The City of Bristol Choir is a mixed voice

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

of around 85 auditioned singers, whose aim is to sing a wide range of choral music to the highest possible standard. The choir gives five or six

concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety a ...

s a year in different venues around the

South West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

, but mostly in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. The choir's size gives it flexibility to perform music in diverse styles, from intimate

Renaissance music Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century '' ars nova'', the Tr ...

polyphony and partsongs to large-scale works with

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

. City of Bristol Choir was formed in 1991 by

Malcolm Archer Malcolm Archer (born 1952) is an English composer, conductor and organist. He combines this work with a recital career. Archer was formerly Organist and Director of Music at Bristol Cathedral, Wells Cathedral and at St Paul's Cathedral and Di ...

(now organist and director of music at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...

). The choir now enjoys a busy schedule of concerts and events under the direction of David Ogden, who was appointed Director of Music in 2000. Recent seasons have included performances of Szymanowski's '' Stabat Mater'', Brahms'

Requiem A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

, three major

Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

oratorios – '' The Apostles'', ''

The Dream of Gerontius ''The Dream of Gerontius'', Op. 38, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment b ...

'' and '' The Kingdom''.and Mozart's Mass in C Minor, as well as a summer concert of jazz standards. In October 2006, City of Bristol Choir visited

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

for its first European tour where it gave two concerts and sang at morning mass at the magnificent Lapa Church in

Oporto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

. They have toured to Florence in 2008 since. In 2009 the choir held a Handel 250 festival, which included three concerts and a performance of the enthralling Dixit Dominus, and his rarely performed Dettingham Te Deum. The next milestone for the choir will be Beethoven's Ninth Symphony: one of the greatest of all works.

References

External links

City of Bristol Choir

Musical groups from Bristol Musical groups established in 1991 1991 establishments in England {{UK-band-stub