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Bollington Festival Choir Founder: Dr John Coope MBE Conductor: Donald Judge Dr John Coope (1928-2005) founded the Choir in 1964, conducted it with great distinction for 37 years, and remained a loyal singer and friend who gained great enjoyment from our concerts. Surely few amateur choral societies can have covered such a wide range of music as the Festival Choir--large and small scale, accompanied and unaccompanied, mainstream repertoire and 'rarities'. John had a particular love of English music, especially that of William Byrd: among the less familiar English works he conducted were Finzi's Intimations of Immortality, Holst's Hymn of Jesus, and Delius' Sea Drift. Visit Tim Boddington's Happy Valley Site for a full appreciation of John's life and achievements. Bollington Festival Choir is a friendly choir which retains its village roots while welcoming singers from a wide area. Donald Judge became the conductor in 2001, having sung in the Choir and been its accompanist for many years. Alongside major works such as Handel's Saul; Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony; Honegger's King David; Haydn's Creation, Bach's St John Passion, and the Requiems by Brahms, Faure, and Mozart, he has conducted many shorter works, including Charpentier's Messe de Minuit, Joseph Jongen's Mass, Nielsen's Springtime in Funen, Flanders and Horovitz's Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo, and Andrew Carter's Benedicite. The Choir is very pleased to have given performances of two fine pieces by Cecilia McDowall: Christus Natus Est and Ave Maris Stella. The Choir has premiered several of Donald's own pieces, including The Nightingale, a setting of Keats: Shipwreck, a setting of Emily Dickinson, The Donkey, a setting of the Palm Sunday poem by G K Chesterton, and in December 2007, Whosoever, a setting of an anonymous Christmas text. He arrangements of Death is a Shadow, a choral re-working of a 16th century Italian song; and Edmund Pascha's Czech Christmas Mass performed with a plethora of early and folk instruments played by Tapestry of Music, delighted both singers and audiences. Click here to read reviews of our some of our concerts (MS Word file) The Choir (augmented by friends and visitors) has performed at every Bollington Festival, in recent years under the baton of Nicholas Smith. Carmina Burana (Orff), Grande Messe des Morts (Berlioz) and Verdi's Requiem have been performed in the Festival with professional orchestras to great acclaim. Another tradition of the Choir is the popular Messiah for All. Choir members and others pack the Arts Centre on the Tuesday following our Christmas Concert to perform Handel's evergreen masterpiece with 'home-grown' soloists and orchestra. The Choir has an outstanding accompanist in Andrew Cummings. For major concerts, we engage up and coming soloists from the RNCM (who never fail to delight us and our audiences with their musicality and professionalism) and an excellent orchestra with professional string players. Next Concert: Sunday, 22nd June, 7.30 at the Methodist Church, Bollington Karl Jenkins' Armed Man Mass, along with Jubilate Deo by Britten and Tota Pulchra by Bruckner. True to the Choir's famous spirit of adventure, we'll also be giving a rare performance of Janacek's The Lord's Prayer (in Czech!). We rehearse on Tuesday evenings, 8-10 p.m. at Bollington Arts Centre. New members are always welcome, and there are no auditions! If you're interested in joining us, please phone 0161 427 2870 or email |