The Bach Choir

The Bach Choir is a large independent musical organisation founded in London, England in 1876 to give the first performance of J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor in Britain. The choir has around 240 active members. Directed by David Hill (Yale Schola Cantorum/Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra) it regularly performs and records across London and the UK, including at the Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Abbey Road Studios. The choir's patron is King Charles III. Its conductor laureate was David Willcocks, who was the choir's musical director from 1960 to 1998. Other musical directors have included Charles Villiers Stanford, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Reginald Jacques. In 2013, John Rutter was appointed president of the choir, following the death of Leopold David de Rothschild in 2012. Its vice presidents are Janet Baker, Felicity Lott, Roderick Williams and Sam Gordon Clark. In addition to their extensive history of classical recordings and performances, The Bach Choir may be best known for their work on the 1969 song "You Can't Always Get What You Want", by The Rolling Stones, including their extensive choral opening to the song; in 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed the song at No. 100 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The Bach Choir has performed for many film scores, including Kingdom of Heaven, Prometheus, Robin Hood, The Chronicles of Narnia, Shrek the Third, Jack the Giant Slayer, and The Martian. The choir has also released many recordings, including Howells's Stabat Mater and Missa Sabrinensis; Vaughan Williams's Dona Nobis Pacem / Sancta Civitas (2010), which received a Gramophone award nomination; and Frederick Delius's A Mass of Life, which received a coveted Choc de Classica from French classical magazine Classica, and was named Album of the Week by The Sunday Times and The Telegraph. Other projects include work with John Rutter and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and designer Richard Quinn at London Fashion Week, and appearances on The Andrew Marr Show, BBC Radio 3, BBC One, Sky Arts and Sky Sports News. The Bach Choir regularly commissions new music, including from Roxanna Panufnik, Gabriel Jackson, Gavin Higgins, Carmen Ho, Charlotte Harding, James Wilson, Des Oliver, and Heloise Werner.

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