Month: July 2014

2014-15 Concert Season

Rehearsals for the Southport Bach Choir’s 2014-15 concert season started on Thursday 4 September. The choir will be rehearsing for a performance of Handel’s Messiah, to be given in Holy Trinity Church, Southport on Saturday 13 December 2014. The Southport Bach Choir is delighted to be giving this concert  in association with Crosby Rotary Club, whose current President is also a member of the Choir. Proceeds will be shared with Crosby Rotary Club.

We shall be welcoming back Stephen Hargreaves as organist, who has played for several of our concerts. Of the soloists, only the mezzo-soprano, Joyce Tindsley is new to the SBC. Barbara Ruzsics (soprano), Tim Kennedy (tenor) and Mark Rowlinson (bass) are well known to the choir, and we look forward to having them with us again.

Christmas Music at Melling Tithebarn

The rehearsals during the autumn term will also be for the Christmas music that the choir will be performing at Melling Tithebarn on Friday 19 December. It is many years since the choir last sang there, and we are looking forward to giving a concert in this charming venue – a very different environment from Holy Trinity Church. It is not a large hall and tickets will sell very quickly. Because of the timing it means we shall not be singing carols, as we have in previous years, in M&S – another very different singing environment!

St. John Passion – 21 March 2015

We have chosen Bach’s St. John Passion for the first concert in our 50th anniversary year, because, in the first place, it is a wonderful work, a favourite with many choir members, which is fitting for performance in Holy Trinity Church during the Lenten period. Besides this, it also seemed an appropriate work for us to perform, since we are a Bach Choir, and our first ever performance – on 13 April 1965 – included a piece by Bach (Cantata no.4).

On that occasion the choir, which was smaller than it is now, was accompanied by a small professional orchestra in a performance of Schütz’s St. Matthew Passion. On 21 March, 2015 we shall be accompanied by the 18th Century Sinfonia, a period instrument orchestra who have played for the choir in several concerts over the years, most recently when we performed Bach’s Magnificat and Haydn’s Nelson Mass. Our Evangelist will be Nicholas Hurndall-Smith, a member of the prestigious group directed by Robert Hollingworth, I Fagiolini, and the nephew of one of our choir members.

Anniversary Summer Concert – 27 June 2015

We are planning a joyful summer concert to celebrate 50 years of choral singing in Southport. Details will follow in a later post.