Artist Spotlight - Tenor Jonathan Hanley

Jonathan Hanley is tenor soloist in our upcoming performance of Handel, Vivaldi and Hadyn at the York Early Music Christmas Festival.  Jonathan is a lay clerk at Peterborough Cathedral and pursues both a choral and solo singing career. Over the last year, he has been a member of the prestigious Genesis Sixteen programme for young singers. As a soloist, Jonathan has performed with a number of ensembles, including appearances at the Trame Sonore Chamber Music Festival in Mantua, the Malcolm Arnold Festival, and the Beverley and York Early Music Festivals. Recent repertoire has included Handel Saul and Messiah, Schütz St John Passion, Bach Magnificat, Haydn Creation, Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Monteverdi 1610 Vespers, Malcolm Arnold Song of Simeon, and Beethoven 9th Symphony. He has appeared as a recitalist in programmes of English song and lieder across the country. He is a soloist on a forthcoming CD of Humfrey Verse Anthems with Edward Higginbottom and the Instruments of Time and Truth. Jonathan currently studies with Richard Edgar Wilson.

We began by asking Jonathan to tell us a bit more about performing with Yorkshire Bach Choir...

I started singing with Yorkshire Bach Choir in my first year at university, way back in 2011, and have really enjoyed returning to York to join them since moving to Peterborough 2 years ago. They’re always programmes of fantastic music performed with style and conviction, and it’s really wonderful to come back and perform with such a dedicated and fun bunch!

I’m guessing you’ve sung some of the repertoire before, what do you interests you about this particular piece?

I love all of the music in the programme but the Handel is a particular favourite. I love the Italian influences and its virtuosity – it’s physically thrilling to sing. What I find most interesting about the piece is variety of different choral writing – particularly the semiquaver figures in ‘secundum ordinem Melchisedech’ and the ‘conquasabit’ with all its repeated crotchets. I also think the ‘de torrente’ is one of the most stunning pieces of music. I do think he could’ve added in an extra tenor solo though!

Detail of Handel statue by Louis-François Roubiliac

 What is the hardest thing about performing?

I think the hardest thing about performing is finding the balance between thinking about technique, stagecraft, expression and communication. It’s easy to get wrapped up in one thing, a particular text, for example, which makes the other things slip to the back of your mind - maybe the secret is to have them slip only half way!

Is there any piece of music or repertoire that haven’t had the opportunity to perform yet but would like to?

There are three things that I would love to sing before I die (!) which are the Evangelist in the Bach St John Passion, Elgar Gerontius and Britten St Nicolas – I was Baby St Nicolas as a chorister and I can remember thinking as I stepped down from the pulpit where I had been singing to let St Nicolas on for the end of the movement that I wanted to sing it.

Who is the composer (dead or alive) that you’d most like to meet?

Benjamin Britten.

What is your musical guilty pleasure?

I don’t know whether I should be that guilty about it, but every Christmas, I have to listen to ‘Messiah – a Soulful Celebration’. If you don’t know it, have a listen! 

Handel's Messiah: A Soulful Celebration (Various artists)

When you’re not practising or performing, how else do you like to spend your time?

Probably in the kitchen or watching my latest Netflix obsession.

How do you mostly listen to music?

I’m always plugged into my iPhone when I’m on the move, and have a really good Bose speaker at home which I’m sure annoy my neighbours.

If you hadn’t become a musician, what other job would you have liked to do?

I went to university originally intending to do a law conversion after my history degree, and I think I would enjoy being a lawyer and arguing for a living!

Who would play you in the film of your life?

I have no idea, but I would like to think it would be Jude Law!

If you could go back in time, where would you go?

As a History graduate, this is an extremely difficult question to answer, but as a medievalist I think I would have to go back to fifteenth-century Europe, but I couldn’t be more specific than that – there would be too much to see!
  

