University of Birmingham Voices perform UK premiere with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

University of Birmingham Voices were pleased to perform this month with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and conductor, Ludovic Morlot at Symphony Hall, Birmingham in a performance of John Luther Adams’ Vespers of the Blessed Earth.

Commissioned by the orchestra and here given its UK premiere, the performance featured a large number of Birmingham’s finest singers alongside Morlot – with UoB Voices and CBSO Chorus joining forces for another successful project together. Paired with Sibelius’ second symphony, the Vespers is a meditation on music born from nature and the Earth, using images of clouds, canyons, and endangered birds to create musical soundscapes from voices and instruments alike.

Prepared by Chorus Master, Jack Apperley, University of Birmingham Voices accepted the invitation to perform following a number of critically acclaimed recent programmes with the orchestra, including a concert production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Yeomen of the Guard in 2017, as well as a celebrated joint performance with CBSO Chorus of William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast in 2019. In 2020, the choir marked the centenary year of the CBSO with a massed performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (“Symphony of a Thousand”) alongside CBSO Chorus and Baltimore Choral Arts, and last year performed Carmina Burana with the orchestra in Birmingham and at the BBC Proms. In July 2022, the choir recorded their debut CD for Hyperion with the orchestra in a performance of Stanford’s Requiem.

Choirs are an important part of University Music in Birmingham, and offer unrivalled opportunities for young singers at any university in the UK. For more information, or if you would like to find out more about choirs at University of Birmingham, please contact the University Music and Concerts Team (universitymusichub@contacts.bham.ac.uk).