Concerts
Forthcoming concerts
At 8.00pm on Friday 3rd December in the Parish Hall, we will be performing “A Taste of Christmas”, singing some of our favourite music, together with some community singing. We would like to invite family and friends to come and join us and we hope that everyone will have an enjoyable evening of Christmas Cheer with wine and mince pies!
Previous concerts
The 2019 "LET THE BELLS RING OUT AT CHRISTMAS" concert was on Friday 6th December at St Swithun's Church, Bathford. The theme was Christmas songs and carols, many of which had the bells ringing at Christmas as their theme. The programme included "Christmas Bells Ring Out Again", a traditional carol arranged for the choir by Nick Breeze, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", which has the words of the poem by H W Longfellow and was performed by the choir with the handbell ringers, "The Bell Carol" with music composed by Mykola Leontovych and "Sweet Bells" based on "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks" arranged by Kate Rusby. Jill Healey gave a reading of an account of a performance of Handel's "Messiah" and the female choir members sang "The Little Road To Bethlehem" by Michael Head and Margaret Rose. Conductor Ashley Bremner sang the "Toreador" song from Carmen and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and Pianist Nick Breeze treated the audience to an amazing medley played - not on trumpet, but on a shiny metal watering can! The concert included three popular carols sung with audience participation.
The 2019 "SUMMER SHOWTIME" concert was on Friday 5th July at St Swithun's Church, Bathford. The theme was music from the shows, with the choir performing a medley of tunes from Walt Disney films, songs by Jerome Kern and the finale was songs from "The Greatest Showman".
Heather Gillard sang "Being Alive" from the musical "Company" and guest soloist Kelly Bremner sang "What Good Would The Moon Be?" from "Company" and was joined by Ashley Bremner and the choir on "If I Loved You" and "You'll Never Walk Alone". Ashley also sang "Stars" from "Les Miserables"
The choir performed a medley of Everly Brothers songs and the men from the choir sang "Ol' Man River" from "Showboat". Pianist Nick Breeze, who had arranged some of the pieces for the choir played "Memory" from "Cats".
Our 2018 "CHRISTMAS STORY" concert was held on Friday 7th December at 7.30pm at St Swithun's Church, Church Street, Bathford. The programme included a rich mix of traditional and contemporary carols and Christmas music from the UK and Europe including "The Christmas Story", a cantata for Christmas written by Nick Breeze.
Guest soloist Kelly Bremner sang "Pie Jesu" and "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" and Nick Breeze, accompanist for the concert, played "Merry Christmas Darling" on cornet with Steve Buddle accompanying on piano. Choirmaster Ashley Bremner sang "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes" and we heard two Maisie Turner poems, "Santa's Reindeer" and "The Night Before Christmas" recited by Lennie Almond.
Our 2018 "SUMMER SERENADE" concert was held on Friday 6th July at St Swithun's Church, Bathford. It began with the choir singing four folk songs followed by the duets "Believe me if all those endearing young charms …" and "People will say we're in love" sung by choirmaster Ashley with Kelly Bremner, our guest soloist for the evening. The choir then sang a medley of songs from "Fiddler on the Roof" with guest violinist Kara Maylor playing the fiddler and Leslie Mackenzie giving the introductory dialogues.
The second half featured the choir singing three songs from the north or England: "Dirty Old Town", "Blow the Wind Southerly" and "The Keel Row". Nick Breeze, accompanist for the concert, played "Sweet Georgia Brown" on cornet and then Kelly Bremner sang "Vilja" from "the Merry Widow" and "Habanera" from "Carmen" with the choir singing the chorus. The concert concluded with a rousing version of "An American Trilogy" - a combination of three songs from the American Civil War arranged by Mickey Newbury and later made famous by Elvis Presley.
Our 2017 "THE COLOURS OF CHRISTMAS" concert was held on Friday 8th December at 7.30pm at St Swithun's Church, Church Street, Bathford. It featured a varied selection of Christmas music including songs by John Rutter, Berlioz and Schonberg and concluded with carols sung with the audience.There were solo items from coir master Ashley Bremner and accompanist Nick Breeze on cornet. Once again, we were pleased to be joined by the St. Swithun's Handbell Ringers.