We look forward to hearing Jonathan as tenor soloist in Handel Dixit Dominus and Haydn Nelson Mass with Yorkshire Bach Choir and Yorkshire Baroque Soloists conducted by Peter Seymour. Vocal soloists include Bethany Seymour, Wendy Goodson (Sopranos), Nancy Cole (Mezzo Soprano) & Frederick Long (Bass).  The programme also includes Vivaldi Gloria.

The concert takes place on Saturday 9 December 7.30pm at Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York.

The concert is part of the York Early Music Festival.

A handful of final tickets for the concert are available in advance via bit.ly/YBCXmas 

Artist Spotlight - Oboist Anthony Robson

Recognised as an international leader in the field of historical oboe performance Anthony Robson is a long-standing member of Yorkshire Baroque Soloists.  As an orchestral musician, chamber musician and soloist he has appeared with leading period orchestras including the English Baroque Soloists, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Collegium Musicum 90. His discography of solo performance includes complete recordings of oboe concerti of JS Bach and Albinoni which have received considerable critical acclaim. 

We began naturally with JS Bach and asking Tony for his take on his work...

It’s the sheer genius of it all, in the case of the choral works it’s the 

complete understanding of the text and how he picks the 

instrumentation and thematic subject to suit. I also love his idiomatic 

instrumental writing, he obviously had some sensational players at his 

disposal. 

What do you most enjoy about performing in York?

Who wouldn’t enjoy performing in York? I’m a Yorkshireman born and 

bred, it’s always nice to come home, and St Michael le Belfrey [where Yorkshire Baroque Soloists often perform] is the ideal venue for baroque music.  

What is the hardest thing about performing?

I find that the most difficult thing is being too hard on oneself, when you 

feel that you might not have delivered your best (it sometimes happens 

we’re only human !) and you feel you have let your fellow musicians and 

the composer down. The tiniest mishaps like a missed note can be so 

devastating but one has to think of the bigger picture or it would become 

impossible to survive. Having high standards can be so detrimental to 

expression, you have to find a way to get through that barrier so that you 

can really fly and express what you feel in your heart, what the 

composer is trying to convey, and how you can get the audience in the 

palm of your hand and take them on that journey. 

Tony coaching York's Minster Minstrels at the NCEM as part of the 

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Anthem project

Is there any piece of music or repertoire that haven’t had the opportunity to perform yet but would like to?

I always regret the fact that I never got to play the Swan Lake ballet of 

Tchaikovsky, and it’s certainly too late now ! It was hearing the exquisite 

solo at the start of the second act that led me to take up the oboe at the 

age of 11. I remember telling my daughter my regret and her reply was 

‘Oh Dad, that solo was made for you !’ 

When you’re not practising or performing, how else do you like to spend your time?

I like to come up to Yorkshire whenever I can and spend time with my 

partner who lives near Haworth, luckily I get to do that a lot ! We enjoy 

pootling about in Yorkshire and the Lake District and drink a lot of beer ! 

If you hadn’t become a musician, what other job would you have liked to do?

None, I simply can’t imagine ever having been anything but ! 

How do you mostly listen to music?

Well to be honest, I don’t much, I might occasionally think, ‘I haven’t 

heard Mahler 4 in a while’ and pop on a CD but generally I don’t ‘take 

my work home’ because it’s so inferior an experience than actually 

performing music. 

Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?

I’d love to sit at table with Bach and Handel and find out if they got along 

at all !

Bach and Handel: Good dinner guests?

We look forward to hearing Anthony playing oboe for the Yorkshire Baroque Soloists in JS Bach: Magnificat & Cantata BWV 140 Wachet Auf (Sleepers, wake) and CPE Bach: Magnificat with Yorkshire Bach Choir and conducted by Peter Seymour. 

Vocal soloists include Bethany Seymour (Soprano), Wendy Goodson (Soprano), Rachel Lancaster (Alto), Solomon Hayes (Alto), Jason Darnell (Tenor) & Gareth Brynmor John (Baritone).

