Warwickshire Singers to celebrate their 55th anniversary with French partner choir

ann-evans
Mar 31
2 min read

Warwickshire Singers with Musical Director Jim Bate. (centre) Photo courtesy of Warwickshire Singers.

Warwickshire Singers’ spring concert will take place on Sunday 6 April 2025 at 4.30pm at St Peter’s RC Church, 3a Dormer Place, Leamington Spa, CV32 5AA.

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Warwickshire Singers have been singing to audiences in churches across the county for the last 55 years and, since 1985, have developed close links with La Villanelle de Sceaux, a choir from Sceaux near Paris (Leamington’s twin town).

In conjunction with Leamington International Twinning Society (LITS), a joint concert is planned to celebrate Warwickshire Singers’ 55 years of song. Seventy singers in double chorus will perform an eclectic and exciting programme typical of their newly-appointed Director of Music, Jim Bate. It will be a three-in-one format – first Warwickshire Singers, then La Villanelle, with both choirs then joining forces to sing the main work, a Latin mass by Théodore Dubois, “Messe brève à 3 voix”.

Other pieces include:

Panis Angelicus Reimagined by Rebecca Dale (an emerging talent from London, who was the first female composer to sign to Universal Music's Decca Classics label);

Cantate Domino by Karl Jenkins (possibly best known for his “Armed Man” work);

Three pieces by V C Johnson (a minister for Shiloh Baptist Church in Texas, and a prolific composer/arranger with 350 choral works to his name);

Alleluia by Sally K Albrecht (a popular American choral composer who has held clinics, conventions and workshops in 40 states, Canada, Singapore and Australia);

Clair Flambeau du Monde by Jean-Philippe Rameau (this is an extract from the French Baroque opera-ballet, “Les Indes Galantes”).

To balance these lesser-known, mostly modern pieces, there will be some famous classics such as “Zadok the Priest” and the “Hallelujah Chorus” by Handel.

Warwickshire Singers with founder David H Jones n the 1980s. Photo courtesy of Warwickshire Singers.

A spokesperson for Warwickshire Singers says: “Warwickshire Singers was founded in 1970 by David H Jones (the Warwickshire County Music Advisor at the time) to take music out to Warwickshire. Sadly, David died in 2019, unaware that his legacy lives on. Some of the teachers he ‘invited’ to join (by all accounts, refusal was not really an option) are still with us and as keen as ever to keep his ideas alive – perhaps even more important today as music is tending to slip off the school curriculum.

“Warwickshire Singers is a mixed voice choir of around 45 members, directed by rising star Jim Bate, who was appointed in 2022 after completing his MA in Choral Conducting at the University of Birmingham. We have greatly enjoyed our concerts with him so far and have improved under his enthusiastic, expert and diligent leadership.”