Message from Grenville Jones, Musical Director .....
It's October 2024 and I've made the decision that my days of conducting / leading BATH-BASED evening choirs will end on Saturday December 21st - that's my Christmas charity concert at St Michaels (7pm start) with my Welcome Chorus and special guests. After 30 years I don't want to be part of the "too many choirs in Bath" race any more - there are just far too many in Bath with the knock-on issues of insufficient audiences, not to mention numbers of folk wanting to join!
No, I'm not NOT retiring folks, just leaving Bath to all the others.
My 30 plus Good Afternoon Choirs with 25 talented freelance musicians keep me busy (33 Christmas concerts coming up) and managing and developing more Good Afternoon Choirs in 2025 - the target is 40 by this time next year! We are now growing in South London and South Wales. I still also manage Bath Male Choir - now in the capable hands of its MD, Laurie my son (AND with growing numbers). I will continue building my lovely Tuesday evening mixed-voice choir in Rangeworthy, South Glos and my Friday conducting date with the Devizes Good Afternoon Choir.
My Goldies charity in England and Wales (Goldies Cymru) takes a great deal of my time as well and also continues to grow bringing joy through our Goldies fun sessions / with our Keynsham charity shop and our Award-winning Primary Schools intergenerational programmes. It's 17 years since I founded Goldies and it is still bringing "songs & smiles" to many 100s of isolated older people.
Back to Christmas - I do hope you will come to St Michaels on December 21st for my Bath Finale!! I'm sure it will be a great night. Tickets are on sale from Ticketlight (click here)
Welcome to the website for The Bath Welcome Chorus. We are a mixed-voice choir who rehearse on Thursday evenings at the Church of Our Lady & St Alphege, Oldfield Lane, Bath, BA2 3NR and our conductor is Bath Mr Music, Grenville Jones. If you are looking for a new friendly mixed-voice choir to join, there are NO AUDITIONS - we welcome experienced singers and people who just love to sing! If you have recently moved to Bath because of work or study, we would love to meet you at the Bath Welcome Chorus. Come and meet us any Thursday 7.45-9.30pm.
The choir has an extensive repertoire and performs regularly at Bath Abbey as well as many other local churches and concert venues in the West Country. They have performed at Coventry Cathedral and one of the highlights of recent years was a memorable concert with the RAF Central Band supporting the Help for Heroes Charity. It has also appeared with Aled Jones. In 2017 they helped to raise over £12,000 for the British Heart Foundation following the untimely death of a member of both the Welcome Chorus and the Bath Male Voice Choir (another of Grenville's choirs). Regular appearances at Bath Festival’s ‘Party in the City’ as well as joint concerts with many other groups has contributed to the reputation of the choir as being one of the friendliest and best supported choirs in the City of Bath.
The photo above shows the choir singing at St Michaels as part of Bath Festival's 'Party in the City' in May 2024.