The concert takes place on Saturday 10 December 7.30pm at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York.

Tickets are available in advance via bit.ly/YBachXmas 

The concert is part of the York Early Christmas Festival 2016

Artist spotlight - Baritone Gareth Brynmor John

Gareth Brynmor John - Photo credit Robert Workman

Gareth Brynmor John is soloist in our upcoming performance of JS Bach and CPE Bach at the York Early Music Christmas Festival. Winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award, baritone Gareth Brynmor John studied at St John’s College, Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music where, in his final year, he won the Royal Academy of Music Patrons’ Award. He recently studied at the National Opera Studio where he was supported by the Royal Opera House, Richard Carne Trust, and Chris Ball. He will make his debut with Welsh National Opera singing Schaunard (La Bohème) in Spring 2017.

We caught up with Gareth and asked him some questions about his life as a musician.

What do you most enjoy about performing in York?

I love coming to York. My wife studied English at the University and I visited every fortnight for three years. It brings back very happy memories.

What is the hardest thing about performing?

Often a performance could be the culmination of several weeks (or even months) work. You want to show the audience your best work, and that delivering that can be stressful.

How do you prepare for performing this kind of repertoire?
Music of this era is often fast moving with lots of runs. It requires the voice to be agile, and the brain to know where it is going. There are no shortcuts. It takes time.

Detail from the autograph score of CPE Bach: Magnificat

Is there any piece of music or repertoire that haven’t had the opportunity to perform yet but would like to?

As a singer, our instrument is part of our bodies and it carries on changing as we get older. Some of the bigger operatic repertoire isn't right for my voice yet, but I would love to sing some Verdi at some point.

Which living musician do you most admire?

Daniel Barenboim as both a musician and a performer. And because he's not scared to believe that making music can be a practical force for good in the world.

What is your musical guilty pleasure?

Mariah Carey...

How do you mostly listen to music?

I don't find music that relaxing to have on in the background, so mostly, I deliberately sit down and listen to music on a stereo at home. I suppose I'm lucky that I have time in the day to do that.

If you hadn’t become a musician, what other job would you have liked to do?

I think in another life, I would like to be an engineer. It seems like their work can be so varied, and exciting. The benefits of the work they do are very tangible as well.

Who would play you in the film of your life?

Colin Firth obviously - can't you see the resemblance? (sigh)

What keeps you awake at night?

Listening to old trashy Radio 4 sitcoms on BBC iPlayer - you can't beat them. That and my two year old daughter!

We look forward to hearing Gareth singing alongside other soloists Bethany Seymour (Soprano), Wendy Goodson (Soprano), Rachel Lancaster (Alto) Solomon Hayes (Alto) & Jason Darnell (Tenor) in JS Bach: Magnificat & Cantata BWV 140 Wachet Auf (Sleepers, wake) and CPE Bach: Magnificat. Accompanied by Yorkshire Baroque Soloists and conducted by Peter Seymour

Saturday 10 December 7.30pm at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York.

Tickets are available in advance via bit.ly/YBachXmas 

The concert is part of the York Early Christmas Festival 2016

 Further details on Gareth can be found on his website: http://www.garethjohnbaritone.co.uk/

Yorkshire Bach Choir 2016-17: Bach and beyond

Image copyright Ian Martindale: http://www.ianmartindalephotography.co.uk/

We are happy to announce our 2016-17 concert season! Join us for a year of music brimming with inspiration, excitement and history.

Yorkshire Bach Choir has a reputation for the quality and authenticity of its performances including the greatest pieces in the choral repertoire. Along with this familiar fare, this season will introduce less familiar music from figures as diverse as CPE Bach and Zoltan Kodály. For lovers of great choral or early music can there be a better way to spend a Saturday evening in York?

