In celebration of its 70th anniversary, the Jersey Festival Choir perform Mendelssohn's 'Elijah' conducted by James Southall.

Dramatic, powerful, and deeply moving, Elijah is one of the great masterpieces of the choral repertoire. Telling the epic biblical story of the prophet Elijah, the music moves effortlessly from moments of fiery intensity and confrontation to passages of profound beauty, reflection, and hope. Towering choruses, lyrical arias, and richly expressive orchestral writing combine to create an unforgettable concert experience.
This special anniversary performance brings together choir, orchestra, and soloists for an evening of large-scale choral music at its most thrilling. Whether you are a long-time lover of choral music or discovering Elijah for the first time, this concert promises drama, emotion, and musical excellence in abundance.

https://cbso.co.uk/events/brahms-german-requiem

Purcell, Funeral Music For Queen Mary

Brahms, German Requiem

Ryan Wigglesworth, Conductor
Sophie Bevan, Soprano
Gareth Brynmor John, Baritone

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
CBSO Chorus

Dedicated to the memory of David Watkin, we are extremely privileged to be conducted in this performance of Bach's treasured Mass in B minor by John Butt, the UK's pre-eminent Bach scholar and long-standing friend and colleague of David.

With soloists Sophie Bevan, Rachel Nicholls, Tim Morgan, David de Winter and Gareth Brynmor John.

Our Thursday concert features the full Festival Orchestra and Chorus, presenting Vaughan Williams' rarely performed and exquisite Epithalamion, conducted by Ben Glassberg with soloist Gareth Brynmor John. In the second half the orchestra performs Beethoven's luxuriant Symphony No. 7.

Programme:

Ravel, Le tombeau de Couperin, M68

Vaughan Williams, Epithalamion

Beethoven, Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op92

Listen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002t0hn

David Hill conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Bach Choir, live from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge, in music for Good Friday by Wagner and Poulenc. The main work is Duruflé's 1947 Requiem, which draws on Gregorian plainchant, something he was very familiar with after his early musical training at the cathedral in Rouen.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Wagner: Good Friday Music from Parsifal
Poulenc: Four Lenten Motets
Duruflé: Requiem

Katherine Gregory (mezzo-soprano)
Gareth Brynmor John (baritone)
The Bach Choir
BBC Concert Orchestra
Conductor David Hill

The Epiphoni Consort will re-perform their highly praised Fauré Requiem From Memory alongside Sinfonia Smith Square.

Conductor: Paul Wingfield
Soloists: Gareth Brynmor John and Rowan Pierce

Hereford Cathedral Choir will perform JS Bach’s St John Passion on March 31 at 7.30pm in the nave of Hereford Cathedral.

The performance will be conducted by Peter Dyke, interim director of music, who stepped into the role following the retirement of Geraint Bowen in February.

Mr Dyke will lead the choir and period-instrument orchestra Marches Baroque in this annual Holy Week tradition.

The performance features a distinguished cast of soloists, with tenor Ruairi Bowen as the Evangelist and William Gaunt as Christus.

Other soloists include Hannah Dienes-Williams (soprano), Matthew Farrell (alto), and Gareth Brynmor John (bass).

The Choir of Merton College

The Choristers of Merton College

Instruments of Time & Truth

Toby Spence, Evangelist

Gareth Brynmor John, Christus

Henry Neill, Pilate & Bass Arias

Hannah Dienes-Williams, Soprano

Kathryn Rudge, Alto

Simon Wall, Tenor

Royston Choral Society continues its 2025/26 season  theme of Journeys by Sea & in Spirit with a performance of Brahms' Ein deutsche Requiem and Stanford's Songs of the Sea. Accompanied by the full forces of the East Herts Sinfonia, the soloists in the concert will be Nina Bennet (Soprano) and Gareth Brynmor John (Baritone). Nina last sang with the society in 2017 and since then has had 2 extremely successful solo performances in the proms and is now becoming established as an exciting dramatic soprano. Gareth is a previous winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award and has performed extensively with opera houses, on the concert platform as well as in lieder. As well as having sung in a number of television and radio live broadcasts and recordings Gareth has a number of commercial recordings to his name.

The St Matthew Passion is an oratorio by JS Bach for solo voices, double choir and orchestra, and is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of Baroque sacred music. Kingsgate Voices are delighted to join forces with Southern Voices, the London Baroque Sinfonia and soloists Malachy Frame, Ben Hendry-Watkins, Katharine Fuge, Jessica Gillingwater, Maurice Cole, Gareth Brynmor John and Sebastian Hill for this special event at Romsey Abbey, to be conducted by Andrew Hayman.

