EXETER Chamber Choir will return to Exeter Cathedral on Saturday evening (June 8) for the first time since their sell-out Christmas Concert in December 2017, with a performance of J.S. Bach’s magnificent “B Minor Mass”.

The line up of top London soloists will feature home-grown soprano, Bethany Partridge, a former Exeter Cathedral chorister, pupil of Exeter School and choral scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Bethany is now based in London where she balances a busy schedule of teaching with singing in the country’s finest professional choirs. Coming home to Exeter Cathedral will be a very special experience for her: “It’s where my love for music began as a chorister and I feel extremely privileged to be able to come back and perform here as a professional singer.” 

Of Bach’s B minor Mass, she says it is “one of the greatest pieces of music ever written and I never tire of it! My favourite moment in the score is the beginning of the Gloria with the trumpets and timpani, which to me sounds like a musical expression of pure, fizzing joy.”

Saturday’s audience will also have the opportunity to hear local bass soloist, Tim Mirfin, whose “dark chocolate” voice has graced opera houses across Europe and beyond.

Tim said he is very fortunate that he has recently settled in Devon, together with his young family, a dog and a flock of chickens. Apart from performing as a soloist, he now teaches singing, lectures about opera and the voice and has set up a local community choir in Upton Pyne.

Exeter Chamber Choir’s conductor, Andrew Daldorph, remembers their first performance of the Bach, in Exeter Cathedral 12 years ago, as "exhilarating".

Although later that night his sister stole the moment, by announcing her engagement, he admits that “she did well, as there is not much around that can be more thrilling than Bach.”

Tickets, £7 to £26 (half-price for children/students), are available from: www.ticketsource.co.uk , Exeter Box Office (01392 665885) and on the door.

Doors open at 6.45pm, the performance begins at 7.30pm.