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!
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 last year 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 test 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.
Rehearsals takes place on Wednesday evenings in central Bury from September to early June and our concert venues include The Apex, St Edmundsbury Cathedral and St Mary’s Church in Bury St Edmunds and the Church of St Peter & St Paul, Lavenham for our Christmas concert.
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 our website will give you all the information you need and I look forward to seeing you soon - perhaps as a new member of the choir, perhaps in the audience at one of our concerts?
Singing together is a joyful experience.
James Heathcote
Chair of Bury Bach Choir
