Barts ChoirBarts Choir was started by a group of nurses at Barts Hospital in 1965.
It was originally known as St Bartholomew's Hospital Choral Society. Barts is Britain's oldest hospital (founded in 1123) and we retain a formal connection with the hospital through our chairman, a doctor with Barts and The London Hospital Trust.
The choir's first performance was in June 1965, a programme of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No 2, Boyce's Symphony No 1 and Sullivan's Trial By Jury.
Since then, the choir has gone from strength to strength, now staging three major concerts a year, one in the Royal Albert Hall (usually in the Autumn).
Barts Chamber Choir was started in 2004 to give more confident singers the chance to sing more stretching music in smaller venues. It now performs regularly in St Martin-in-the-Fields and other London venues, including Kings Place. Membership of Chamber Choir is dependent on also being a member of the main choir, and determined by a short singing test - download the details here.
All our concerts are given in aid of a charity, usually health or medical related, as befits our history as part of Barts Hospital. These partnerships enable charities to raise their profile, and money, through our concerts.
For general enquiries about Barts Choir, please email: enquiries@bartschoir.com
The charities we support
Our charity for 2011/12 is Alzheimer's Society.
We have supported a range of charities over the years, usually those with a medical or health-related mission, as befits our history with Barts Hospital.
Our previous charities have included:
- Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust (2009-10)
- Mildmay (2008-9)
- Demelza Hospice Care for Children (2007-8)
- Shape (2006-7)
- National Society for Epilepsy (2005-6)
- TB Alert (2004-5)
- John Grooms (2003-4)
- WellBeing, the health research charity for women and babies (2002-3)
- The Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, Putney (2001-2)
- The Royal Medical Benevolent Fund (2000-1)
- The Motor Neurone Disease Association (1999-2000)
- The Teenage Cancer Trust (1998-9)
- The ME Association (1997-8)
Our conductor, Ivor Setterfield, began his musical education playing the violin at the age of three, going on to enjoy considerable success as a boy treble at St Alban's Cathedral. As well as a distinguished career as a conductor, Ivor occasionally solos as a counter-tenor. He also has a thriving TV career. In 2006, he appeared in the Channel Five documentary series The Singing Estate, and he mentored DJ Goldie in BBC2's 2008 series Maestro and again the following year as Goldie composed a classical piece for The Proms.
Our rehearsal pianist, Chris Lee, started his musical career as a classical pianist, having trained at the Royal College of Music. Since then, his musical interests have broadened to include jazz, composing and arranging. He regularly appears at Barts concerts as a piano soloist, and plays jazz piano at a range of London venues, most recently in the Foyer of the Royal Festival Hall.