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2023

28 June 2023
A Rousing end to the 2022/23 Season with Viva Italia!
9 June 2023
Cathedral Visits - Summer 2023
12 May 2023
Simon Toyne appointed as our new Musical Director
20 March 2023
Dame Ethel Smyth Mass in D - A resounding success!
13 February 2023
The Ethel Smyth full score has arrived

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13 December 2022
Christmas 2022 Concert & Fundraising
1 October 2022
New Accompanist Announced
1 September 2022
2022/23 Season Launched
31 August 2022
2022/23 Season : Our Conductors
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2021/22 Season - Done!
30 July 2022
Another (!) Special Evensong
13 June 2022
Jubilee Proms - Staggering Success
30 May 2022
MD steps down after 15 years
29 May 2022
A Special Evensong
2 April 2022
Carmina in Style
1 March 2022
Song for Ukraine
21 February 2022
#22for22 Update
7 February 2022
The Armed Man

2021

16 December 2021
#22for22 is launched
4 December 2021
Christmas is Back! with a brassy bang!
6 November 2021
714 Days... Back in Concert
27 October 2021
660 Days... We're Back
4 October 2021
Annual General Meeting
1 August 2021
2021/22 Season Launched
7 June 2021
Expanding the Canon
18 May 2021
Live Singing started ... stopped
17 May 2021
Fridays and the Future
14 April 2021
Virtual Video
12 April 2021
Summer in the Alps
26 March 2021
Fridays at Four - Spring Done
9 March 2021
International Women's Day
22 February 2021
Cooking up a Feast
12 February 2021
Centenary Classics
11 January 2021
Classical Classics

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Evensong in Winchester Cathedral

29 May 2019

A group of just over 40 singers from the Northampton Bach Choir had a day out in Winchester in late May 2019 where we sang Evensong in Winchester Cathedral, as the regular cathedral choir took a break for half term. The vergers and canons of the cathedral were very welcoming and seemed to appreciate having the singers there to take part in the service. We travelled by coach, along with some supporters, helpfully organised by the concert manager Mark Gibson, which made it a relaxed day and there was time before we sang to explore the city and find some refreshment.

Northampton Bach Choir at Winchester Cathedral

It was a joy to sing for the service in such a beautiful and majestic building seeped in history, to be part of an ancient tradition which has carried on for over a millennium. There is something very moving to know you are part of something which has been done regularly for so long; to realise that you are hearing the same biblical readings and singing the same psalms as so many have done for centuries.

People have been praying in that spot for over 1000 years, and the monks, who were first to live and worship there in Christian community, would have prayed seven times a day throughout the 24 hours, including rising during the night to pray. Their worship would have had many similar elements to the service as we experienced it; listening to readings from scripture, reciting or usually singing the psalms and canticles, alongside praying for the needs of the world and local community. Although the current inhabitants don’t meet to formally pray seven times of day, the tradition of regular worship continues, underpinning the work of the cathedral and taking part in the worldwide work of regular prayer.
 
The choir in the quire stalls

We sang a mixture of music we had sung on previous cathedral visits, including Ayleward’s Responses, Smart’s Evening Service in Bb, and a work for Ascension new to us by the centenarian composer Francis Jackson, Sing praise to God who reigns above. The music was challenging to learn in just two rehearsals, but under Lee Dunleavy’s leadership we gave a fine rendering, and the sense of worship and peace in the cathedral was palpable. Our répétiteur travelled with us and played the magnificent organ, with his final voluntary - Gordon Jacob’s Festal Flourish - particularly rousing.