924 years Not Out!

4 April 2016

With over eighty years and nearly 350 concerts under our belts, the Northampton Bach Choir is the County’s longest-serving and busiest concert choir. Its 130 members rehearse every week throughout the year, and as well as leading their own concert series, they regularly work alongside the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in concerts at the Royal and Derngate (as well as, in recent years, at the Royal Albert Hall and Symphony Hall, Birmingham). In addition to giving concerts, they regularly visit Cathedrals to sing Choral Evensong (most recently at St Paul’s Cathedral) and make international tours (having sung at the Cathédrale Notre Dame in Paris and the Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano, Rome, they will be singing at the Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco, Venice, in 2017).

Our Long Service Award Badge

Our President, Sir Peter Ellwood

Whilst there is a natural turn-over in singers in the choir, there are a number of singers who have been singing for a goodly number of years (and surviving – even thriving (!) – in their regular re-auditions and appraisals!!!) who we wanted to honour, and so over the past couple of years we have recognised those with 25 years or more service with a certificate presentation from our President, Sir Peter Ellwood VLL CBE. We have now introduced a beautiful enamel pin badge for our long-serving members to wear in concerts, discreet and stylish, and these were presented to all those who have received certificates shortly before our last concert.

Some of our Award Holders

These 27 members have a combined service of 924 years, and a number of them are pictured above (marked with an *asterisk, below); we thank them all, and look forward to our next set of presentations!