After our performance of The Apostles in March 2025, the Oxford Bach Choir returns with the second part of our two year Elgar Project with this performance of his oratorio, The Kingdom. Elgar takes texts from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, to continue the narrative of the Apostles and community of the early church. We are joined by a stellar line-up of soloists and the wonderful Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

This concert is supported by a number of generous donors, as well as through an Elgar-in-Performance grant from The Elgar Society.

Conductor: Benjamin Nicholas

Soloist: Sophie Bevan (soprano), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (alto), Benjamin Hulett (tenor), Gareth Brynmor John (bass)

Orchestra: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Nottingham Harmonic Choir
Musical & Amicable Society

Conductor Richard Laing

Soprano Katie Trethewey
Mezzo soprano Emily Hodkinson
Tenor Nathan Vale
Baritone Gareth Brynmor John

Bach’s finest work? The Mass in B Minor has monumental choruses but also several poignant, intimate arias for the soloists. The music is extraordinarily uplifting, full of contrast but brimming with joy. This is surely one of the greatest achievements in Western art, and every performance is a very special occasion.

Vaughan Williams – Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1
Vaughan Williams – Five Mystical Songs
Vaughan Williams – Five Tudor Portraits

Emily Gray – contralto
Gareth Brynmor John – baritone

William Vann – conductor
The London Chorus
New London Orchestra

The London Chorus presents a thrilling programme of the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, one of the greatest of all British composers and a Chelsea resident for 24 years. His Five Tudor Portraits, masterful settings of the poems of John Skelton, priest and tutor to Henry VIII, are at times bawdy, poignant and witty, and deserve to be heard far more often.

We also hear his popular Five Mystical Songs, settings of the 17th-century poet and priest George Herbert, and his Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1, which conjures up an eloquent aural portrait of the Norfolk landscape and its people through five locally-sourced folk songs.

Emily Gray and Gareth Brynmor John star as soloists; The London Chorus and New London Orchestra are directed by William Vann, critically acclaimed in his conducting of the music of Vaughan Williams.

Sponsored by the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society.

Barnes Music Festival

Gareth Brynmor John, Noye
Victoria Simmonds, Mrs Noye
James Day, conductor
Oscar Simms, director
Lucy Ruff, designer

Benjamin Britten’s much-loved Noye’s Fludde opens this year’s Barnes Music Festival in joyful, technicolour style. Written in 1957 and premiered in 1958, the piece was conceived for professional musicians performing alongside children, schools and community performers — a perfect embodiment of the Festival’s spirit.

In this half-centenary year, we celebrate fifty years since the work became widely established as one of Britten’s most enduring community masterpieces, retelling the story of Noah’s Ark with irresistible energy, humour and heart. Featuring a massed cast of local young people, instrumentalists and soloists, this immersive production promises an unforgettable opening to the 2026 Festival.

Colin Durrant Conductor

Oliver Gooch Conductor

(chamber orchestra)

James Vivian Conductor

(choristers)

Niovi Klavdianou Soprano

Ed Lyon Tenor

Gareth Brynmor John Baritone

Imperial College London Choirs & Symphony Orchestra

Coventry Cathedral Chorus

Orpheus Sinfonia

Choristers of St George's Chapel, Windsor

Musical forces from Imperial join Coventry Cathedral Chorus, Orpheus Sinfonia and the choristers of St George's Chapel for an anniversary performance of Britten's monumental War Requiem. First performed at the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral in 1962, it is widely regarded as one of the greatest choral works of the twentieth century. Britten's great artistic statement of pacifism is a modern classic, provocatively juxtaposing the vivid anti-war poetry of Wilfred Owen with the Latin Requiem Mass in a passionate outcry against man's inhumanity to man. It still resonates today as a timely reminder of both the horrors of war and the importance of forgiveness and solidarity for all mankind.

Benjamin Britten War Requiem

Cambridge University Orchestra
Britten Sinfonia
The Choirs of Clare, Gonville and Caius, Jesus and Selwyn Colleges
Cambridge University Symphony Chorus
St Catharine's College Girls' Choir and the Choristers of Jesus College
LUDOVIC MORLOT conductor
ELIZABETH WATTS soprano
ED LYON tenor
GARETH BRYNMOR JOHN baritone

In a once-in-a-generation event, over 300 of the University of Cambridge’s finest musicians unite with Britten Sinfonia for a monumental performance of Britten’s War Requiem at Ely Cathedral, where the composer himself conducted the work performed by Cambridge students soon after its premiere.

Marking fifty years since Britten’s death, this extraordinary concert brings to life his searing and profoundly human masterpiece: a work that confronts the devastation of war and gives voice to our shared longing for peace, intertwining the timeless Latin Requiem Mass with the war poetry of Wilfred Owen.

