanne Lunn.
We were delighted to spend an Evening of Music for a Desert Island with our castaway,
LBC’s President, Joanne Lunn. Joanne comes from Leicester and learned to sing here before being chosen as BBC’s Choir Girl of the Year and then setting off on an illustrious international career, making her Proms debut in 1999.
Having chosen her discs, Joanne was interviewed by the LBC’s past
Chair, Owen Bentley, who spent his career working for the BBC in a range of
capacities, and can always be relied on for wit and a few
surprises!
From the review of a recent concert
"Thrilling; conductor Richard Laing was in charge of a breathtaking performance."
To read more, click on the Concerts button.
This site gives a flavour of what we are like and what we do. The buttons on the left will help you find the information you are looking for. We hope it encourages you to join us as singer or audience. If you are looking for a medium-sized (55) choir to join, you may be interested to hear what a new singer wrote to us recently:
'Thanks so much for inviting me to the AGM and rehearsal last night. I loved it and would absolutely love to join the choir. I found you all very welcoming, and really liked what I heard at the AGM about the ethos. Singing together can so powerful and moving - life-enhancing.'
We are proud to be amateurs since that means we sing for the love of it, while aiming to put on performances that express the truth and vitality of each work. We are hugely encouraged in this endeavour by Richard Laing, our Director of Music. Reviewers often describe his conducting as inspiring and dynamic, and our singing certainly flies on those energetic wings, but that does not entirely capture what Richard brings.
Communicating effectively requires both amateur and professional performers to develop ‘ensemble’, a sense of mutual understanding. As LBC members and the growing number of people who attend our January 'Come and Sing' know well, Richard's humanity and wit spread a warmth that connects people. Not a bad thing in a world that is starting to wonder if rampant individualism is all it's cracked up to be. |
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