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The Review - MUSIC - Classical & Jazz with TONY KIELY
Published: 28 February 2008

Elin Manahan Thomas

Soprano with a passion with Bach

PREVIEW: FINCHLEY CHORAL SOCIETY -
ST JOHN PASSION
St John-at-Hampstead

HAMPSTEAD is set to get a dose of Easter passion next month, as 29-year-old Welsh soprano Elin Manahan Thomas sings in Bach’s St John Passion.
The concert will take place one week before Easter in the beautiful Baroque church, St John-at-Hampstead, with Finchley Choral Society, under the direction of Grace Rossiter.
Known simply as “Soprano Bach” in her Welsh homeland, it is Baroque music, Bach in particular, that Elin loves singing best. A highly experienced choral singer, Elin has sung with the country’s leading chamber choirs including the Sixteen, the Gabrieli Consort and the Monteverdi Choir.
Her solo career is now taking off and she has appeared at major concert venues including the Barbican and the Royal Albert Hall. This is an unmissable opportunity to hear one of the country’s most promising soloists in an intimate venue.
The St John Passion, the first and shorter of Bach’s two Passion settings, describes the latter days in the life of Christ.
St John-at-Hampstead Parish Church, which was consecrated during Bach’s lifetime in 1747, is an ideal setting for this dramatic and sublime choral masterpiece.
Finchley Choral Society recently sang farewell to their much-loved and respected conductor George Vass at a gala concert at St John’s, Smith Square in November. Mr Vass, himself a Hampstead resident and artistic director of the Hampstead and Highgate Festival, trained the choir since 1999. Grace Rossiter now picks up the baton to lead the choir in her first major concert with the society.

• Finchley Choral Society perform at St John-at-Hampstead
on Saturday March 15, at 7.30pm.
For tickets and further information call 020 8346 9230.

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