Come & Sing with us!
Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise (Lobgesang)  

Saturday 31 January
From 2 pm - 6 pm

Selly Oak Methodist church, Langleys Rd, Selly Oak, Birmingham B29 6HT
A terrific afternoon of singing, under the inspired directorship of Paul Spicer.
After the workshop session we enjoy each others friendship over tea and homemade cakes then finish the day with an informal performance.
Soloists: Isaac Boulter & Corinna Gregory
Accompanist: Paul Carr
Tickets for singers @£25 (+£2.80 Eventbrite fee) including music hire, and tea & cakes

Click on button below for tickets 

Any questions or queries do contact: bbchoir.candsing@gmail.com

About Hymn of Praise (Lobgesang) composed for the Leipzig Festival, 1840.

Mendelssohn initially called his masterpiece a symphony for chorus and orchestra, but was persuaded that symphony-cantata would be a more appropriate label for a work so dominated by the chorus and vocal soloists.
We’ll be focussed of course on the cantata part, singing in English, for which Mendelssohn assembled passages from Luther’s translation of the Bible that show the progression of light to darkness.
With fabulous choruses, soprano and tenor solos, and the familiar “Now Thank We All Our God”, this will be a rewarding sing for all who come.

Sacred Music
Saturday 14 March 7 pm
St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham

Paul Spicer: conductor
Archbishop Bernard Longley: reader
Martyn Rawles: organist
Birmingham Bach Choir

Programme:
Gesualdo: Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Saturday
Gibbons: Drop, Drop Slow Tears
Lotti: Crucifixus
Byrd: Miserere Mei
Victoria: O vos omnes
Phinot: Incipit oratio Jeremiae prophetae
Tallis: Lamentations of Jeremiah
Salvator mundi
Also organ interludes and readings by His Grace, Archbishop Bernard Langley

"This promises to be a truly moving evening’s music”
(Paul Spicer)

"One of the most moving and deeply devotional periods of the church’s year is Holy Week. This has been represented in music endlessly from the earliest days to the present. Three larger-scale works by the Italian, Carlo Gesualdo, the Franco-Flemish Dominique Phinot, and the English composer, Thomas Tallis form the building blocks. In between, and punctuated by readings given by the Archbishop of Birmingham, Bernard Longley, is a section of beautiful shorter choral pieces for the season."

Tickets on sale now
£22 /£18 concessions (plus Eventbrite fee as shown on their site)
Students £12
Double ticket for disabled plus carer £18

Click on button below for tickets 

Any questions or queries do contact:Tickets@birmingham.bachchoir.com

The Venue: St Chad’s Cathedral

St. Chad's Queensway, Birmingham, B4 6EU 

The welcoming Cathedral Church and Basilica of Saint Chad, right in the centre of the city is one of Birmingham’s architectural gems designed by the great ecclesiastical architect Augustus Welby Pugin ( who was also responsible for much of the interior design of the Houses of Parliament). Historically significant as the first English Catholic cathedral to be built for 300 years following the Reformation, when Catholicism was first put aside by Henry VIII. After the break from Rome all Catholic churches & cathedrals were taken over by Protestantism and The Church of England became the official religion of this country.

As well as it’s status as a Cathedral St Chad’s was declared a minor basilica by Pope Pius XII in 1941 making it one of only four in the UK (the others being Downside Abbey, Our Lady of Walsingham shrine, and Corpus Christi Priory ).

Resting above the cathedral altar are some of the relics of St Chad, the 7th century Bishop of Mercia and pupil of St Aidan of Lindisfarne. (These were rescued from Lichfield Cathedral around 1538.)
There are a number of fine features in the cathedral, not least the stained glass windows (by local John Hardman ), the Great Organ (one of the finest mechanical organs in the Midlands) and a beautiful set of bells in the North-West Tower. 

Great Organ

Stained glass windows above the altar