Renaissance Unchained: 29.10.16

Byrd (TL), Lassus (TR), Sweelinck (BR),
Victoria (BL), Palestrina (Ctr)

Our opening concert showcases the variety and depth of music across Europe during the Renaissance with music by Byrd, Sweelinck, Lassus, Palestrina and Victoria. Challenging the idea that Renaissance musical innovation was centred exclusively in Italy it includes music from Spain, the Low Countries and our own Isles. 

We unlock the mysteries of William Byrd’s intriguing Mass for Five Voices which was secretly performed in the private chapels of devout English Catholics during the turbulence of the late sixteenth century. Italy is not ignored in our tour of Europe as we perform Palestrina’s plangeant, suspension-filled setting of the Stabat Mater for double choir. Other gems of Renaissance music included in the programme are the exquisite motet ‘Justorum Animae’ by Lassus and a festive ‘Hodie’ by Sweelinck.

Further details: bit.ly/YBRenaissance

YBC @ Illuminating York

We are thrilled that this opening concert will once again be a part of the artistic programme for the Illuminating York Festival. We are pleased that our singing will once again be part of the magical atmosphere across the city on evenings of the festival. 

This year's festival makes a particular focus of some of York’s greatest religious spaces including York Minster and the adjacent St Michael le Belfrey which is the home of our concert series. Illuminations on the exterior of St Michael le Belfrey promise to be complemented by tranquil sonorities inside.   

Bach at Christmas: 10.12.16

For our December concert we make the first of two visits this season to the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall (University of York) to perform Bach at Christmas with Yorkshire Baroque Soloists. The concert includes an unmissable trio of festive works with JS Bach’s Magnificat and cantata Wachet Auf (Sleepers, wake’). Particularly exciting will be the York premiere of CPE Bach’s exciting setting of the Magnificat text.  

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

Further details: bit.ly/YBachXmas

Heinrich Schütz at the Dresden Court: 4.02.17

2017 will open with Heinrich Schütz at the Dresden Court when we explore the wonderful range of music written by one of the most important, innovative composers of the seventeenth century. 

We showcase the range of his musical style from his expressive, trailblazing settings of the passion story to the sonorous vocal textures of his colourful psalms.    

Further details: bit.ly/YBSchutz

Bach: Mass in B minor: 18.03.17

Completed in the final year of his life, the monumental Mass in B minor is arguably Bach's greatest achievement. All in all, it is the perfect realisation of his endlessly flexible and inventive musical style. 

An outstanding line-up of vocal soloists complements the period-style agility of Yorkshire Baroque Soloists.

Book early for what promises to be a highlight of 2017 musical life in York!

Further details: bit.ly/YBach 

20th Century Choral Classics: 13.05.17

Organist Ben Horden

We return to the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall (University of York) on 13 May for a colourful programme of music for organ and choir entitled 20th Century Choral Classics accompanied by organist Ben Horden. 

In this concert we present three distinctive twentieth century settings of spiritual texts for voices and organ. Both Kodály and Duruflé take their cue from earlier musical styles, especially Gregorian chant, and reinvent familiar texts in the full technicolour of their own individual musical languages. Completing the trio of works is Walton’s The Twelve a hugely imaginative and distinctive setting of W H Auden’s words.    

Read more about Ben Horden at http://www.benhorden.com/

Further details: bit.ly/YB20thCent

Monteverdi: Vespers (1641) and Carissimi: Jephte: 17.06.17

YBC and Yorkshire Baroque Soloists at
York Early Music Festival December 2015

Known as ‘the other vespers’, Monteverdi’s 1641 collection Selva morale e spirituale is a greatest hits compilation from his many years’ experience as a church composer. The virtuosic settings combine a characteristic combination of weighty, expansive choral writing and exquisite vocal solos. Forming an ad hoc vespers sequence, the music performed reflects Monteverdi’s revolutionary, colourful treatment of voices and instruments. Dramatic flair and vividly imagined biblical characters are the hallmarks of Carissimi’s compact masterpiece Jephte. 

Further details: bit.ly/YBVespers

Come to hear us!

