Our Next Concert
26th June 2010, 7.30 pm
Songs and Strawberries
Ulverston Parish Church

Advance tickets can be bought from TInner's Rabbit Bookshop, in Ulverston, from choir members or from Alison Bolt on 01229 837 680.
Tickets: 8 pounds, students 4 pounds

Thanks to Booths Supermarket, Ulverston for supplying the strawberries

We are seeking Corporate sponsors for this concert and for the upcoming 2010/2011 season. Please contact Alison Bolt if you would like to support us. We will place your logo and link to your web page here and mention your company on our publicity too.

Picture courtesy of the North West Evening Mail

 

Details of Forthcoming Concerts

26 June 2010
Songs and Strawberries
20th century pieces by British, American and Estonian composers.
Ulverston Parish Church
Conductor: Anthony Milledge
Organ: Colin Dean

Songs, strawberries and a drink...it sounds like the perfect way to spend a summer evening, and that's exactly what's on offer. Rather than one or two large works, the concert is like a basket of luscious strawberries, consisting of settings by a range of 20th century composers of words from the 1300s to today. Choirmaster Anthony Milledge believes in challenging his performers, and for the Choir this is an exciting departure from their usual period. The audience, however, will be able to sit back and thrill to music that is rich in the colour and vibrancy of its word-painting, including Vaughan Williams's Three Shakespeare Songs and Benjamin Britten's brilliant setting of the eccentric Rejoice in the Lamb by Christopher Smart. A prize berry in the punnet is the gorgeous setting by the American composer Eric Whitacre of the hauntingly vivid poem Water Night, written by the distinguished Mexican author, Octavio Paz. Whitacre says that its production was 'more like cleaning the oils from an ancient canvas to reveal the hidden music than composing,' and the result is a work of breath-taking beauty.
According to Octavio Paz, poetry is 'the secret religion of the modern age', and alongside the secular pieces, are deeply spiritual works by composers such as Barber and Arvo Pärt, which share the same dream-like intensity. There is more Vaughan Williams with Five Mystical Songs in which Ron Eadington takes the solo, and Britten again with his setting of the anonymous medieval poem A Hymn To The Virgin. And watch out for the St John’s Day Songs by the Estonian composer Veljo Tormis, in particular the last, which is spoken rather than sung.
Chosen with summer in mind, the concert will bring a touch of midsummer magic, and to complement the theme the ticket price (8.00 pounds 4.00 pounds, students) includes strawberries (courtesy of Booths, Ulverston) and a drink. All in all, an idyllic summer's evening of juicy fruits, both musical and edible.

13th November 2010
Requiem Mass - W.A. Mozart
St Theresa Mass - J. Haydn

We welcome new singers.

Recent Concerts

JS Bach St. John Passion
20th March 2010
Furness Bach Choir with the Holborne Players (baroque orchestra)
St Mary's Church, Dalton-in-Furness.

Song of Songs
Saturday 28th November 2009
St James' Church, Blake Street, Barrow-in-Furness
Music spanning five centuries based on the sensual lyrics of the Song of Solomon and also including two motets in forty parts:
Tallis's Spem in alium and Striggio's Ecce beatam lucem.

27th June 2009 Midsummer Melodies
St Columba's RC Church, Walney Island, Barrow
Programme of short choral, solo and instrumental pieces with readings

1st July 2009 Serenade for Summer
Grange-over-Sands United Reformed Church

9th May 2009
Mass in B minor by J S Bach
Furness Bach Choir and Holborne Players
Conductor: Anthony Milledge
Baroque orchestra led by Peter Fender
Parish Church, Ulverston

November 2008
Vaughan Williams: Mass in G minor for unaccompanied double choir
George Jeffreys (17th c. English composer) :Our Blessed Saviour Cycle of
7 verse anthems for the Church's year (its first modern performance)
St Mary of Furness RC Church, Ulverston
May 2008 G F Handel Samson
November 2007 Echoes of Bohemia (pieces by 17th and 18th c. Czech composers)
April 2007 Treasures of the Baroque (Vivaldi Beatus Vir, Handel, 9th Chandos Anthem, Purcell Welcome to all the Pleasures, J S Bach Mass in G minor)
December 2006 Handel's Messiah
May 2006 Leopold Mozart Mass in C Michael Haydn St Francis Mass
November 2005 Gounod St Cecilia Mass Durufl Requiem
May 2005 J Haydn Nelson Mass plus music by Mozart and Michael Haydn
November 2004 M Haydn St Theresa Mass, Mozart Requiem
June 2004 Jonathan Dove Tobias and the Angel (with English Touring Opera)
May 2004 Dvorak Mass in D, Faure's Requiem