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The City Bach Collective is a group of professional musicians who perform J.S. Bach (and music of J.S. Bach’s contemporaries) on period instruments. They are known for playing in the Bach Vespers series in churches in the City of London and we also play in concerts. The City Bach Collective is directed from the violin by the leader, Hazel Brooks.
In the autumn of 1976, Peter Lea-Cox, organist of St. Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb was appointed organist of St. Mary-at-hill in the City. An administrator with some teaching responsibilities at the Royal Academy of Music, he decided to use the church to give his students the opportunity to perform J.S. Bach cantatas, preparing the editions himself. The series began on November 11, 1976 with a performance of BWV 38, Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir.
In 1981, Ronald Englund of the Lutheran Church in London based at St. Anne & St. Agnes Church attended one of Peter Lea-Cox’s J.S. Bach cantata series performances at St. Mary-at-hill. He invited Peter Lea-Cox to repeat it in support of the St. Anne’s Music Society, in the liturgically-appropriated manner that was being practised at an American church at the time (probably Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, New York City). Cantata BWV 161 was duly performed within the Lutheran liturgy as ‘Bach Vespers’ on September 16, 1982.
In this way, the tradition of Bach Vespers was started. Peter Lea-Cox completed a full cycle of all J.S. Bach’s cantatas in 1997. He continued to deliver J.S. Bach to the Lutheran congregation until 2004 when Martin Knizia was appointed St Anne’s Church cantor. Martin Knizia went on to perform J.S. Bach’s music in the liturgy, in concerts and in the Bach Festival until leaving in July 2015.
City Bach Collective continues to perform J.S. Bach in concert and in the liturgy as the City Bach Collective, following a successful first Bach Vespers on January 31, 2016. |
