I Fagiolini: Long, Long Ago

ABOUT I FAGIOLINI

Musical Director, Robert Hollingsworth

I Fagiolini is internationally renowned for its genuinely innovative productions and outstanding musicianship. Returning to WMC after recent sell-out performances, ‘Angels and Demons’ and ‘Shaping the Invisible’, they present a Christmas choral concert with a difference alongside leading local chamber choir Bath Camerata.

ABOUT BATH CAMERATA

Musical Director, Robert Brooks

Recognised for its virtuosity and versatility, Bath Camerata exists to provide outstanding musical experiences to audiences and singers alike. The choir has performed at venues ranging from Wigmore Hall and St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, to the Thomaskirche, Leipzig, and the Oriental Art Center, Shanghai. Bath Camerata has collaborated with many of the world’s leading artists and ensembles, including The Three Tenors, The Tallis Scholars, I Fagiolini, Britten Sinfonia, Joanna MacGregor, Roderick Williams, Paco Peña, Brian Eno, English Touring Opera and Ballet Rambert. The choir has also made numerous television appearances, notably performing Roderick Williams’s Jazz Responses for Lucy Worsley’s BBC4 documentary Elizabeth I’s Battle for God’s Music.

Contemporary music remains central to the choir’s programming. Bath Camerata has commissioned and premiered works by Sir James MacMillan, Giles Swayne, Will Todd, Owain Park and Roderick Williams. Most recently it commissioned a choral song cycle from Jonathan Dove, The Sun Has Burst the Sky, in memory of a former member, which was premiered at the Wiltshire Music Centre in 2023. It’s album Songs of Renewal – a disc of contemporary British choral music released by SOMM in 2019 – received widespread critical acclaim.

In recent seasons the choir has continued to expand its artistic reach, performing Good Friday concerts at Wells Cathedral, appearing with Sir John Rutter, giving an autumn programme with Paul Spicer, and presenting major local performances including Mozart’s Requiem. In 2023 Bath Camerata toured to Aix-en-Provence, Bath’s twin town, to sing in its annual twinning festival, and in August 2025 it was invited back to Presteigne Festival to be the festival’s Choir-in-Residence. In November the choir returned to large-scale repertoire with a performance in Bath Abbey of Mozart’s Mass in C minor alongside La Nuova Musica as part of Bath Mozartfest.

Bath Camerata was founded in 1986 by Nigel Perrin, who directed the ensemble until 2015. Since then the choir has been privileged to work under Benjamin Goodson, Benjamin Kirk, and now Robert Brooks, who became Musical Director in October 2024.