Bath Festivals - Bath Choral Society

Today, our choir is around 120 voices strong. We are enthusiastic amateur singers, engaging professional soloists and orchestras for our concerts who help us perform to a standard that maintains our strong reputation.

We rehearse in central Bath on Wednesday evenings from 7.15 to 9.30pm at Manvers Street Baptist Church and are always interested in recruiting new singers. Membership is subject to a fairly simple audition; existing members are re-auditioned every four years, too. We also offer an attractive bursary scheme to young singers under 25. Our musical director is Matthew Bale who has held that position since 1989.

We perform four or five concerts each year, mostly in Bath Abbey; our wide-ranging repertoire includes sacred and secular music from classical to modern, and even newly-written works. Our activities are regularly in the news and our concerts are well attended. Recent performances of major works include Britten War Requiem, Mendelssohn Elijah, Bach St Matthew & St John Passions, Rutter Requiem, Elgar Dream of Gerontius, Verdi Requiem, and the world premiere of a new work Visions of Sorrow and Joy by Brian Inglis.

Our usual seasonal programme offers four concerts, including Messiah in early December, and further concerts in spring and summer. In 2002 we recorded Messiah and produced a CD which is being sold to raise money for charity. During 1998 we toured Holland giving concerts in Alkmaar and Amsterdam. In July 2001 we visited Prague giving two successful concerts there to very appreciative audiences. In July 2003 we sang at Rouen and Beauvais in France and in July 2005 we visited Liepzig..

In October 2004 we collaborated with the City of Bath Bach Choir and the Braunschweiger Domchor in series of performances of the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten in Braunschweig and in Bristol as an act of commemoration and reconciliation marking the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Braunschweig by Allied forces and of D-Day and VE-Day.

Bath Choral Society in Concert