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John R Rice Bob Jones Sr S D Gordon Hyma Biography & Facts

Bath Bach Choir, formerly The City of Bath Bach Choir (CBBC), is based in Bath, Somerset, England, and is a registered charity. Founded in 1946 by Cuthbert Bates, who also became a founding father of the Bath Bach Festival in 1950, the choir's original aim was to promote the music of Johann Sebastian Bach via periodic music festivals. Bates – an amateur musician with a great love and understanding of this composer's works – was also the CBBC's principal conductor and continued in this role until his sudden death, in April 1980. This untimely exit pre-empted his planned retirement concert performance of J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor, scheduled for July of the same year, and effectively ended the first period of the choir's history. Distinguished Handel scholar Denys Darlow succeeded Cuthbert Bates as musical director in 1980 and remained in the post until 1990. He was followed by Nigel Perrin, who remained Musical Director until December 2022. Perrin began his musical life as a chorister at Ely Cathedral, then won a choral scholarship to King's College, Cambridge, studying under Sir David Willcocks. In 1970 he also joined the newly formed King's Singers, having sung with them on an occasional basis after graduation in the summer of 1969, and thereafter entertaining the world throughout the 1970s as the highest voice (counter-tenor) of the irrepressible and ground-breaking vocal group. In 2023, Benedict Collins Rice was appointed music director, only the fourth in 75 years. Originally from Oxfordshire, Collins Rice held two conducting scholarships at the University of Cambridge before continuing his studies with the Heads of Conducting at the Royal College of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and the University of Birmingham where he studied under Simon Halsey. Performing throughout Europe and the US, he has recorded for several labels, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and founded a chamber group, The Facade Ensemble. The first president of the CBBC was Dr Ralph Vaughan Williams until 1958. Sir Arthur Bliss, then Master of the Queen's Music (Musik), took over as president in 1959, followed in 1975 by Sir David Willcocks, until 2015. In 2016 David Hill, musical director of The Bach Choir, was elected president of Bath Bach Choir, and Jonathan Willcocks a vice president. Overview The Bath Bach Choir, a member of the Cultural Forum for the Bath area, has an illustrious history and continues to perform demanding and diverse choral works in the UK and overseas. Membership is governed by audition. The choir is widely regarded as one of the leading musical forces in the west of England and continues to perform two major orchestral concerts annually with a lighter concert in the summer. Most take place at Bath Abbey but other venues include Exeter Cathedral, The Forum, Bath the Michael Tippett Centre, the Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford on Avon and the Roper Theatre, Hayesfield Girls' School, Bath. Recent performances have included Sergei Rachmaninov, All-Night Vigil (Rachmaninoff), J.S Bach's St Matthew Passion and Mass in B minor, Mass in Blue by Will Todd, accompanied by the composer, Elis Pehkonen's Russian Requiem, also in the composer's presence, works by Sir Karl Jenkins and Sir James MacMillan's St John Passion who attend the concert performed in Wells Cathedral. The choir's 60th Anniversary Concert, in the Wiltshire Music Centre in 2007, comprised a newly commissioned work by Ed Hughes, called Song for St Cecilia. The choir regularly tours abroad: Karl Jenkins’ Requiem was performed at Carnegie Hall, New York, in 2008, and concerts have taken place at Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, Paris, and in Hungary, Belgium and Germany. In 2009 the choir was invited to perform in the famous Thomaskirche, where Johann Sebastian Bach was once choirmaster, Aix-en-Provence, in 2013, and the Bath Bach Choir's most recent tour to Barcelona: Barcelona Cathedral, Sagrada Família, Santa Maria del Mar, Barcelona in 2015. Today, referred to as the Bath Bach Choir, the choir comprises about 100 committed singers from Bath and its environs, such as Frome, drawn from all walks of life, offering them the opportunity to sing challenging works at the very highest level with professional orchestras and soloists – the very proposition Cuthbert Bates made in 1946. The choir maintains an active list of patrons and friends who support its musical work in return for a range of related benefits. The early years 1946–1980 The City of Bath Bach Choir gave its inaugural concert in June 1947 in Bath Abbey, performing J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor. Cuthert Bates chose Alan Bennett, then head of music at City of Bath Boys' School (today Beechen Cliff School), to take on the roles of collaborator, assistant musical director and assistant director of the Bath Bach Festivals; the distinguished composer Dr. Ralph Vaughan Williams was appointed as president. In December 1947 the choir gave its first Carols by Candlelight concert in the historic Grand Pump Room, Bath, at which the choir displayed versatility and musicianship by introducing new carols and arrangements as well as old favourites for audience participation. These annual Christmas concerts continue to this day. A year after his death, in August 1958, Vaughan Williams was succeeded as president by Sir Arthur Bliss, Master of the Queen's Music. Sir Arthur died on 27 March 1975 and was replaced in July 1975 by distinguished choral musician and current president Sir David Willcocks, then famous for his work as the director of music at King's College, Cambridge, who had recently been appointed director of the Royal College of Music. The first Bath Bach Festival, in October 1950, commemorated the bicentenary of the eponymous composer's death and was a great success. A further seven festivals were held at approximately four-year intervals until 1982 but the eighth was a financial disaster and indicated the end of an era. However, in 1995 the Bath Bach Festival tradition was revived by Elizabeth Bates, Cuthbert Bates' daughter, and periodic Bach Festivals continued in Bath under her direction until October 2010. A new mini-Bath Bachfest was initiated in February 2012, sponsored by the Bath Mozartfest Charitable Trust. In its first 35 years the City of Bath Bach Choir gave many performances of Bach's major choral works, including its signature work – the Mass in B minor – as well as the St Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Christmas Oratorio and numerous cantatas and motets. Other European composers were also represented, since choir policy has always been to explore lesser-known masterpieces in addition to popular choral repertoire. The choir gave one of the first modern performances of the Claudio Monteverdi Vespers of 1610, and other concerts included works by Bononcini, Francesco Cavalli, Antonio Vivaldi, Heinrich Schütz, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Camille Saint-Saëns, Gustav Holst, A.... Discover the John R Rice Bob Jones Sr S D Gordon Hyma popular books. Find the top 100 most popular John R Rice Bob Jones Sr S D Gordon Hyma books.