I directed the Nottingham Bach Choir from from 1990 to 2019, and a great privilege it was, too. In its earlier years it was called the Nottingham Bach Society and, when founded in 1954 by David Lumsden (one of my predecessors at Southwell), it featured a regularly-rehearsed orchestra. This auditioned Choir is about 100-strong on the concert platform. Members are mainly Nottingham-based singers, many of them doctors, teachers, accountants, lawyers or lecturers, and all are passionate about the great repertoire for large choirs.
The Choir gives four concerts a year (the fourth is a popular carol concert) which cover the whole of the choral society repertoire. Bach is the composer most regularly performed, but I was able to give free reign to my personal passion for Elgar. The Choir’s own orchestra still performs, though it rehearses only on the day. Occasionally another orchestra such as the Orchestra da Camera will play, as it did for the 50th anniversary performance in Southwell Minster of the St Matthew Passion. This was a truly memorable day when the complete work was sung in German, with English surtitles, to a packed cathedral.
Visit the Nottingham Bach Choir’s website.