If you're thinking of joining a choir, welcome to Bury Bach Choir’s website.
When Percy Hallam founded the choir in 1932, his first ambition had been "to perform Bach's great choral masterpieces" but of course we don’t just sing Bach!
The Bury Bach Choir has 80-100 active singing members and is fortunate to be able to perform a wide range of music with professional soloists and orchestra in a number of beautiful venues – St Edmundsbury Cathedral, St Mary’s Church in Bury St Edmunds, St Peter and St Paul Church in Lavenham, and of course the wonderful Apex concert hall in the centre of Bury St Edmunds.
Over the past five years we have sung works by Britten, Bruckner, Elgar, Fauré, Handel, Haydn, Holst, Mozart, Orff, Martines, Puccini, Purcell and Vivaldi and in 2023 we appointed a new Music Director, Benedict Collins Rice – our fourth in over 90 years – under whose baton we continue to grow, bringing fresh eyes to new repertoire and old favourites.
The choir currently numbers around 100 members and we are keen to grow our numbers. Each term we therefore welcome new members in all sections - people who have spent all their lives singing in a choir and those who may have never sung before but have always wanted to do so.
It takes a large choir to sing some of the bigger works and for most of our concerts we are accompanied by an orchestra and professional soloists. We set ourselves a high, but not unreasonable, standard and all new singers are invited to meet with Benedict for a quick voice check after a few weeks singing with us … but this should not deter anyone interested in joining. New members are made welcome and paired with a buddy to look after them as they find their way in the choir and with the new music.
Concerts on this scale are expensive to present and we are very grateful to the many Friends, Benefactors, Corporate Sponsors and Patrons who support us.
I hope this website will give you all the information you need and I look forward to seeing you soon. Just click below to find out more.
Singing together is a joyful experience.
James Heathcote
Chair of Bury Bach Choir
