Category Archives: Concerts

Christmas 2025

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We are pleased and excited to be holding our Christmas 2025 concert back in The Great Hall at Barts North Wing following the two-year restoration programme.

Come and see the Hogarth paintings, join in with audience carols and start your festive season in an astounding venue.  And with the proceeds from our concerts and events going to Barts Cancer Unit, you help us to continue making a difference for patients, their families and staff.

Wishing you the best for the Season, we hope to see you there!

From all at Barts Academic Festival Choir & Orchestra

Nearest Transport

Train – City Thameslink (Holborn Viaduct)
Tube – St Paul’s, Barbican, Farringdon
Bus – 8, 25, 46, 56, 59, 133

Looking to Autumn 2025

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Thank you to everyone involved in our Summer Concert, it was a delightful evening.

After a summer break, rehearsals begin again on Friday 5th September when we’ll continue rehearsing Dvorak’s Mass in D major for our Autumn Concert, joined by the orchestra playing Dvorak’s Symphony No 6.

In November, there will be a ‘Come & Sing‘ event of Mozart Requiem, Fauré Requiem & Haydn Nelson Mass, following which we’ll be preparing for our Christmas Concert.

Enjoy Singing?

Join our choir, a small Barts choir with orchestra

all welcome – no audition

Message us via our Contact Us page.

SAVE THE DATE

AUTUMN CONCERT – 7.30 pm on Monday 29th September

COME & SING…  Mozart Requiem, Fauré Requiem & Haydn Nelson Mass
2.00 pm on Saturday 22nd November

CHRISTMAS CONCERT – 7.30 pm on Monday 15th December

Looking back to 2023…

Finally, leaving you with photos from our Easter Concert in 2023, courtesy of @sjc.snaps

Our Summer Concert – Haydn & CPE Bach

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Thank you to those who joined us for our Opera Day, with special thanks to our soloists.

We are working on our next concert, an evening of music by Haydn and CPE Bach. Haydn’s Symphony No 85 is also known as ‘The Queen’, it being a favourite of Marie Antoinette.

This will be followed by CPE Bach’s Magnificat, a musical setting of the biblical text from the Gospel of St Luke. Though a song of praise by Mary, the Mother of Jesus, in this composition one cannot help but feel that it is also an homage to Bach’s father, Johann Sebastian…

Our concerts are currently hosted at ‘The Musicians’ Church’ – Holy Sepulchre Church, Holborn Viaduct – opposite the Old Bailey, around the corner from Barts Hospital.

Do join us for a musical evening at Holy Sepulchre on Monday 9th July. All ticket proceeds are donated to Barts Cancer Unit towards that something extra for patients and staff.

A Busy Summer Term…

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We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Joanna Forbes L’Estrange for attending our Easter Concert to hear us perform her new work, A Season to Sing – a re-imagining of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Having Joanna in the audience and engaging in conversation with her was a truly wonderful experience.

After a well-deserved break, choir rehearsals commence on Friday 9th May at 7 pm in Barts-the-Less Church in preparation for our Opera Day taking place on Saturday 10th May of Verdi’s Il Trovadore, 2-5 pm at Holy Sepulchre Church on Holborn Viaduct.

Image by Ted Erski from Pixabay

And starting on Friday 16th May, the choir will be rehearsing CPE Bach’s Magnificat for soloists, choir and chamber orchestra, to be performed as part of our Summer Concert.

SAVE THE DATE

  • Friday 9th May – rehearsal of Verdi’s Il Trovatore
  • Saturday 10th May – Opera Performance Day, 2-5 pm at Holy Sepulchre
  • Friday 16th May – start rehearsing CPE Bach’s Magnificat
  • Monday 7th July – Summer Concert, 7.30 pm at Holy Sepulchre

Easter Concert 2025 – It’s New!

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Our Easter Concert at Holy Sepulchre, the National Musicians’ Church, starts with Brahms Symphony No 2 in D major, orchestrated for flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, tuba, timpani and strings.

After the interval, the evening will continue with the newly co-commissioned work by British vocalist & composer, Joanna Forbes L’Estrange. Based on Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, we are pleased to be one of the 53 choirs from around the world to premiere this exciting repertoire.

Coming up in 2025

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Season’s greetings and a big thank you to musicians, singers, helpers and, of course, audience for making our Christmas Concert such a success. We raised a considerable amount for Barts Cancer Unit and had an enjoyable evening ahead of the festive season.

Choir rehearsals restart at 7 pm on Friday 10th January in Barts-the-Less Church, in the grounds of Barts Hospital. And we are looking forward to:

  • Our ‘Come & Sing’ instant concert of Brahms Requiem in German on Saturday 22nd February at 2pm.
  • And we will be one of the choirs performing the new composition of ‘A Season to Sing’ by Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, a choral re-imagining of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, on Monday 14th April at 7.30 pm.
  • Then in May, there will be an opera performance of Il Trovatore on Saturday 10th May at 2pm.

If you enjoy singing and would like to take part in these events, please send us a message via our Contact Us page.