L-R: Rosemary and Pam – two of Nottingham Bach Choir’s longest-serving members
Our concert on 21st June marked the end of Nottingham Bach Choir’s 70th concert season and another year of singing some fantastic music together. For some of our members, this season also marked more than 40 or even 50 years of membership in the choir – an impressive feat! Three of our altos, Heather, Rosemary and Pam, share some of their memories.
Heather
“You really should join Bach Choir, Miss!” said Chris Arnold, a pupil in my French class and son of Denis Arnold, the Nottingham Bach Choir’s conductor at the time. So I duly came to St Mary’s in January 1970 and the rest, as they say, is history.
Over the years, Denis Arnold, with his love of Monteverdi, was followed by Robert Pascall (Brahms), John Morehen (Vaughan Williams) and Paul Hale, with whom we sang the three Elgar oratorios and much else. The Verdi Requiem with an augmented choir (and not a single empty seat in St Mary’s) and the Britten War Requiem at the Albert Hall in 2014 will always remain in the memory. And now with Peter Siepmann we’re singing Bach and Mozart as well as music by more contemporary composers such as George Shearing and Eric Whitacre, so I’m very grateful to Chris Arnold for his suggestion!
Rosemary and Pam
We joined the choir 44 years ago, in September 1981, and have been singing together ever since! Pam remembers singing Bruckner’s Locus Iste for her audition. Our first appearance with the choir was at the Nottingham Playhouse in October 1981, as part of a local arts festival. The first concert we sang at Southwell Minster was also a very exciting occasion.
Other memorable concerts over the years have included Fanshaw’s African Sanctus at Nottingham’s Albert Hall, and the Verdi Requiem, conducted by Paul Hale (now of course the choir’s President). In 2000, we even went on tour with the choir to Truro, where we sang Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius. We remember giving carol concerts at various local churches over the years – from Attenborough and Beeston to Wilford and West Bridgford – and often sang at the weddings and sadly also the funerals of some fellow choir members.
We’ve seen many changes to life in the choir over the years – from different conductors to different ways of organising and running the choir. Nowadays, for example, we have bring-and-buy sales at rehearsals to fundraise for the choir but back in the day we held jumbles sales in different venues around Nottingham. Dress codes have changed over the years as fashions and preferences change. The sopranos and altos used to wear scarves (and have endless discussions on how to tie them) and sometimes accessories such as flowers and floral sprays. We also used to have white blouses (tucked in or not?) before settling on the classic all-black ensembles we wear today. The social side of choir life might have looked a bit different in the past, with more chances to meet up with fellow singers outside of rehearsals, but we still love coming to rehearsals every week, seeing friends and singing some beautiful music.
Find out more - do browse our 70th anniversary Summer concert programme.