city of birmingham choir
Birmingham
It is our Centenary in 2021 and 2022. Since 1921, the City of Birmingham Choir
has entertained audiences with a wide and adventurous repertoire. Performing in
historic Town Hall and in magnificent Symphony Hall, we have enjoyed a warm
musical partnership with the city’s outstanding orchestra, the CBSO. Even during
the COVID-19 pandemic, the choir continued to rehearse and present performances
online. We have enjoyed rehearsing and performing together again since the
autumn of 2021 as well as giving live concerts in Symphony Hall, Town Hall and
Tewkesbury Abbey. Our Centenary concert centrepiece is Vaughan Williams’ A Sea
Symphony in November 2022. Read about the choir: History and Concert Archive.
Our Conductor and Musical Director is Adrian Lucas. Adrian brings a wealth of
experience as one of the country’s leading choral directors and conductors.
Composer, teacher, conductor and all-round versatile musician, Colin Baines is
our Accompanist. We have sung the major choral works as well as challenging
newer compositions and a wide range of smaller scale music. The standard of our
performances draws consistent praise. In Symphony Hall… As well as the CBSO, we
have worked with the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra
of the Swan, BBC Concert Orchestra, Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra and
Westminster Chamber Orchestra. We joined the CBSO Chorus and CBSO for the
much-praised centenary performances of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles
and The Kingdom. We have performed some of the more intimate choral repertoire
in ‘out of town’ venues such as Tewkesbury Abbey and Gloucester Cathedral.
Easter 2017 saw our second hugely successful and enjoyable overseas tour –
singing Handel’s Messiah in the Stephansdom in Vienna – following a tour to
Paris in April 2015. A highly acclaimed performance of James MacMillan’s Seven
Last Words from the Cross, our stylish annual Handel’s Messiah performances,
collaborations with Birmingham Schools Symphony Orchestra (Walton’s Belshazzar’s
Feast in 2017), Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with period instruments – these are
some highlights. Amongst our 90th birthday celebrations was the ground-breaking
Equinox concert bringing together musicians from many cultures. A Christmas
Treats CD was recorded in the same year. Exploring both more familiar territory
(Handel, Bach, Monteverdi, Brahms, Mozart, Haydn, Elgar, Vaughan Williams,
Holst, Britten, Finzi), and less well-known, (such as Samuel Wesley, Howells,
Rautavaara, Kenneth Leighton and Jonathan Dove), we continue to plan
enterprising programmes. June 2015, saw us in jazz mode, performing the popular
Zimbe! and a new composition, The Rain Queen, by our own composer, John Barber.
Paris Tour 2015 - Notre Dame, Sunday amParis Tour 2015 – Notre Dame, Sunday am
We also perform for other organisations, including Raymond Gubbay – Spectacular
Classics, Christmas Classics, Beethoven’s 9th, Mozart’s Requiem, Carmina Burana
and Karl Jenkins conducting his own music to a packed Symphony Hall. Conductor,
Adrian Lucas The Choir is committed to supporting choral music making and has
participated in Making Music’s Adopt-a-music-creator scheme as well as running
singing competitions and workshops for people of all ages. We are proud to be an
independent organisation promoting and financing major choral concerts with
professional orchestras and soloists.