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. For the first time this year £5 student tickets will be available in advance of the concert.

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

All our concerts (except for the December and May 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

Artist spotlight - Tenor Matthew Long

Matthew Long

Our tenor soloist for Messiah is rising star Matthew Long. As an alumni of Yorkshire Bach Choir, former chorister at York Minster and music student at the University of York, Matt has strong ties with the city of York. Now based in London, Matt has travelled the word with some of the world’s finest ensembles.  He has even released his own album recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road studios. We started by asking him to recall his experiences as a student at York and why he enjoys coming back to the musical city helped shape him.

Matt began by commenting:

As an undergraduate student, I think it can be difficult to have a perspective of how important and formative time spent working with good ensembles can be. I now look back at my time in Yorkshire Bach Choir with great fondness. To have been part of such high calibre music making as a 19/20  year old student was a real privilege and I owe a lot to the experience I gained whilst singing in YBC.

Have you had the opportunity to return to York since you left a few years ago?

I've come back to sing on quite a few occasions under different guises. With the Sixteen, I Fagiolini and as a soloist. It's always a joy to be here and see old friends and familiar faces and places.

Musically, when do you feel the happiest?

At the end of most concerts! That's not true [...] I spent a lot of my twenties worrying about how to get better at singing, how to get the better work, how to make enough money etc. It's a tough and hugely competitive world for a young singer. In the last few years I've taken a step back from this view and taken time to enjoy the other things in life that aren't music. 

More specifically I recently performed Britten's War Requiem for the first time. It was one of my most satisfying musical experiences to date. Also, working on my debut solo album, choosing repertoire, booking musicians etc. was a hugely rewarding and educational experience.

Which living musician do you most admire?

Hmm…. Difficult….The work of Mr Justin Bieber is underrated I feel.

Seriously, who is the composer (dead or alive) that you’d most like to meet?

J S Bach (obviously).

As a youngster, did you ever have a eureka moment performing a certain piece of music?

I have very strong memories of first performing Monteverdi's Vespers with YBC. I'd never heard music like it before. The intricacy, the power of the extended cadences, and the simple beauty of the monody. It switched a switch in me somewhere. I have gone on to perform it probably more than any other work.

When you’re not practising or performing, how else do you like to spend your time?

Music can be all consuming and I've found this isn't always helpful. Taking a step back can help focus the mind. I've not been happier to be working in music than since I adopted this approach. I'm a keen follower of wildlife conservation and all things 'biodiverse' and green! I love to go walking in the wilder places we have in the UK, usually with my camera.

What is your most treasured possession?

My wife [Matt laughs]! She would hate that I've written that. No? Let's go with our cat, Florence. Although she owns me in truth. As does my wife.

What keeps you awake at night?

Often it's the music of the next or most recent concert I've been involved in.

What would your super power be?

Constantly reliable vocal cords.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?

London 25,000 years ago. When Lions, Hyenas, Hippos and Elephants roamed the land where London now lies. That would be pretty cool. I wouldn't stay for very long!

Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?

J. S. Bach, Sir David Attenborough, Scarlett Johansson, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Dr Alan Rabinowitz ( look him up, he has quite a story), Jimmy Hendrix, Nigel Farage, Jo Brand…. yep, that should provide some interesting conversation!



We look forward to hearing Matt singing ‘Comfort ye’ and kicking off what will certainly be a very special performance of Messiah with Yorkshire Bach Choir, Yorkshire Baroque Soloists alongside a stellar line up of soloists. 

York Early Music Christmas Festival

Tickets are available in advance at the National Centre for Early Music by clicking here: bit.ly/1wBSQ63

The York Early Music Festival runs from 5-14 December and further details can be found here: http://www.ncem.co.uk/xmas

Further details on Matthew Long including details of his debut solo disc Songs of These Isles with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, accompanist Malcolm Martineau and guitarist Rufus Miller can be found on his website: http://www.matthew-long.co.uk/