The Bach Choir Lends Its Voice To Celebrate The 70th Birthday Of The NHS With A Work By Its Young Award-winning Composer

Laurence Grissell, Producer of the BBC Radio Documentaries Unit, brought together singers from NHS hospital choirs with singers from The Bach Choir to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the NHS on 5 July 2018.

He said: "I was very keen to see if The Bach Choir might consider being involved. I know Alex Woolf has worked with The Bach Choir and holds it in the highest regard so I thought I would get in touch to see if the Choir would consider being involved in our project."

Young composer Alex Woolf was the winner of The Bach Choir's 'Sir David Willcocks Carol Competition' last year, and now the Choir has been recorded singing another of his works to celebrate the 70th birthday of the NHS.

The BBC collaboration with Alex Woolf has created a special edition of Radio 3's 'Between the Ears' series called "The NHS Symphony" to be broadcast on June 30th at 2130. The programme is a portrait in words, sounds and choral music capturing the life of the NHS - specifically Queen Elizabeth and Heartlands hospitals in Birmingham. A recording with staff and patients in three departments there: cardiology, A&E and maternity has been made and Alex Woolf's choral piece augments and underscores the recording.

Alex Woolf worked with a choir of NHS staff drawn from Lewisham and Greenwich NHS choirs, supported by The Bach Choir, to record the music at BBC Broadcasting House on Sunday 17th June, conducted by rising star of the conducting world, Mark Austin.

David Hill, Musical Director of The Bach Choir says of this latest venture: "Alex's carol 'Nowell' was inventive, suitably challenging and a worthy winner of the first Sir David Willcocks Carol Competition. So The Bach Choir was delighted to work with him and the BBC again to celebrate this milestone anniversary of the NHS."

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