At the podium is internationally acclaimed conductor Ludovic Morlot – Music Director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Emeritus of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra – leading the combined forces of the Cambridge University Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, the choirs of Clare, Gonville & Caius, Jesus and Selwyn Colleges, the Cambridge University Symphony Chorus, the Choristers of Jesus College and St Catharine’s College Girls’ Choir.

• Daniel Hyde   conductor

• King’s College Choir  

• City of London Choir  

• Philharmonia Orchestra  

• Gareth Brynmor John baritone

For a very special performance, the world-renowned King’s College Choir, Cambridge returns to Barbican Hall, bringing their signature purity and power to a programme of beloved carols and festive classics. They are joined by the City of London Choir, under the direction of Daniel Hyde. 

Whether you’re continuing a cherished tradition or discovering this experience for the first time, this is Christmas at its most majestic. Celebrate the season with one of the greatest choirs in the world. Book early - this concert sells out quickly. 

Northampton Bach Choir
The Bach Camarata

The choir will be joined by members of The Bach Camarata (Baroque Chamber Orchestra) and internationally acclaimed soloists Rebecca Bottone and Gareth Brynmor John.

Excerpts from The Messiah
Finzi In Terra Pax
Audience favourites including O Come all ye Faithful and The Twelve days of Christmas

Please join us for a wonderful festive celebration in the iconic St Paul’s Cathedral, featuring readings by some of the UK’s best-loved actors and music by world-famous opera singers Sophie Bevan MBE, Peter Auty, Gareth Brynmor John, Sir Willard White OM, CBE, and the St Paul’s Cathedral Choir.

Since its inception in 1994, our carol concert has raised more than £6m for life-saving cancer research. We are thrilled to announce that this year’s concert will raise funds for the Future Leaders pillar of the More Research, Less Cancer campaign and will receive match funding for every pound raised from The Lovat Barclay Family Challenge Fund.

We look forward to welcoming you to what promises to be a truly enchanting evening. 

We’re thrilled to announce that our celebrity readers are confirmed as: Celia Imrie CBE, Sir Lenny Henry CBE, Jason Isaacs, Dame Harriet Walter DBE, Victoria Hamilton, Leo Suter, Hugh Quarshie, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw MBE. 

The Choir of Croydon Minster

Edward Picton-Turberville, piano
Hannah Watson Emrich, piano
Nina Bennet, soprano
Gareth Brynmor John, baritone
Justin Miller, conductor

Programme:
Edward Elgar - The Kingdom

James Day - conductor
Combined Tiffin Choirs
Carolyn Sampson - Soprano
Victoria Simmonds - mezzo soprano
Xavier Hetherington - tenor
Gareth John - bass

Elgar – The Apostles

The Chichester Singers with Southern Pro Musica

Jonathan Wilcocks – conductor

This is one of Elgar’s greatest large-scale works, but is relatively seldom performed because of the very substantial musical resources that it requires – six soloists, large chorus and full symphony orchestra.

Bibi Heal (soprano), Diana Moore (contralto), Oliver Johnston (tenor), Gareth Brynmor John (baritone-Jesus), Frederick Long (bass-baritone – Peter), Ossian Huskinson (bass – Judas)

90 Years of Arvo Pärt: Merton College Choir and Britten Sinfonia

Date: Tuesday 11 November 2025

Time: 19:30 - 21:00

Venue The Sheldonian Theatre

Arvo Pärt’s haunting Fratres (Brothers) opens this concert, music that somehow manages to be both still and unsettled at the same time. Similarly, his Berlin Mass takes the listener on a journey that encompasses both moments of quiet devotion and full-blooded declarations of faith. Pärt’s music is complemented by that of John Tavener, with his spine-tingling Song for Athene, a work made famous after featuring in the funeral service for Diana, Princess of Wales. Haydn’s starkly powerful ‘Mass for Troubled Times’ closes the evening.

Concert produced in partnership with Merton College.

Part of 90 Years of Arvo Pärt: A Reflection, staged with the collaboration of the Arvo Pärt Centre, Estonian Embassy in London and the Estonian Ministry of Culture.

90 Years of Arvo Pärt: Merton College Choir and Britten Sinfonia | Merton College - Oxford

The Academy Choir of Wimbledon
London Mozart Players

Sophie Bevan, soprano
Gareth Brynmor John, baritone

Taverner The Lamb
Svyati (‘O Holy One’)
–
Fauré Requiem (1893 version ed. Rutter)

Wimbledon’s beloved Academy Choir returns with Fauré’s serene and radiant Requiem, joined by the London Mozart Players. Also featured are two works by Sir John Tavener: The Lamb, a poignant setting of William Blake’s poetry, and Svyati, a spiritual choral piece for cello and choir in Church Slavonic drawing on Orthodox funeral rites. This marks the Choir’s first performance under their new Music Director, following a distinguished partnership with the late Matthew Best.

