Yorkshire Bach Choir is auditioning for our new season!

Join Yorkshire Bach Choir

Yorkshire Bach Choir is always interested in hearing potential new members - we are currently auditioning for all sections of the choir in the run up to our new season.

Is Yorkshire Bach Choir the choir for me?

Yorkshire Bach Choir comprises around 45 voices and performs music mainly from the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical period so an interest (and enthusiasm) for this repertoire is helpful. We regularly perform vocal music in an historically-informed style with our specialist accompanying orchestra the Yorkshire Baroque Soloists. You will need a good, well-produced voice that blends with the current group of singers. Subject to vacancies, membership is open to anyone who has the ability to contribute at the choir’s core standards of high performance, regardless of any other factors. Current membership is a mix of professional, semi-professional and other advanced singers with about a third of the choir being students; some members travel quite a distance to sing with the choir.

What does being a member involve?

We have a programme of around six concerts each year. We rehearse intensively on Friday evenings between 7-9.30pm for about 30 weeks of the year.  Members are expected to make a commitment to attend all rehearsals and concerts unless there are exceptional circumstances.  This is essential in order that we maintain the high standards for which we are renowned. We usually perform on a Saturday evening with mandatory rehearsals on the Friday night and Saturday afternoon prior to this concert. All choir members are expected to contribute to membership via a subscription system which currently stands at £153 per year for standard members or £51 per year for student members (although any difficulty with this would be viewed sympathetically and you can split your payment over the year in 3 installments). 

What can I expect at an audition?

If you are interested in auditioning please email our conductor Peter Seymour <peter.seymour@york.ac.uk> with a short email introducing yourself, your singing experience, an indication of your voice type and suggested times that you might be available for an audition. Peter will then arrange an audition. As part of the audition you will be asked to sing 10-15’ prepared music and your vocal range will be gauged. 

Rehearsals for the first concert start on Friday 29 September so an early audition is advised. 

You can find out more information on the choir and our upcoming season at http://www.yorkshirebachchoir.org.uk/   

Please do not hesitate to get in touch with Peter if you require further information!

Peter Seymour <peter.seymour@york.ac.uk>

6.9.17

Songs and Elegies of the English Romantics

We look ahead to our upcoming concert on Saturday 7 May which presents a programme of musical works by English 20th Century composers - Vaughan Williams, Finzi, Tippett and Howells -  spanning two continents and covering the old world and the new world. 

The Old World is represented in Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor.  The composer's oft-quoted words "There is no reason why an atheist could not write a good mass" belie the originality with which Vaughan Williams created the mass which is an intricate homage to Tudor polyphony. Gerald Finzi’s Seven Poems of Robert Bridges beautiful response to the classical, delicate poetry of Robert Bridges. The New World arrives in Tippett’s vibrant Five Negro Spirituals extracted from his larger work A Child of our Time including classic arrangements of Steal Away and Deep River. Howells’ short, but intensely moving, setting Take him Earth, for Cherishing was publically dedicated as a response the the assassination of John F Kennedy but was arguably a more personal reaction to the tragic death of the composer’s son Michael.

Original title page of Howells
Take him Earth, for Cherishing

As Peter Seymour our conductor comments: ‘It is great to be rehearsing these highly individual works which are fantastic examples of not only of the skill of the their four very individual composers but geographically span both sides of the Atlantic. Much of the music seems to defy easy categorisation as Vaughan Williams and Tippett in particular both take something that was old and refashion in their own unique, often daring musical language. There is a huge range of musical expression from the gentle poetry to more extrovert, sonorous moments which will sound glorious in the uniquely resonant acoustic of St Michael le Belfrey.  

St Michael le Belfrey, York

We hope you can join us for what promises to be a wonderful concert on Saturday 7 May starting at 7.30pm. Tickets are priced at £14 (full price) and £12 (concessions). £5 tickets for students will be available on the door.  Tickets are available in advance from the National Centre for Early Music or by clicking here: bit.ly/EnglishRomantics