University of Birmingham Voices were pleased to perform this month as part of BBC Proms Youth Choir at the opening night of the BBC Proms - the largest classical music festival in the world.
Together with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus the televised concert was led by internationally-renowned conductor Edward Gardner in a performance of John Adams’s monumental Harmonium. Reviewed by all of the leading print and online news outlets, Bachtrack noted ‘The combined 350 plus singers made an impressive sound, and they had clearly been impeccably drilled to master the complex and challenging rhythms that Adams throws at them’; whilst The Guardian said ‘The forces of the BBC Symphony Chorus were lent an extra, youthful edge by the teenagers of the BBC Proms Youth Choir, and under Gardner’s firm direction, Adams’s pulsing sonorities glowed and throbbed like something truly alive.’
The entire concert is available to watch again at the BBC Proms website.
University of Birmingham Voices are one of the foremost ensembles at the university and are led by Professor Simon Halsey, Director of Choral Studies, and Julian Wilkins, University Chorus Director. In 2017/18 the choir will add to its impressive list of engagements and perform alongside the CBSO at Symphony Hall, Birmingham in a gala celebrating the music of Leonard Bernstein with maestro John Wilson.
For more information, or if you would like to find out more about choirs at University of Birmingham, please contact Gavin Allsop (g.m.allsop@bham.ac.uk).