Retiring collection in aid of Medical Life Lines Ukraine

Alessandro Fisher (tenor)

Gareth Brynmor John (baritone)

William Vann (piano)

Navarra String Quartet

A stellar line-up of musicians come together to mark the 70th birthday of composer Ian Venables. At the heart of the programme are two powerful works for tenor, string quartet and piano. Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge is a deeply evocative setting of poetry from A.E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad - with its themes of homesickness, lives cut short, and lost love, and its conjuring of Shropshire landscape. Ian Venables’ ethereal Portraits of a Mind, was commissioned by the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society in honour of that earlier composer’s 150th Anniversary in 2022 and premiered by the musicians who perform it tonight. Inspired by the musical language of Vaughan Williams and his artistic credo – ‘the object of art is to reach out to the ultimate realities through the medium of beauty’ – Venables references music from The House of Life to The Lark Ascending, in a highly atmospheric cycle.

The concert opens with the London premiere of Out of the Shadows, which was commissioned by Robert Venables KC in 2023 to celebrate Gary Morris and he having been together for 30 years. Works by Howells and Butterworth complete the lavish programme.

Venables: Out of the Shadows

Vaughan Williams (arr. Vann): Fantasia on Greensleeves

Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge

Interval

Vaughan Williams: Love Bade me Welcome

Butterworth: Love Blows as the Wind Blows

Venables: Portraits of a Mind

Howells: An Old Man’s Lullaby

Duration: 1 hr 45 minutes (including interval)

Sponsored by The Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation

Out of the Shadows

Guildford Choral
Jonathan Willcocks. Musical Director
Sophie Bevan, Soprano
Gareth Brynmor John, Baritone

Guildford Choral will present a sea-themed concert with three works: Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture,  evoking the rolling waves and rugged cliffs of the Scottish coastline; Stanford's Songs of the Fleet, a collection of five songs reflecting different aspects of naval life and the emotions of sailors at sea; and Vaughan Williams' iconic setting to music of Walt Whitman’s poem ‘Leaves of Grass’ - A Sea Symphony, which celebrates the vastness and drama of the ocean.

Joining Guildford Choral will be two exceptional artists: Sophie Bevan (Soprano) and Gareth Brynmor John (Baritone). Sophie has won multiple prestigious awards, and Gareth is an acclaimed Welsh baritone and winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award. 

Guildford Choral - 01/11/2025 7:30pm - Behold, the Sea!

Schubert & Co. bring their trademark, celebratory Schubertiade back to this year’s Festival. As well as some of Schubert’s best-loved solo songs, they include ensembles that were written for sociable occasions that Schubert himself would have attended. These offer insights into the rich depth of Schubert, revealing both a lighter side that is less often heard, and some of the composer’s most deeply personal works.

Schubert & Co. are a flexible ensemble of eight renowned singers who gather around the piano to recreate an atmosphere of informal music-making that was so close to the heart of Schubert and many other composers. Their Festival concerts are always sell-out occasions, and tonight they give two performances of the same programme. The bar in the Levine Building will be open before and after, and you may well find yourself joined there by the musicians.

Schubert & Co., Harriet Burns, Katy Thomson, Katie Bray, Bethan Langford, Alessandro Fisher, Joshua Owen Mills, Gareth Brynmor John & Frederick Long

Schubert & Co. bring their trademark, celebratory Schubertiade back to this year’s Festival. As well as some of Schubert’s best-loved solo songs, they include ensembles that were written for sociable occasions that Schubert himself would have attended. These offer insights into the rich depth of Schubert, revealing both a lighter side that is less often heard, and some of the composer’s most deeply personal works.

Schubert & Co. are a flexible ensemble of eight renowned singers who gather around the piano to recreate an atmosphere of informal music-making that was so close to the heart of Schubert and many other composers. Their Festival concerts are always sell-out occasions, and tonight they give two performances of the same programme. The bar in the Levine Building will be open before and after, and you may well find yourself joined there by the musicians.

Schubert & Co., Harriet Burns, Katy Thomson, Katie Bray, Bethan Langford, Alessandro Fisher, Joshua Owen Mills, Gareth Brynmor John & Frederick Long

The Elysian Singers of London, under musical director Sam Laughton, is one of the UK’s leading chamber choirs. Known for our adventurous programming and imaginative repertoire, we give concerts in and around London, and have recorded a number of enthusiastically received CDs.

Victoria Simmonds (mezzo-soprano)
Thomas Elwin (tenor)
Gareth Brynmor John (bass)