Chester Bach Singers opens 2026 season with north Wales orchestra and new Musical Director
Chester Bach Singers will perform at St Werburgh’s Church in Chester on Saturday 14 March at 3pm, joined by Wrexham-based NEW Sinfonia and the choir’s newly appointed Musical Director, Joseph Judge.
The concert, titled Music of Dedication, features Anton Bruckner’s Mass No.2 in E Minor alongside works by Amy Beach and Fanny Hensel.
Bruckner wrote the mass in 1866 for the dedication of the Votivkapelle at Linz Cathedral.
Amy Beach, born in 1867, was the first American woman to compose and publish a large-scale symphony.
Her Gaelic Symphony was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896.
Fanny Hensel, born in 1805, composed more than 450 works, most of which were unpublished in her lifetime.
Much of her work was published under the name of her younger brother, Felix Mendelssohn, in line with the social conventions of the time.
In 1846, encouraged by her husband, Hensel published a collection of songs in her own name.
She died of a stroke in 1847, aged 41.
Joseph Judge, the choir’s new Musical Director, is a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music.
He is also Chorus Director of Leeds Philharmonic Chorus, Musical Director of Chester Festival Chorus, Director of the Hallé Choral Academy, and Artistic Director of the Exon Singers Festival.
NEW Sinfonia is a north Wales-based chamber orchestra whose players also perform with ensembles including the BBC Philharmonic, the Hallé, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and Liverpool Philharmonic.
The orchestra’s Musical Director and co-founder, Robert Guy, is Principal Conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.
Guy was born with severe hearing loss and did not hear birdsong until after surgery as a child.
He is also the conductor behind Gresford: Up From Underground, a community opera composed by his brother Jon Guy to mark the 90th anniversary of the Gresford mining disaster, which is currently touring venues across Wales.
Tickets for the 14 March concert are available at chesterbachsingers.org.uk.
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