After a long enforced break, the City Bach Collective is gearing up for live performances again. We are thrilled to be making music together again and can’t wait to share it with our audiences.

Our first event is a Bach Vespers service for St Anne’s Lutheran Church (at St Mary at Hill) on 27 June, followed on 4 July by another cantata service at the American Church in Tottenham Court Road. More details to follow shortly, so watch this space for the latest information.

Our diary for the autumn is filling up too. We look forward to seeing you at one of our events.

Like everyone we are very sorry not to be able to be out and about, seeing the people we value and doing our work. Moreover, the impact of the necessary restrictions on professional music-making in London and the rest of the UK is of considerable concern. All of us at the City Bach Collective wish you the best of health. We look forward to the possibility of coming together to make and listen to the music of JS Bach, his contemporaries, and all other music besides in the fullness of time. Until then, please keep an eye on our social media.

UPDATE 17 March 2020

The ‘People’s Messiah’ which we were due to perform with Eclectic Voices & Scott Stroman on 5 April at Union Chapel has been postponed. Please keep an eye on our website for a new performance date.

As we approach the end of 2019, we have enjoyed looking back at some of the wonderful music we have performed during the year. We’re even more excited to have confirmed Bach Vespers in London for 2020 up until Easter!

On 26 January we will be performing BWV 156, Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe with its irresistible opening Sinfonia with solo oboe.

On 23 February the cantata will be BWV 159, Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem (right) with a central plaintive aria (Es ist volbrach) for bass and oboe that might be mistaken for that other famous Bass work, Ich habe genug. As ever there will be other music by J. S. Bach and his contemporaries in these services.

It is good to know that, with the support of our friends at St. Anne’s Lutheran Church, we are able to continue the tradition of Bach Vespers in London in 2020. We look forward to seeing you at either event, which are free to attend. In the meantime we hope you have a happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

It was with considerable sadness that, at the previous service of Bach Vespers, we learned of the death of Rev’d Ronald T. Englund. The news had been passed to the Pastor of St. Anne’s Lutheran Church by the former Kantor, Peter Lea-Cox.

None of us who perform in the City Bach Collective knew Rev’d Englund personally. Rather, we are aware of his importance in bringing J. S. Bach’s music in to church services – specifically Lutheran services – in the City of London. It was at his invitation that Peter Lea-Cox gave the first Bach Vespers in September 1982, from which the series as we now know it has continued, unbroken, for 37 years. It continues to be a liturgically and culturally significant legacy.

Rev’d Englund died in Falmouth, Massachusetts on 14 November. You can read a more complete obituary here. We would be glad of your recollection of his life and work: if you would like to, please write to us here at citybachcollective@gmail.com.