Keele Bach Choir

Keele Bach Choir Auditioned chamber choir singing Byrd to Britten & beyond. Posts by Sarah 🎵

12/07/2026

It feels so very strange to have stopped rehearsals for the summer after our amazing concert on 4th July!
Rehearsals start again on 3rd September, but in the meantime we’ve added our ‘placeholder’ events for next season, just so that you can get the dates in your diary.
There will doubtless be some changes along the way, but please note our special summer concert on 3rd July 2027, which will take place in Manchester Cathedral in conjunction with St George’s Singers, who are celebrating their 70th anniversary.
It looks as though 2026-27 will be another challenging, varied, thrilling year of music under the wonderful Neil Taylor - we are looking forward to it, and to having you with us all the way!

08/07/2026

And some footage from the concert itself.
Busy Neil is moving swiftly on, playing at the recording of Young Chorister of the Year this week. We hope you get to take a well-earned break soon, Neil!

We have realised that some of you wanted to buy a copy of our informative programme before Saturday’s concert, but were ...
06/07/2026

We have realised that some of you wanted to buy a copy of our informative programme before Saturday’s concert, but were out of luck. Sorry about that! Please drop me a private message on here with an email, if you would like a PDF, or other contact details, and we will figure out a way to get one to you.

Thanks from the whole choir to our lovely audience tonight, as well as to our amazing soprano soloist, Lily Shevket; to ...
05/07/2026

Thanks from the whole choir to our lovely audience tonight, as well as to our amazing soprano soloist, Lily Shevket; to Alison Loram on violin; to Casper Hamilton on bass; to Nathan England-Jones on drums. Tom McKinney, KBC President, and Adam Jogee, our MP, were both most welcome - thank you for joining us. Committee members work tirelessly across the year, and many choir members contribute to the non-singing bits of the concerts, from writing programmes to dealing with chairs to serving drinks - thanks to them all. Glynis, our outgoing chair, has been all sorts of amazing - thanks to her.
But we couldn’t do what we do without you, Neil Taylor and Ian Riddle.
Thank you is not enough.

Concert tomorrow!! We can’t wait to see you all! Please remember to come onto campus via the Keele village entrance. It ...
03/07/2026

Concert tomorrow!! We can’t wait to see you all! Please remember to come onto campus via the Keele village entrance.

It just remains to thank the wonderful Neil Taylor, our Musical Director, and Ian Riddle, our fantastic accompanist, for all they have done for this concert and throughout the year. Thank you both so much.

Neil, Ian and the choir will be thrilled to see you tomorrow evening at 7.30pm at Keele University Chapel for our performance of The Lark Ascending (Vaughan Williams), Good News from New England (Cecilia McDowall) and Mass in Blue ((Will Todd).
Tickets available here:

https://keelebachchoir.sumupstore.com

Neil’s photo credit: Paul Husband

Introducing our amazing soprano soloist for the Mass in Blue, Lily Shevket.Lily studied Music at Cardiff University, ach...
02/07/2026

Introducing our amazing soprano soloist for the Mass in Blue, Lily Shevket.

Lily studied Music at Cardiff University, achieving a BMus in 2017 and an MA in 2018. She has sung with many choirs, orchestras and fellow musicians, and was a choral scholar with the BBC National Chorus of Wales during her Masters
degree. Nowadays, she lives in Newcastle-under-Lyme with her husband and works as a teacher at
a local SEN school. She has been a member of Keele Bach Choir since 2021, and we are so proud of her!

Please join us at Keele Chapel at 7.30pm this coming Saturday to hear Lily’s amazing performance.

Other music will be available on the evening! We had the benefit of working with violin soloist Alison Loram in today’s rehearsal, and she will be playing on Cecilia McDowell’s Good News from New England and Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending.

You can secure your tickets and pre-order your programmes here: https://keelebachchoir.sumupstore.com

Public Service Announcement: if you are coming to our fantastic summer concert on Saturday 4th July in Keele Chapel, ple...
26/06/2026

Public Service Announcement: if you are coming to our fantastic summer concert on Saturday 4th July in Keele Chapel, please bear in mind that the main entrance is closed for resurfacing, meaning you will have to use the Keele village entrance. Bus services will be affected, too. Have a look at the following if this affects you, and please add a few minutes to your journey time.
See you soon!

https://www.keele.ac.uk/about/howtofindus/ -road-closure---university-drive-(15-june---10-july)

It’ll be a hot one for our penultimate Thursday rehearsal this evening, but I hope we allow the blues to put us into a c...
25/06/2026

It’ll be a hot one for our penultimate Thursday rehearsal this evening, but I hope we allow the blues to put us into a chill state!

Will Todd’s Mass in Blue really is a remarkable piece of music – the mass form you would recognise from the classical choral tradition, but his very clever writing shows us you’ve got to be very tight to sound so loose! There are a huge changes of pace, of light and shade, of mood; the work incorporates all of the vernacular of the blues, including improvisation, but for upwards of 50 people, singers and accompanists, and it is very, very special.
We have already introduced our accompanying guest artists, but we will tell you more about our remarkable soloist, Lily, very shortly.
In the meantime, with any energy you can muster, please rush to our websites and secure your tickets for our forthcoming performance. (The weather is looking much more forgiving for July 4th!)

https://keelebachchoir.sumupstore.com

In the middle of concert preparation, we realise we may not have introduced our new President Tom McKinney. Tom was born...
22/06/2026

In the middle of concert preparation, we realise we may not have introduced our new President Tom McKinney. Tom was born and raised in Penkhull (he is also President of the Penkhull Festival). After studying the guitar at the Royal Northern College of Music and a masters in musicology at The University of Manchester, he went on to become a professional guitarist. He now teaches at his old alma mater, RNCM, where he is Professor of Guitar.
His broadcasting career started back in 2012, and after occupying various roles with Radio Three over the years, he is currently presenting its weekday show Breakfast.
Among other things, he also organises the Sheffield Crucible Theatre's series of concerts, Music in the Round.
Tom is a keen birdwatcher and enjoys trips away catching up with the feathered creatures.

This is his kind response to our invitation to be President:

'It was a really nice surprise to be asked to become President of Keele Bach Choir, a great organisation run by people who are so passionate about making music. Having grown up in the area, I remember the thriving music scene of Newcastle and Stoke, and it's great to think I can still be a part of it. I look forward to seeing you all at a concert soon.”

Well, Tom, our next concert will be a stunner! Tickets available here: https://keelebachchoir.sumupstore.com

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