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 

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