PRESS RELEASE
Friday December 31 2021
Press enquiries to Grenville Jones on 07778 282934.
It was back in 2007 when choir leader Grenville Jones thought that he would start a new choir for men in the City of Bath. He had just returned from a concert tour to New Zealand leading a mixed-voice choir, performing at a number of concerts with male voice choirs from across New Zealand.
Grenville said;
“People thought that I was bonkers and I was reminded on a number of occasions of the numbers of choirs that were existing in Bath and how all of them were pretty desperate to recruit male singers! Taking the bull by the horns, so to speak, I arranged an open rehearsal for any men who might be interested and that was the start of what became the City of Bath Male Choir.”
Then the choir entered the popular BBC Saturday night competition ‘Last Choir Standing’ reaching the finals and a World-wide audience of many millions of viewers. As more singers from across the area joined the choir were in high demand for concert performances and in recent years have sung at concerts across the UK and around Europe. The choir also toured Japan in 2014 – the first amateur choir to visit the country. The next hugely successful tour was to Boston in the States and Grenville Jones recently announced that in October this year (2022) Bath Male Choir will visit the music city of Nashville in Tennessee.
“We are now planning the itinerary for the Nashville visit with a choir party of 50 committed to take part and we hope to be in Nashville for October 22-30 for what will again be a very special few days, seeing the famous music sites and performing at concerts,” said Grenville Jones.
Members of the choir come from across the area and rehearsals start back on Tuesday January 11 at Beechen Cliff Methodist Church in Bear Flat, Bath.
Grenville’s son Laurie has recently taken over the role of deputy conductor and Grenville and Laurie look forward to welcoming prospective new members.
Laurie Jones said;
“My dad started the choir many years ago and it has an enviable reputation for entertaining and exciting audiences. It’s a great challenge to be sharing the role of conductor with him and we look forward to meeting new potential members to sing in the leading male voice choir in the West of England.
“Come along and meet us on a Tuesday night.”
Nearer to home the choir already have a busy diary for the new year with concerts in and around Bath, Salisbury, Taunton, Cheltenham and Cornwall.
For full details see www.bathmalechoir.org
ENDS
Images
- Singing in the States, looking back Bath Male Choir performing in Boston during their 2019 tour. Looking forward the Bath Male Choir will visit Nashville, Tennessee in 2022.
- Founder Grenville Jones.