Bath Bach Choir, formerly The City of Bath Bach Choir (CBBC), is based in Bath, Somerset, England, and is a registered charity.[1] Founded in 1946 by Cuthbert Bates, who also became a founding father of the Bath Bach Festival[2] in 1950, the choir's original aim was to promote the music of Johann Sebastian Bach via periodic music festivals. Bates – an amateur musician with a great love and understanding of this composer's works – was also the CBBC's principal conductor and continued in this role until his sudden death, in April 1980. This untimely exit pre-empted his planned retirement concert performance of J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor,[3][2] scheduled for July of the same year, and effectively ended the first period of the choir's history.
Distinguished Handel scholar[4] Denys Darlow succeeded Cuthbert Bates as musical director in 1980 and remained in the post until 1990. He was followed by Nigel Perrin, who remained Musical Director until December 2022. Perrin began his musical life as a chorister at Ely Cathedral, then won a choral scholarship to King's College, Cambridge, studying under Sir David Willcocks. In 1970 he also joined the newly formed King's Singers, having sung with them on an occasional basis after graduation in the summer of 1969, and thereafter entertaining the world throughout the 1970s as the highest voice (counter-tenor) of the irrepressible and ground-breaking vocal group.
In 2023, Benedict Collins Rice was appointed music director, only the fourth in 75 years. Originally from Oxfordshire, Collins Rice held two conducting scholarships at the University of Cambridge before continuing his studies with the Heads of Conducting at the Royal College of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and the University of Birmingham where he studied under Simon Halsey. Performing throughout Europe and the US, he has recorded for several labels,[5] broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and founded a chamber group, The Facade Ensemble.[6]
The first president of the CBBC was Dr Ralph Vaughan Williams until 1958. Sir Arthur Bliss, then Master of the Queen's Music (Musik), took over as president in 1959, followed in 1975 by Sir David Willcocks, until 2015. In 2016 David Hill, musical director of The Bach Choir, was elected president of Bath Bach Choir, and Jonathan Willcocks a vice president.
^"Registered Charity 1043756. Accounts lodged with UK Charity Commission" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
^ ab"Search". Concert Programmes.[permanent dead link]
^"Trove search results for 'subject:"Bach Festival. Bath, England. 1954"'". Trove.
BathBachChoir, formerly The City of BathBachChoir (CBBC), is based in Bath, Somerset, England, and is a registered charity. Founded in 1946 by Cuthbert...
Thermae Bath Spa. The abbey is also used as a venue for visiting choirs and, from its inception in 1947, the City of BathBachChoir. The choirs of Bath Abbey...
the composer. In some parts of the work, the soloists sing together as a "choir," sometimes in as many as twelve parts; in others, each soloist is allotted...
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library Related articles Anglican church music BathBachChoir Curse of the ninth English Folk Dance and Song Society The English...
decision was made to make it a regular choir on a level with the orchestra, in preparation for their performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor. Performances of...
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library Related articles Anglican church music BathBachChoir Curse of the ninth English Folk Dance and Song Society The English...
Bath BachChoir (CBBC) was founded in October 1946 by Cuthbert Bates, who was also a founding father of the BathBach Festival in 1950. The choir gave...
Culture Symphony Orchestra; Leningrad Musical Society Choir and Rimsky-Korsakov Musical School Choir; Melodiya SUCD 10-00234 (Grand Hall of Leningrad Philharmony...
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library Related articles Anglican church music BathBachChoir Curse of the ninth English Folk Dance and Song Society The English...
Fantasia was first performed at Gloucester Cathedral as part of the 1910 Three Choirs Festival, and has entered the orchestral repertoire, with frequent concert...
Proosdij and David Tayler. The ensemble performs music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Arcangelo Corelli, Claudio Monteverdi, Georg Philipp Telemann and Antonio...
Masque for Dancing (1930) The Voice out of the Whirlwind, Motet for mixed choir and organ or orchestra; adapted from "Galliard of the Sons of the Morning"...
the next twenty years. In 1921 he succeeded Allen as conductor of the BachChoir, London. It was not until 1922 that he produced a major new composition...
Willcocks, conductor-John Shirley-Quirk, baritone; Ian Partridge, tenor; with BachChoir and London Symphony Orchestra. Richard Hickox, conductor-Bryn Terfel,...
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library Related articles Anglican church music BathBachChoir Curse of the ninth English Folk Dance and Song Society The English...
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library Related articles Anglican church music BathBachChoir Curse of the ninth English Folk Dance and Song Society The English...
composer John Taverner. In 1973 the Taverner Choir, Consort and Players (TCCP) made their début at the Bath International Music Festival. The group was...
work received its first performance on 14 September 1911, at the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester, with Vaughan Williams conducting. The work is written...
Free Trade Hall, Manchester, by Barbirolli and the Hallé Orchestra and Choir with Margaret Ritchie in the wordless soprano solo. The performers repeated...
Portraits (LP). Capitol. CTL7047. Elizabeth Bainbridge, John Carol Case, The BachChoir, The New Philharmonia Orchestra, cond. David Willcocks (1969). Five Tudor...
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