The Edinburgh Festival Chorus
The much acclaimed Edinburgh Festival Chorus is a group of amateur singers, open to all; admittance is by audition. The singers practise weekly throughout the year, in preparation for several concerts given during the Festival itself.
In 2007 the Festival Chorus performed in The Opening Concert Candide, Orpheus , Oedipus Rex , The Creation and A Celebration of Francis Poulenc .
Christopher Bell, Chorus Master
Belfast born, Edinburgh based Christopher Bell is currently Chorus Director of the Grant Park Chorus, Chicago, USA, Chorus Master of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus and of the Belfast Philharmonic Choir, and Artistic Director of Children's Classic Concerts. He was largely responsible for the formation of the National Youth Choir of Scotland in 1996 and has been its Artistic Director since then.
Sing with some of the world’s finest orchestras under the baton of the most distinguished conductors...
The Chorus has performed with world renowned conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Carlo Maria Giulini, Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti, Michael Gielen, Sir Charles Mackerras, Carlo Rizzi, John Eliot Gardiner and Esa-Pekka Salonen. It has performed works including Janacek's Glagolitic Mass, Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Messiaen's St Francois d'Assise, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Berlioz's The Trojans and Verdi’s Macbeth. It has toured to Salzburg, Berlin, Cologne, Paris and the London Proms and has recorded Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte, Zimmermann’s Requiem for a Young Poet, Beethoven’s Fidelio, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Mozart’s Idomeneo.
"...a quite magnificent Festival Chorus fierily invoking the pathos of war through three Walt Whitman poems was scintillating.’
-The Scotsman 2006 (Vaughn Williams Serenade to Music and Dona Nobis Pacem)
"The Festival Chorus sang with a terrific torn beauty"
- The Sunday Times
"...it [Edinburgh Festival Chorus] conveys both the tense sanctity and the declamatory brilliance of the mass."
- Sunday Herald, Opening Concert, 2003.
40th Anniversay Commemorative Brochure
The Edinburgh Festival Chorus celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2005. A commemorative brochure on the history of the Chorus was produced to mark the occasion. Copies are available from Kathy Crawford at kathy@crawfordnb.co.uk or from the Hub Box Office.
