City of Birmingham Choir
The City of Birmingham Choir is a large, well-established, choral society based in Birmingham, UK. It promotes five or more concerts each season, mostly in Symphony Hall or Town Hall Birmingham. Many of its concerts are accompanied by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Occasional concerts take place elsewhere, such as in Tewkesbury Abbey or Worcester Cathedral. The choir also participates in other organisations' concerts, e.g. centenary performances of Edward Elgar's great oratorios Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles, and The Kingdom with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus under previous conductor Sakari Oramo.
Rehearsals take place at the Friends' Meeting House, Bull Street in central Birmingham on Tuesday evenings from 6.30 - 8.30 pm.
The choir's conductor and music director (since 2002) is Adrian Lucas.
The City of Birmingham Choir was founded in March 1921 and its first president was no less a figure than Sir Granville Bantock, who was Principal of what was then called the Birmingham and Midland Institute School of Music, and who was a recognised composer in his own right. The new Choir presented its first concert at the Town Hall on the 28th of November, conducted by Joseph Lewis.
Later conductors included G D Cunningham, David Willcocks (1950–57) and Meredith Davies (1957–64), and then Christopher Robinson (1964–2002).