Furness Bach Choir
Based in Ulverston, we sing music composed over the past thousand years.
"The whole performance was sensational"
Westmoorland Gazette
"All four vocal parts could be heard clearly in the fugal entries, there were plenty of contrasting dynamics and the Dies Irae in particular was full of energy."
Margaret Harrison, The Mail (praise for our Mozart Requiem April '23 concert)
Recent Highlights
from our 'Seven Last Words' concert in Barrow, March 2024
World premiere English translation & arrangement for Strings and Timpani
in Rehearsal
in Concert
Next Concert
Saturday 7th December, 7:30pm
Mysterium
Choral Music for Advent
at Ulverston Methodist Church
organ Charles Edmondson
Music by
Judith Weir - Drop Down ye Heavens from above
Alec Roth - Song of the Shepherds
Lauridsen - O Magnum Mysterium
Grieg - Ave Maris Stella
Hassler - Dixit Maria
Bainton - And I Saw a New Heaven
Howells - A Spotless Rose & Magnificat
Arcadelt - Ave Maria
Elgar - Ave Verum Corpus
Chivers - Ecce Puer
Praetorius - Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
Fauré - Cantique de Jean Racine
Furness Bach Choir with Ensemble Laus Deo
Music Director
Alex Robinson
Alex Robinson is an experienced conductor and harpsichordist. He graduated from the University of Manchester with a first class degree in Music (MusB) and the Royal Northern College of Music with an MMus in Performance at Distinction level (Conducting).
He studied under the student conductor program at Manchester University with Mark Heron & Justin Doyle (RIAS Kammerchor) and later with Clark Rundell at the RNCM. During his studies he was Musical Director for the University Music Society performances of Rameau’s ‘Castor & Pollux’ (2016), conducted Harrison Birtwistle’s ‘Silbury Air’ with the composer in attendance for the NewMusicNorthWest Festival in 2016 and worked with postgraduate composers in various new music projects at the RNCM and with ‘Psappha’.
He is the Music Director of the Haffner Orchestra, the Lake District’s elite vocal ensemble, Furness Bach Choir and the Principal Conductor of the Amaretti Chamber Orchestra and Nottingham Youth Orchestra.
In 2022 he was the Music Director Fellow with Spokane Symphony Orchestra in Washington, USA and Assistant Conductor for English Touring Opera’s HANDELFEST productions and recitals and began teaching as a Professor of Conducting at the University of Salford. In 2023 he will be working with the West of Scotland Schools Orchestra (WSSO), touring with Nottingham Youth Orchestra and performing with Eboracum Baroque.
He has worked with a number of British orchestras as conductor and assistant conductor, including the BBC Philharmonic, the Hallé, Liverpool Philharmonic, Northern Chamber Orchestra, The Old Street Band, Manchester Camerata, Psappha, the Mayson Orchestra as well as a number of opera companies as conductor and as a harpishordist/repetiteur including Radius Opera, English Touring Opera, Heritage Opera and Northern Opera Group. On the international stage, Alex has worked with the Allegra Festival Orchestra in Bulgaria, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonia, CR and Spokane Symphony in Washington, USA. He has worked as assistant conductor for a number of internationally renowned conductors including Sir Mark Elder, Sir Andrew Davies, Vassily Petrenko, James Lowe, Nicolas Collon, Juanjo Mena and Gerry Cornelius.
Notable highlights include working as Assistant Conductor for Heritage Opera and the BBC Philharmonic’s joint world premiere of Alan Williams’’ The Arsonists’. He was music director for Manchester International Festival 2017’s ‘One of Two Stories or Both’ production of a 5 part live broadcast radio drama which appeared on Unity Radio and BBC iPlayer. He was repetiteur and vocal coach during ETO’s HANDELFEST, director of the RNCM Baroque Ensemble and continuo player for a concert with the RNCM Chamber Orchestra and Pablo Besnosiuk (Academy of Ancient Music) and assistant conductor and repetiteur for Tim Benjamin’s ‘The Fire of Olympus’ and recorded an album of continuo improvisations with Lute and Viola da Gamba.
Ensemble Laus Deo
An orchestra assembled specifically to work with the Furness Bach Choir consisting of young professionals and top amateur players from across the North West. The orchestra varies in size to suit the repertoire and many performances feature specialist baroque players on period instruments.