Our 4 July concert features Ralph Vaughan Williams' 'Three Shakespeare Songs'. Words for 'Full Fathom Five' & 'The Cloud-Capp'd Towers' come from The Tempest, & 'Over Hill, Over Dale' sets text from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Find out more and book now at birmingham.bachchoir.com/concerts---t...

Does everybody else find themselves humming this today, or is it just us...? #barleybreake

New term, new programme! We're looking forward to a summer concert of Shakespeare-themed words & music by composers inc. Ralph Vaughan Williams, George Shearing, Sven-Eric Johanson & Ward Swingle! Join us Sat. 4 July, 3.30pm, St Mary Magdalene, Bridgnorth. birmingham.bachchoir.com/concerts---t...

Wishing all our members, friends & followers a very happy & restful Easter weekend, wherever you are & whatever you're doing! Just over two years ago we performed Bach's St Matthew Passion at Lichfield cathedral: good luck to everybody singing wonderful music of any kind around this time of year!

Less than a week to go until our concert on 14 March @stchadsbirm.bsky.social featuring music by Gesualdo, Byrd, Tallis, Phinot, Lotti & Victoria! Have you booked your ticket(s) yet? For more details, see: birmingham.bachchoir.com/concerts---t...

Very proud of our Music Director Paul Spicer, who was awarded the RCO Medal by @rcorganists.bsky.social at a ceremony at Southwark Cathedral yesterday. Congratulations Paul!

🔸This Thursday, 5 March 2026🔸Professor David Saint, Director of Music at @stchadsbirm.bsky.social St Chad’s Cathedral Birmingham, plays the 1:15pm Thursday LIVE Organ Recital. Admission is free with a retiring collection. 🆓 ⬇️ Programme ⬇️

In our concert on 14 March also we're singing the first of Tallis' exquisite Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet. Tallis lived from 1505 to 1585 & composed music under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I & Elizabeth I, adapting his musical style to suit the twists and turns of Tudor religious policy.

Read more about our upcoming concert @stchadsbirm.bsky.social, with readings by Archbishop of Birmingham Bernard Longley, here: www.whatsonlive.co.uk/birmingham/n...

Big congratulations to our MD Paul Spicer whose new book was published this week. In it he talks about the choral instrument, scores, interpretation, gesture, rehearsals, recordings, & more. But he begins with the ears... For details (& to order): www.crowood.com/book/choral-... #choralmusic

Congratulations to the BBC singers on their recent performance of Howells's sublime 'Hymnus Paradisi' with Ian Farrington's arrangement for small orchestra. We're performing the same work in spring 2028, conducted by Paul Spicer, Howells' biographer & former pupil! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

One of the challenges of singing this beautiful Renaissance polyphony is preserving a sense of phrasing and direction in long lines while maintaining quality of tone. In this clip from our recent vocal workshop Ghislaine Morgan talks about staggered breathing, based on her professional experience.

Something a little different from last Saturday morning! Here's Ghislaine Morgan leading us in a semi-occluded vocal tract exercise, which involved the choir 'singing' through a straw into a cup with a few centimetres of water. Definitely one for the rehearsal room, as opposed to the concert hall...

We had a brilliant coaching session/vocal workshop with the wonderful Ghislaine Morgan over the weekend. Some video clips to follow, but here are a few pictures: Ghislaine in action; chatting with Paul Spicer and Paul Carr at the piano; talking to choir members; and members enjoying a coffee break.

A very interesting day: Firstly accompanying @birminghambach.bsky.social’s vocal workshop with Paul Spicer and Ghislaine Morgan, then on to St Bart’s Penn for BACH @ BART’S rehearsal and play for the Saturday Communion Service.

Hurry, Hurry! Three weeks to go until this concert at The Apex and only 60 tickets available! Grab them now ➡️ shorturl.at/YdOaK #themajestyofhandel #burybachchoir #bookticketsnow #burystedmunds #TooHotToHandel

We're really looking forward to a vocal workshop tomorrow with the exceptionally talented Ghislaine Morgan, who'll be working with us on our current programme of renaissance choral music (Gesualdo, Byrd, Tallis, Victoria, Phinot, etc.). For Ghislaine's info see: www2.verrocchio.co.uk/cirps/index....

Really loving this programme with @officialuom.bsky.social Chorus! Ešenvalds, Dove, Lili Boulanger, Borodin, Tchaikovsky & Sibelius - there really is something for everyone! Tickets are flying!! 👇 www.rncm.ac.uk/performance/...

Gesualdo's personal life remained as colourful and complex as his music. Having murdered his wife & her lover in 1590, he married Leonora d'Este in 1594, & subsequently took a mistress of his own. In 1603 Leonora accused her husband's mistress of witchcraft and she was convicted and imprisoned.

Gesualdo's uncle, Carlo Borromeo, had called for the enrichment of sacred music through chromaticism, & Gesualdo also owned an 'arcicembalo', a keyboard instrument invented by Nicola Vicentino c.1555, with a second manual designed to provide extra pitches to create a system of 31 equal temperament.

🔸BACH @ BART’S 🔸 starts this Sunday. Every Sunday in Lent at 6:30pm in St Bartholomew’s Church Penn, Wolverhampton. Organ works by J.S. Bach including all six Trio Sonatas. Admission free with a retiring collection towards the St Bart’s Choir Summer Tour. Details ⬇️

Packing your bag for the weekly choir rehearsal: music, pencil, glasses, apple, mug for interval coffee. What do you consider essential that I've left out?!

One of our first basses, James Langstaff, was on BBC West Midlands a few weeks ago speaking to Donna Alos about our upcoming concert of sacred music by Byrd, Gesualdo, Lotti, Tallis, Victoria & others - have a listen, it's 5 minutes well spent! on.soundcloud.com/MAtnfZO1jj3w...

Later in his life Gesualdo turned from writing secular madrigals to penning sacred works. Deeply melancholic, he venerated his sainted uncle Carlo Borromeo, and an anonymous observer recorded that 'he is opposed to innovation, attends to money-making and does not delight in anything but music'.

This term one of the works we're performing is Gesualdo's spellbinding 'Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday'. Gesualdo is equally notorious for the pervasive chromaticism of his music and his murder of his wife and her lover, caught ‘in flagrante delicto di fragrante peccato’, in October 1590.

Having already written biographies of Herbert Howells, Sir George Dyson, and Sir Arthur Bliss, Paul's latest book, on choral conducting, is published later this month: www.crowood.com/book/choral-...

Our Music Director since 1992 has been the inspirational Paul Spicer, who next month will be awarded the RCO medal for distinguished achievement in choral conducting and pedagogy, and scholarship.

Richard Butt was conductor of the then-named Birmingham Bach Society from 1966-1992, during which time the choir gave a performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor with the Leipzig Radio Orchestra (1 June 1989) at J.S. Bach's own church of St Thomas, Leipzig.

We might be new to Bluesky, but we were founded over 100 years ago by Bernard Jackson in October 1919. This picture is us rehearsing a mere 58 years ago in St Paul's Church, Birmingham, with Richard Butt.

We're excited to be making our debut Bluesky post, and it's a good one! Join us for a stunning programme of sacred choral music on 14 March at St Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham...