Reading Bach Choir was formed in 1966 to sing the major works of JS Bach and to promote the enjoyment of music in the Reading area. We are an amateur, auditioned choir numbering around 40 singers, with a passion for achieving the highest standards in concerts which are sometimes ‘a cappella’ and sometimes accompanied by professional soloists and instrumentalists. The choir seeks to re-create the familiar as well as share the excitement of new vocal landscapes and though we retain a deep affinity for the music of JS Bach, we are constantly looking to expand our varied repertoire stretching from medieval to modern times.
RBC’s founder conductor was the late Simon Johnson, one of the leading choral conductors of his generation. Our current conductor, Daniel Mahoney, is the choir’s eighth music director. Daniel began his tenure in 2022 and under his directorship has prepared the choir for concerts featuring a wide variety of composers and musical styles, both from the established western choral tradition - Bach, Haydn, Victoria, Purcell etc. - to contemporary composers such as Ukrainian-born Galina Grigorjeva and fellow-Americans Caroline Shaw, Morten Lauridsen, Kile Smith and many others. In 2023 RBC gave the UK premiere of Smith’s nine movement piece for unaccompanied choir, The Arc in the Sky. More recently, we have treated our audiences to an eclectic mix of ‘Music from the Americas’ (featuring music in six different languages) as well as works by more familiar composers such as Palestrina, Byrd, Britten and Judith Weir.
In 2017 the choir was nominated for a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service for its support to the Alzheimer’s Society’s weekly ‘Singing for the Brain’ sessions. Occasional overseas tours have taken the choir to Belgium, Latvia, Holland and Poland.
“It doesn’t come better than this. There is a timeless spirituality about Reading Bach Choir performing JS Bach…”
– Newbury Weekly News
”truly accomplished choral music”
– Henley Standard
