TOP CHESTER CHOIR LAUNCHES NEW SEASON WITH CITY CENTRE CONCERT

One of Chester's top choirs is preparing to stage its first event of its 2024/25 season, with an afternoon concert set to take place in Chester city centre.

Chester Bach Singers, regarded as one of the UK's top chamber choirs will stage the concert entitled "Journeying Together" at the Wesley Church Centre in St John Street Chester at 4pm on Saturday 19^th October.

With its theme of pilgrimage in its many different forms, seeking, searching and journeying towards the unknown, the concert will feature music by composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Richard Wagner, Guiseppe Verdi, Eleanor Daley, Pietro Mascagni and Martin Bussey, the choir's musical director. Pieces set to be performed include 'The Pilgrim's Chorus' from Tannhäuser, 'Va Pensiero' from Verdi's Nabucco, and Mascagni's 'Cavalleria Rusticana', one of the best known and much-loved pieces of classical music in the world.

The concert will mark the final season as Conductor for Martin Bussey who is standing down in March next year after an impressive 38 years of service to the choir.

Speaking about the concert, Helen Crich, the Chair of Chester Bach Singers said:

"We are very much looking forward to welcoming our audience back after our summer break as we stage the first concert of our new season. The concert reflects the idea of the human journey in its broadest sense, with an emphasis on seeking and searching. It encompasses music sung by the medieval pilgrims on the road to Santiago di Compostella in Spain along with later, Renaissance music based on the psalm ‘Like as the hart desires the waterbrooks’. The Pilgrims in Wagner’s 'Tannhauser' return singing from their journey to Rome while the Hebrew slaves in Verdi’s 'Nabucco' lament their captivity in Babylon. Eleanor Daley’s ‘Upon my heart’ reflects on inner searching while Martin Bussey’s ‘Desideratum’ repeats the refrain ‘When shall I come to appear before the presence of God?

The programme also includes 'Cavalleria Rusticana' which celebrates Easter while the chorus in Wagner’s 'Die Meistersinger' glories in the fulfilment that music brings. Threaded through the programme is the searching, meditative music of Hildegard of Bingen from the 11th century." We can't wait to bring this glorious music to the beautiful surroundings of the Wesley Church Centre."

Full details of "Journeying Together" can be found at: 

www.chesterbachsingers.org.uk 

...where tickets can be booked online.