History

Reading Bach Choir was founded in 1966 by Simon Johnson with the joint aims of performing choral music to the highest standard and of promoting the enjoyment of music in the Reading area.  The choir has therefore been singing and performing together for over 50 years.

The performance of a major Bach works every two years is a continuing aim, though our repertoire has always been very varied.  In pursuit of high standards we have always employed professional instrumentalists and soloists. To date we have sung under six different music directors (now with our seventh) who have each brought to the Choir their own brand of inspiration.

Simon Johnson 1966-1973

Simon, who taught Music at the University’s School of Education, instituted an ambitious programming policy which has remained a hallmark of the Choir. His first concert, in 1966, set the standard for the years to come: Bach’s B minor Mass, with soloists including John Carol Case and Wilfred Brown. Bach figured prominently in the early years, but Simon’s programmes also featured challenging works by Malcolm Williamson, Palestrina, Stravinsky and Britten. A notable achievement was the first performance in Reading of Tippett’s A Child of Our Time in 1972.

Julian Williamson 1973-1992

Julian was a freelance conductor from London. Under his baton, adventurous programming continued to be the norm.   As well as a wide range of early music, we sang many 20th century pieces, including works by Phyllis Tate, Ligeti, Geoffrey Burgon and Peter Maxwell Davies, and the first British performance of Iain Hamilton’s Requiem.  During Julian’s regime we ventured further afield, giving several concerts in London, at the Royal Festival and Queen Elizabeth Halls and the Barbican. We enjoyed weekends working with the Rehearsal Orchestra to give concert performances of operas, including Carmen, The Force of Destiny and La Bohème. We have often joined forces with others to present larger-scale works. In Reading, we have sung with the Festival Chorus and the Haydn Choir, and a number of concerts were performed in Winchester Cathedral with the Waynflete Singers under Martin Neary, including Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius. In 1979 we first made contact, via the Reading-Düsseldorf Association, with the Friedenskirche Chor. Several visits and joint concerts followed. In 1982 we had a week-long trip to Philadelphia to sing Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Philadelphia Festival Chorus.

Sarah Tenant-Flowers 1992-1999

Julian’s successor in 1992 was Sarah Tenant-Flowers, a talented and ambitious young conductor with a background in arts administration. Her experience and professionalism in this field were of great value in concert promotion and planning. Along with her administrative skills Sarah brought a lively and intelligent interest in singing technique, and as well as coaching in rehearsals, she arranged vocal workshops for choir members. Her interest in choral conducting led to our winning a BT award, which was used to appoint a trainee conductor, Paul Stephenson. For six months he benefited from Sarah’s tuition and gained valuable experience conducting us at several concerts.
Repertoire continued to be varied and exciting, with a leaning towards the contemporary (Gorecki, Jonathan Harvey) and new departures into the Russian church repertoire (Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Grechaninov, Berezovsky). But Bach has never been neglected, and the two Passions and the B minor Mass all received performances under Sarah.
In May 1995 we joined forces again with our Dusseldorf partner choir to perform Britten’s War Requiem, to mark the 50th anniversary of VE day. This performance brought together two Dusseldorf and two Reading choirs under the baton of Jonathan Grieves Smith, at that time conductor of the Reading Festival Chorus. It was a tremendous and moving occasion, and choir members felt privileged to take part.

Mark Shepherd 1999-2003

Mark was a teacher at the Royal Academy of Music and at Wycombe Abbey School. Under his direction programming continued to be varied with works by Naylor, Jennefelt, Lassus, Roxanna Panufnik, and Taverner, in addition to the more traditional repertoire.

JanJoost van Elburg 2003-2010

JanJoost brought to the Choir his very high standards of performance, and a repertoire which included much lesser known music especially Baroque works and works known on the continent but less so here. Works by Frank Martin, Vic Nees, Daan Manneke, Guerrero, Clemens non Papa, and many other lesser known names gave us a reputation for something new and different. The improved sound and imaginative programming led to a steady growth in audience numbers. Various weekend workshops in Reading and further afield helped us to develop our confidence and technique. A new venture was peripatetic concerts: two churches tours where we sang a short concert in each of three churches, with a brief talk on the history and architecture of the buildings. In 2005 we were invited to participate in the first International Bach Choral Festival in Leipzig, along with choirs from Japan and the US, and in 2009 we joined other local choirs for the Reading Festival of Choirs.

Matthew Hamilton 2010-2017

Matthew Hamilton is increasingly busy as a conductor of choral ensembles throughout the UK. He appears frequently with groups such as BBC Singers, London Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Chorus and CBSO Chorus, and with youth choirs including the National Youth Choir and Hallé Youth Choir. Choral Director at the Hallé, he is also Associate Director of the London Symphony Chorus, and Musical Director of the New London Chamber Choir.

Matthew read music at Oxford, before taking a Masters degree in composition at the University of Manchester. He won a full scholarship to study choral conducting at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, in addition to participating in masterclasses with some of Europe’s finest professional choirs, including Berlin Radio Choir and Netherlands Chamber Choir. In 2010 he was the winner the Bramstrup Conducting Award in Denmark.

Since making his debut with the BBC Singers in repertoire by Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies for the the 2011 Proms, he has worked regularly with the Singers, directing them live on Radio 3, in concert at the Barbican, and in the recording studio. A frequent guest conductor for many of the UKs leading symphony choruses, Matthew has prepared choirs for performances at BBC Proms and Total Immersion festivals, and for venues including Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Barbican, and Birmingham Symphony Hall. He has collaborated with conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Thierry Fischer, David Robertson, David Atherton, Marc Minkowski and John Wilson, and composers including Gabriel Jackson, Nico Muhly and Robert Saxton.

David is a versatile conductor and an experienced and inspiration chorus master with broad tastes and enthusiasms, ranging from the largest of choral/orchestral works to complex contemporary a cappella music, and running the whole gamut from early music through Classical symphonies into brand new orchestral repertoire.  His time with Reading Bach Choir was jam-packed with unusual repertoire and successful performances, including an all-Polish programme featuring works by Szymanowski, Gorecki and Lukaszewski, a concert celebrating the Summer Solstice including key works by Eriks Ešenvalds, Vasks and Veljo Tormis, a thrilling and incisive Brahms Requiem with chamber orchestra, and a highly unusual airing of Shostakovich’s extraordinary Ten Poems on Texts by Revolutionary Poets.

At the same time as his work as Music Director of Reading Bach Choir, he was Chorus Director of the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir in Dublin, Musical Director of Cardiff Polyphonic Choir, and Co-Director of professional vocal ensemble Reverie.  David studied at the University of Manchester and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.