Biographies

Our music director, Elizabeth Bates, trained at the Royal College of Music. Later she studied conducting with Simon Johnson and Louis Halsey and has participated in day choral workshops led by Sir David Willcocks. She founded The Chantry Singers in 1980 and directs St. John's Festival Choir which sings polyphonic music in a liturgical setting. Besides lecturing, teaching and adjudicating she leads workshops and choral weekends. She also enjoys the administration and organisation of the choir's musical life, and has successfully directed six Bach Festivals since 1995, including the most recent in April 2008.  The Chantry Singers play a leading role in the Festivals and have performed nearly all the major Bach works over the years - but still have a long way to go with the sacred cantatas!

One of Elizabeth's great strengths as a musician is the quiet confidence she brings to her work, and this must be one of the reasons that many of the country's leading soloists and orchestral players express their admiration of her skills, and their keenness to work with her whenever possible.

She is indefatigable in seeking out new and unusual musical gems from the Baroque and other eras, and sees the performance of these as the unique contribution that Chantry can make to the musical life of Bath.

"One of the strengths of the Bath Bach Festivals is that there are attractions for all ages and all shades of opinion.  For this and much else that contributes to the success of these weekends we must be grateful to Elizabeth Bates, a local musician and a teacher of distinction who has inspired countless pupils - I know this because I found myself sitting next to one at one of the concerts - and who founded the Chantry Singers in 1980.  This choir of some 45 voices appeared in the two main concerts of the festival, both of which were conducted with vitality and a good sense of appropriate style by Bates herself."

"All in all a considerable success and, as anyone who has ever mounted a programme of three or more of Bach's cantatas knows full well, no mean feat.  More please."

These are quotations from the review of the Bach Festival Weekend 2008 by Nicholas Anderson, which appeared in the June/July edition of 'Early Music Today'.

Accompanist: Mark Swinton

Mark Swinton is an outstanding organist and keyboard accompanist, currently based in the South West of England. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and a member of the Incorporated Society of Musicians.

He is Assistant Organist of Bath Abbey, where he plays regularly for congregational services and shares in accompanying the acclaimed Boy and Girl Choristers under the direction of Dr Peter King. He has appeared several times in the Abbey's Lunchtime Prom recital series and recently played for the Boys and Men of the Choir on tour in the Netherlands, including a concert in the Saint Laurens Grote Kerk (Alkmaar). Other recent recital engagements have been at the Cathedrals of Portsmouth, Truro and St Albans. His first overseas performance, at the Collegiale St Barnard, Romans-sur-Isère in June 2006, was recorded live for release on DVD.

Mark has been our rehearsal accompanist since 2006, and has also performed with us in concerts as soloist in 2006 and 2007. We are delighted to have such a distinguished keyboard player as part of our team.

"Finally, the Klais organ and Mark Swinton.  He gave us a gentle, reflective piece, Boellmann's 'Prier a Notre dame', showing us its quieter side.  Then we had the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor in all its sonorous majesty; and finally Widor's Toccata which allowed this great instrument, in Peter King's phrase, to 'bare its teeth'.

The pedals worked overtime, and the whole Abbey re-echoed - it was a great sound, and we had it again as an encore.  This young man is quite a player"  Peter Lloyd Williams