George Frideric Handel
Messiah
HWV 56
Handel's Messiah (HWV 56) is the most performed large-scale choral work in the Western tradition. Composed in just 24 days in 1741, its 53 movements span the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The "Hallelujah" chorus, at the end of Part II, is among the most recognisable pieces of music ever written.
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Movements
And the Glory of the Lord
And he shall purify
O thou that tellest good tidings
For unto us a Child is born
Glory to God
His yoke is easy!
Behold the Lamb of God
Surely He hath borne our griefs
And with His stripes
All we like sheep
He trusted in God
Lift up your heads
Let all the angels of God
The Lord gave the word
Their sound is gone out
Let us break their bonds asunder
Hallelujah!
Since by man came death
But thanks be to God
Worthy is the Lamb
Chorus
Chris Webb
Chris Webb is a bass and former choral scholar of Clare College, Cambridge, where he also sang with the University Chamber Choir. Now a lay clerk at Southwark Cathedral, he performs with the Monteverdi Choir, London Voices, Farm Street Singers and Blossom Street, and has sung abroad with the Zürcher Sing-Akademie. His operatic roles include Colline in Puccini's La bohème for Merry Opera Company and Sarastro in Mozart's Magic Flute for Opera Anywhere; he took part in ENO's Opera Works programme in 2016–17 and studies with Alex Ashworth.
Dale Harris
Dale Harris is a baritone and choral scholar with the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, having graduated from Birmingham Conservatoire in 2012. He sings with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Armonico Consort and Blossom Street, and appears as an oratorio and operatic soloist in works ranging from Handel's Messiah and Britten's War Requiem to Verdi's La Traviata and Macbeth. He toured for six months with the National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company and returned to the RSC for The Merchant of Venice.
David Jones
David Jones is a baritone working across song, oratorio and opera, and a prizewinner in the 2015 AESS Patricia Routledge English Song Competition. A committed advocate of new music, he has premiered works by Nick Bicât, Stephen Deazley, Louis Mander and Josh Spear. His stage roles include The Mikado, Passion and Resurrection and the world premiere of The Sleeper for Welsh National Youth Opera, and he performs as a soloist for the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now scheme.
Emily Wenman
Emily Wenman is a soprano who completed her MA in Vocal Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama under Leah Marian Jones, and now studies with Gail Pearson. She is a principal soprano with Blossom Street, the St Martin's Voices Fellowship at St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Gesualdo Consort, Seren Singers and Newman Hall Choir, and a former choral scholar of King's College London and the BBC National Chorus of Wales. An experienced singing teacher and vocal animateur, she has led projects for the BBC National Chorus of Wales, the Arts Active Trust and WNO Max.
Phillipa Thomas
Phillipa Thomas is a soprano who began in the Cantamus Girls' Choir before reading music at the University of York, where she took an MA, won the University Concerto Prize and became a founder member of Blossom Street. She continued her studies at Birmingham Conservatoire, winning the Conservatoire Singing Prize and placing as a finalist in several competitions. Alongside operatic work she remains active on the London choral scene and continues to sing with Blossom Street.
Robert Jenkins
Robert Jenkins is a tenor who took his BMus (Hons) at Birmingham Conservatoire in 2012, winning the Cecil Drew Oratorio Prize, and spent five years as Tenor Lay Clerk at Birmingham Cathedral. He sings with the BBC Singers, Ex Cathedra, Polyphony, Philharmonia Voices, Siglo de Oro and the Proteus Ensemble, and with the choirs of Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Chelsea Old Church and Westminster Cathedral. Alongside his choral work he maintains an active solo career and has appeared in a range of operatic roles.
Vanessa Bowers
Vanessa Bowers is a soprano who studied viola and piano at the Junior Royal Academy of Music before returning to the Academy for a BMus in Vocal Studies. She made her BBC Proms debut as a soloist in Bernstein's MASS with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in 2013 and sang Berio's Coro under Sir Simon Rattle at the 2014 Lucerne Festival. More recently she has performed contemporary and classical repertoire with Det Norske Solistkor in Oslo and Trondheim.
Musical Director
Hilary Campbell
Hilary Campbell is a freelance choral conductor who founded and directs the professional chamber choir Blossom Street, and is Musical Director of Bristol Choral Society, Chiswick Choir and the Music Makers of London. Her guest conducting includes the BBC Symphony Chorus, Trinity Laban Chamber Choir, the BBC Radio 4 Daily Service Singers and the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Chorus, whom she prepared for Mahler's Symphony No. 2 under Semyon Bychkov; she also directed the P&O Ferries Choir to victory in BBC Two's The Choir. She collaborates each year with Judith Weir at the Royal Academy of Music, works as an adjudicator and workshop leader, and is a published, prize-winning composer and founding member of the Voices of London Festival.
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