Tickets are now on sale for our celebration concert on 18 March!
Join us for one of the greatest works in the repertoire, along with a period orchestra of some of the finest players in the country, and four top soloists.
With virtuosic choruses in multiple parts, arias and duets, instrumental solos, and an incredible variety of styles, Bach’s Mass in B minor is one of a kind. There was really no other work that we thought was suitable to celebrate our fortieth anniversary. That was three years ago and we’re incredibly lucky to have been able to reschedule it after the pandemic.
Find out more about the concert and buy your tickets online here.
We’re delighted to welcome four top soloists to join us and the orchestra: here’s a little more about each one of them.
Rachel Elliott, soprano
Rachel has sung for SCC in the past and we’re looking forward to welcoming her back. Rachel has been privileged to perform in extraordinary venues worldwide, ranging from a community centre in Soweto to the Lincoln Center in New York as well as numerous cathedrals and concert halls. She has collaborated with groups such as I Fagiolini, The Taverner Consort and The Bach Players, Les Arts Florissants and Il Seminario Musicale in France and Ensemble Hippocampus in Spain.
Rachel is a keen choral director and has recently taken a choir to Venice to sing at the Basilica of San Marco. Rachel is currently Head of Music in a prep school, involved with the full gamut of its musical life.
Robin Blaze, counter-tenor
Established in the front rank of interpreters of Purcell, Bach and Handel, Robin’s career has taken him to Europe, South America, North America, Japan and Australia. He has worked with most of the distinguished conductors in the early music field and has regularly appeared with The Academy of Ancient Music, Bach Collegium Japan, Collegium Vocale, The English Concert, and The Gabrieli Consort.
He has a large number of acclaimed recordings to his name and was countertenor soloist on the many of Bach Collegium Japan’s complete cycle of Bach’s church cantatas. Recent highlights include Bach’s St John Passion with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Purcell Odes at the Berlioz Festival with The King’s Consort, Bach’s B Minor Mass with The Bach Choir, performances with Florilegium at Wigmore Hall, and a recital with lutenist Elizabeth Kenny at Carnegie Hall.
Nicholas Hawker, tenor
Nicholas has sung for SCC several times in the past. He is in demand as a soloist throughout the region and further afield where concerts have included Handel Messiah (St Endellion), Bach Mass in B Minor (Exeter Cathedral), Mendelssohn Elijah (Exeter Cathedral) and Monteverdi Vespers (Truro Cathedral). Nicholas was a lay vicar in Truro Cathedral Choir for 13 years and appeared on recordings, took part in several tours and appeared as a soloist on radio and television.
Nicholas read music at Birmingham University before completing an MPhil thesis on the music of Elgar. Since then he has edited manuscripts linked with the composition of Elgar’s The Apostles, published by the Elgar Society. Nicholas is deputy head at Salisbury Cathedral School.
Morgan Pearse, baritone
Morgan Pearse is already established as one of the most exciting baritones of his generation. He made his debut at English National Opera singing Figaro in The Barber of Seville and opera highlights include Belcore (L’Elisir d’Amore) for New Zealand Opera and the State Opera of South Australia, Ned Keene (Peter Grimes) with the Auckland Philharmonia, Figaro / nozze in a new production for the Opernhaus Zurich, baritone in Idalma for the Innsbruck Festival of Early music, Papageno in a concert performance with the Russian National Orchestra as well as covering the role of Billy Budd for the Bolshoi.
Concert highlights include a solo recital at Wigmore Hall, appearances as soloist with the Birmingham Philharmonic, Moscow Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Gabrieli Consort, Academy of Ancient Music, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Huddersfield Choral Society, King’s College Choir Cambridge and Messiah with the Tasmanian, West Australian and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras.