President: Mark Elder CBE

Music Director: James Morgan

Accompanist: Sylvia Holford

Conductor Emeritus: Laszlo Heltay

Brighton Festival Chorus performing Janacek's Glagolitic Mass with the Philharmonia orchestra at the Dome in Brighton, 2004

The Brighton Festival Chorus was founded for the 1968 Brighton Festival by its first Music Director, Laszlo Heltay. The choir's first performance - Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer himself - brought overnight success. Brighton Festival Chorus is now one of the most sought-after and versatile choirs in the country with a busy schedule of concerts, recordings and tours both at home and abroad.

"The soft singing here was as impressive as the thundering cries in the auto-da-fé from Don Carlos"

The Times

Verdi: Opera Choruses
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Gatti

"...properly and erotically rapturous."

The Observer (This concert was listed in The Observer's top ten performances of 2001)

Debussy: Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien
Orchestre National d'Ile de France/Mercier

"Chorus Master James Morgan has built his chorus into a major vocal force which sent shivers down my spine from the very beginning"

Brighton Argus

Britten: War Requiem (Brighton Dome 2003)
City of London Sinfonia/Hickox

"This performance brought out the best in the BFC... The singing was lusty, the attack firm, the German diction well-projected"

Daily Telegraph

"The splendidly forthright BFC...conveyed Mendelssohn's endearing vision with fervour and warmth of heart"

Birmingham Post

Mendelssohn: Lobgesang (Brighton Dome, Birmingham Symphony Hall 2004)
City of London Sinfonia/Hickox

"The Brighton Festival Chorus was in excellent form, and the great choruses which conclude parts one and two had a visceral impact, and here, Marriner impressed by adopting swift tempos, so there was a good degree of exhilaration generated. In the hushed duet with chorus in part three, the intensity of Haydn's setting was fully conveyed, with playing and singing being both rapt and poised."

Classical Source

Haydn: The Creation (The Barbican, July 2005) Academy of St. Martin in the Fields/Marriner

"Voices were everywhere and nowhere. Some sang from the aisles, others the wings, some on a platform, others mystically rang out from the lighting rigs in the Dome itself. A panorama of sound ensued, seeping into the soul."

BBC Southern Counties

Tavener: The Veil of the Temple (Brighton Dome, May 2006) James Morgan

In its 40 years Brighton Festival Chorus has appeared with all the major British orchestras and some of the most celebrated conductors of the 20th century - Ashkenazy, Bernstein, Dorati, Maazel, Ozawa, Previn, Rattle, Slatkin and Tennstedt. Amongst its many recordings are award-winning versions of Belshazzar's Feast and A Child of Our Time, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Andre Previn and a recording of choral works by Kodaly. In 2002 the Chorus' recording of Debussy's Le Martyre de Saint-Sebastien with Jacques Mercier and L'Orchestre National d'Ile de France was awarded Le Choc de Monde de la Musique award. A compact disc, Pavilioned in Splendour, issued in 1993 to commemorate the Chorus' first 25 years, illustrates the range and variety of its achievements.

Jacques Mercier and L'Orchestre National de Lorraine in Brighton rehearsing Berlioz's Damnation of Faust, 2004

Under the direction of James Morgan, the Chorus performs throughout the year in concerts at all the major London venues, many European centres and during May each year in the Brighton Festival, England's largest arts festival.

The stage at the concert in Lille (Brighton Festival Chorus joined choruses from France and Belgium for the opening celebrations of Lille's year as European City of Culture 2004)