Yorkshire Bach Choir 2017-18: Masterpieces and miniatures

We are thrilled to announce full details of our 2017-18 concert season! Join us for a year of music packed with beautiful music.

Along with performing some real highlights of the choral repertoire we explore some new concert themes and programmes of music. Here are details of each of our six concerts coming up in 2017/18.

In the Midst of Life: 28.10.17

Our opening concert showcases some real peaks of not just in music but of art in the entire Renaissance period. The extraordinary 40-part motet Spem in alium is the first of four Renaissance choral masterpieces that all engage with and often soar above the troubles of their times. Sheppard’s haunting In Media Vita (‘In the midst of life we are in death’) is a haunting exploration of various texts, including the Nunc Dimittis. The dark splendour of Allegri’s renowned Miserere and Byrd’s mournful Ne irascaris, Domine will also feature alongside music by Tallis, Jeffreys and Ludwig Senfl.

For tickets click here >> bit.ly/YBOctober 

Handel, Vivaldi, Haydn: 9.12.17

This colourful programme features some of the 18th century’s most popular and invigorating music for chorus and instruments. Handel’s vivid setting of Dixit Dominus, composed during his stay in Italy, is one of his most virtuosic and impressive choral compositions. Vivaldi’s colourful Gloria pulsates with festive Venetian energy and is his best known, most popular, choral work. Haydn’s Nelson Mass is possibly his most electrifying and atmospheric mass settings, taking us on a musical journey where dark anxiety is dissolved in joyful triumph.

Tickets are selling quickly for what promises to be a choral highlight of the York Early Christmas Music Festival.

For tickets click here >> bit.ly/YBCXmas

Stories in Glass: Music for the Great East Window 4.02.18

2018 will see the completion of the restoration of York Minster’s iconic Great East Window. Marking this landmark in the life of the city we present music inspired by stained glass and the wider history of York. Events depicted in the window, such as the Death of Absalom with settings of When David heard by Tomkins and Weelkes, and scenes from Revelation, are included. The concert ends with an unabashed celebration of the celestial with Harris’s wonderful Faire is the Heaven and the life-affirming properties of light in Wood’s ecstatic Hail, gladdening light.

For tickets click here >> bit.ly/YBCGlass

Bach: St John Passion: 17.03.18

The Passio Secundum Johannem may be Bach’s most inherently dramatic passion setting. Telling the story of Christ’s sacrifice, it also offers a celebration of human feeling in evoking the joy and suffering of man’s pilgrimage on earth. The vivid, colourful playing of the Yorkshire Baroque Soloists will be joined by Joshua Ellicott and Peter Harvey two outstanding solo interpreters of the roles of Evangelist and Christus.

Book early for what promises to be a highlight of musical life in York in 2018!  

For tickets click here >> bit.ly/JohnPassion

Three Marys: 19.05.18

Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the other biblical Marys were the focus of an extraordinary flowering of art during the Renaissance period. Composers were part of this movement, exploring the lives of the Marys in music that ranges from the deeply sacred to the sensual. This concert explores events from the anointing at Bethany to a grieving Mary at the foot of the cross. We will perform music including Palestrina Missa Assumpta est Maria, Guerrero Maria Magdalena, Sheppard Gaude gaude guade Maria and Stabat Mater settings by Palestrina, Padilla and Browne.

For tickets click here >> bit.ly/3Marys

Bach Motets & Rachel Podger: 23.06.18

JS Bach’s motets represent some of his most beautiful and mesmerising musical compositions. Each motet is crafted with complete originality and skill using a dizzying range of choral techniques, from double-choir sonorities to canon, fugue and counterpoint, to explore their deeply felt and varied texts. Complementing this choral feast Yorkshire Bach Choir is pleased to welcome Rachel Podger, a musician who has been described as ‘the queen of the baroque violin’, performing some of Bach’s most wonderful music for violin and harpsichord.

For tickets click here >> bit.ly/BachMotets

Tickets and further details

Full details of ticket prices and season subscriptions can be found on our website. You can save money across the season by subscribing for one of our season tickets. £5 student tickets are available.  

Further details on Yorkshire Bach Choir: bit.ly/YBChoir
Yorkshire Baroque Soloists: bit.ly/YBSoloists

All our concerts (except for the December concert at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall) are performed in the spacious St Michael le Belfrey a historic church in the heart of the city.

 YBC Concert reminder service: http://bit.ly/1nbRxIJ

Twitter: @YorksBachChoir 
Facebook: Yorkshire Bach Choir
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/yorksbachchoir
Email: marketing@yorkshirebachchoir.org

Final concert of 2014/15 Season - Purcell: Dido and Aeneas

Autograph Manuscript of My heart is inditing

 Purcell concert 20 June

Our 2014/15 season ends with a programme celebrating the music of  Henry Purcell.  The first half of the concert will feature a selection of Purcell's most brilliant, large-scale string anthems.  The grandest is probably My heart is inditing which was composed for the coronation of King James II in 1685.  O Sing unto the Lord (1688) is a wonderfully inventive anthem in several sections which is noteworthy for its colourful, Italianate vocal style. Another similarly large-scale anthem My beloved spake - dating from before 1678 - sets an evocative text from The Song of Solomon with great freshness and imagination. We also perform the joyous Rejoice in the Lord alway (1682-5) popularly known as the 'Bell Anthem' with its pealing string overture.   

Bethany Seymour

The second half of the concert will feature a concert performance of Dido and Aeneas  a relatively compact opera which is undoubtedly one of Purcell's greatest achievements.  It tells the ancient tale of Dido, the tragic Carthaginian queen.  Dido will be sung by Bethany Seymour, a regular member of YBC, who also pursues a successful career as a solo and consort singer.  Alongside the character of Dido, the work is filled with vivid orchestral music and supporting characters who will be voiced by other members of YBC. 2015 marks the 300th anniversary of the death of Nahum Tate poet laureate and famous adaptor of The History of King Lear which dominated the London stage throughout the 18th century.  You can read a fascinating article here, written by David Jays, on the importance of Tate's contribution to Dido. All in all, the work offers a economic, but vivid musical journey from its exciting, drama laden overture to the pathos filled final aria 'When I am laid in earth'.

The Purcell concert takes places at St Michael le Belfrey York and starts at 7.30pm on Saturday 20 June. Tickets priced at £18 (£16 concessions) are available here or on the door.

Mrs Celia Burgan pictured with recipients of the Celia Burgan Award

Celia Burgan Award

YBC is delighted to announce that we were were able to award three members of the choir the Celia Burgan Award.  Previously known as the Yorkshire Bach Choir Award, it is given to members of the choir to finance vocal lessons.  The award is particularly aimed at non-music students who specialise in vocal performance and are members of the choir.  This year we were able to give the award to three students at the University of York, Saul Jones, Kasia Slawski and Maddy Power.  Here they are pictured with Mrs Celia Burgan during the interval of our May concert. It is Celia's generous support of the choir over many years that we honour in the renaming of this award.

Beethoven 9 with The Academy of St Olave's

In the week following the final concert of our 2014/15 season we are thrilled to be taking part in the Jessie's Fund 20th Anniversary Concert by providing a chorus for the final part of Beethoven: 9th Symphony. The concert will take place on Saturday 27 June at 8pm in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York. The concert will also feature Beethoven: The Consecration of the House (Overture) and David Blake: Searching the Skies. 

Further details on tickets and prices can be found on the Academy of St Olave's website.

We would like to thank all our friends and patrons for their continued support of the choir.  Details of our forthcoming season in 2015/16 will be made available shortly on our website.