Ella Taylor – Sheffield Bach Society

Beautiful Brahms

BRAHMS FESTIVAL CONCERT
Saturday 5 October 2019, 7.30pm, Sheffield Cathedral

On Saturday 5 October the Bach Choir presented a programme devoted to Brahms, featuring his magnificent German Requiem, the Academic Festival Overture and two beautiful motets. Rising Sheffield star Ella Taylor sang the soprano solos with precision and accuracy – and immense power, filling the cathedral with a superb soprano sound. Acclaimed bass Alex Ashworth sang with drama and immense feeling, and the choir’s huge enjoyment accompanying the two soloists was clearly heard in their rendering of the choruses. Sally Robinson’s National Festival Orchestra played with verve and style, ably conducted by Dr Simon Lindley. The concert was generously supported by soprano Jane Ginsborg.

Rising stars move mountains to sing Bach in hometown Sheffield

Sheffield Telegraph 5 April 2018

Booking musicians with growing national reputations is difficult; getting them a second time following a postponement is well-nigh impossible – but not when they are committed to singing in their hometown!

Rising stars Anna Harvey and Ella Taylor from Sheffield have moved mountains to sing Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the cathedral on Saturday 14 April, following a snow-enforced postponement of the original concert.

Both live in London but despite busy schedules are adamant about meeting their commitment to sing Bach’s masterpiece. Sheffield Bach Choir faced a herculean task in bringing together soloists, choristers and orchestra for the re-scheduled concert. ‘The Passion obviously has to be performed within the Easter period’ said Music Director Dr. Simon Lindley, ‘ It is a delight, as well as something of a relief, that Anna and Ella, along with tenor Stephen Liley and bass Thomas Hunt in the roles of Evangelist and Christ, all happen to be free for the rearranged date. We are very pleased to have secured Quentin Brown to make up our team of soloists’.

Hailed as ‘simply wonderful’ by the New York Times, mezzo-Soprano Anna Harvey was a pupil at Broomhill, Lydgate and Tapton schools, and graduated in Music from Cambridge University. The holder of a number of prestigious awards, Anna recently sang in Mozart’s Requiem on a national tour that included Sheffield City Hall, and is thrilled to be back: ‘Having grown up in Sheffield, I am very excited to be returning to my home city to sing this wonderful and monumental work by my favourite composer, Bach’. Anna, who sings with the Welsh National Opera and enjoys a busy concert schedule, counts performing at the 2016 Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall as a particular highlight.

Ella, whose earliest musical memory is being ‘part of a string group called ‘Fiddle Fingers, where I first picked up a violin!’, cut her teeth as a chorister at the cathedral, winning BBC Chorister of the Year in 2010. She went on to graduate in Music from the University of Sheffield and is currently studying for a Masters in Performance at the Royal Academy of Music. ‘My passion lies in performing new/contemporary works’ says Ella, ‘I have been lucky to premiere several pieces by up-and-coming composers, as well as works by Schönberg and George Benjamin, among others’.

The Bach choir will be joined by members of St Peter’s Singers from Leeds in the celebrated choruses for double choir, while the acclaimed young Choristers of St John’s Ranmoor will provide the thrilling chorus of upper voices required by Bach in the first half. The audience is encouraged to sing the chorale hymns as would have happened in Bach’s day.

However, you’ll need to set out early – it starts at 6.30pm and there is always competition for prime spots in the cathedral’s grand acoustic. Tickets for the original concert are valid, those without tickets can get them from http://www.sheffieldbachchoir.org.uk/

Link to the article in the Sheffield Telegraph

Rising stars come out for Mozart

Two leading ladies up and coming in the world of professional music take centre stage at Sheffield Bach Choir’s concert of music by Bach and Mozart on Saturday 7 November at Sheffield Cathedral.

Clarinettist HELEN BYWATER is the soloists in Mozart’s evergreen clarinet concerto with the National Festival Orchestra under the direction of Bach Choir conductor Dr Simon Lindley. Dr Lindley says: “it’s a real delight to be able to include a concerto within a choral programme and all of us who admire Helen’s special gifts are delighted to be able to welcome Helen to this Autumn’s main concert.”

Another leading young musician (who hails from Sheffield and cut her musical teeth as a cathedral chorister – her father, Neil, is Cathedral Director of Music) is ELLA TAYLOR, soprano who leads the solo vocal quartet in the Mozart’s autumnal Requiem Mass with its dark colouring reflecting both the mood of the centuries old texts reflecting on mortality and perhaps the mood of the composer himself, for he was writing the piece on his death-bed…..
Ella studies music at the University of Sheffield and singing at the Royal Academy of Music with Elizabeth Ritchie. She created a major impact, if not a sensation, as soloist in the Bach Choir’s critically acclaimed Messiah performance last December.

This concert is the fourth presentation in the Bach Choir’s 65^th season. Unlike many of “pensionable” age, the enthusiastic members of SHEFFIELD BACH CHOIR have no thoughts of the prospect of carpet slipper existence by a home fireside!

Far from it – additional to the BACH AND MOZART GALA in November, their 65^th season comprises a complete account of Handel’s Messiah at Sheffield Cathedral on Monday 7 December with Bach’s St John Passion at the same venue in March.