The 2017 SUMMER MUSICAL EXTRAVEGANZA concert was held on Friday 7th July at St Swithun's Church, Bathford. The first half featured music from Gilbert & Sullivan's "Iolanthe" and "The Gondoliers" with guest soloist Kelly Bremner singing "When a Merry Maiden Marries" with the choir and Choir master Ashley and Kelly Bremner performing the duet "None Shall Part Us". This was followed by music from operas sung in Italian: "Non Pui Andrai" (Ashley Bremner), "Crudel! Perche Finora" (Ashley and Kelly Bremner) and "Va, Pensiero" (choir).
The second half featured the choir singing music from Simon and Garfunkel and songs from the musical "West Side Story", including "I Feel Pretty" with Kelly Bremner singing the part of Maria and the ladies in the choir singing the chorus. Our accompanists were Karen King and Colin Hunt.
Our 2016 CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS WITH BATHFORD VILLAGE CHOIR concert was on Friday 9th December 2016 at the Parish Hall, Church Street, Bathford. It featured a selection of songs including duets from "The Magic Flute" and "The Phantom of The Opera" sung by Choir master Ashley Bremner and his wife Kelly and two pieces by the St Swithun's Handbell Ringers.
The SUMMER CONCERT 2016 held on Friday 8th July at 7.30pm at St Swithun's Church, Church Street, Bathford featured the music of the Carpenters and songs from West End shows including "My Fair Lady", "Oliver" and "The Sound of Music" .
Our CHRISTMAS CONCERT 2015 took place on Friday 11th December 2015 at 7.30pm at St. Swithun's Church, Church St., Bathford and featured the music of John Rutter alongside choral pieces by other composers. Solo and group items were presented by members of the choir and we were particularly pleased to welcome the St Swithun's Handbell Ringers once again. To view photos of the concert taken by David Howells, please see here.
Part of the the choir sang a small selection of items from our summer concert (see below) as part of the ST SWITHUN'S EXHIBITION WEEKEND on Sunday 19th July 2015 at St Swithun's Church, Church Street, Bathford BA1 7RS.
Our SUMMER CONCERT 2015, featuring the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, took place on Friday 3rd July 2015 at St Swithun's Church, Bathford. Guests included the Bathford School Choir and the St. Swithun's Handbell Ringers. To view photos of the concert taken by David Howells, please see here.
Our TWINNING CONCERT took place on Saturday 2nd May 2015, organised in partnership with Bathford with Kingsdown Twinning Association. We welcomed singers and young people from Artannes and following three rehearsals, presented a concert at St. Swithun's Church, which featured the choir from Bathford Primary School. To view photos of the event taken by David Howells, please see here.
Our CHRISTMAS CONCERT 2014 took place on Friday 12th December 2014 at 7.30pm at St. Swithun's Church, Church St., Bathford and featured well-known Christmas songs, including:
Christmas Bells Ring Out Again
Angels' Carol (John Rutter)
Torches! (John Joubert)
... and many other favourites. There were also several seasonal solo items and once again, we were pleased to be joined by the St. Swithun's Handbell Ringers.
Listen to the first concert item from the Christmas Concert 2014: Christmas Bells Ring Out Again
Please see our gallery for more photos of the concert.
All photos by David Howells
All photos by David Howells
Our SUMMER CONCERT 2014 took place at 7pm on 3rd July 2014 at Bathford Primary School, Bathford. The choir's contribution to the first half featured arrangements of well-known folk songs from the British Isles and the second half consisted of well-known pop songs from the 1960s.
There were additional choral performances by Bathford Primary School choir, who sang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, My Favourite Things, Do-Re-Mi and Consider Yourself and the Brownies choir, who sang Summer Holiday. All of these were directed by Darren Waters.
We were pleased to welcome the Handbell Ringers, who played the traditional tunes Star Of The County Down and Oranges and Lemons. Two soloists from the choir completed the musical line-up.
Please see our gallery for photos of the concert.