Benedict Collins Rice

Bath Bach Choir has recently welcomed Benedict Collins Rice as their new Musical Director. Here he answers our questions on music, conducting and choirs something that they have always wanted to but never had the chance. Look out for future plans and our first recording coming out.

Q. You joined as Musical Director of Bath Bach Choir in January 2023. What was it about this role that appealed to you?

I was drawn to the role as the choir have a great reputation for performing a range of music to a really high standard in a way that was clearly engaging local audiences. Bath is such a gorgeous place and has so many beautiful venues.

Q. You were only the fourth musical director of the choir in 75 years...

I felt that this clearly showed that it was a great place to work and that the choir were a joy to make music with. I have quickly been proved right about both.

Q. Carols by Candlelight in December 2022 was jointly conducted by Nigel Perrin and yourself. What was it like to do this?

I haven’t been so literally handed the baton to take on a new job before, but it was a really special set of concerts. I greatly admire Nigel and everything that he has built up with the choir. To be able to work alongside him really helped me hit the ground running with developing his good work.

Q. Were you always intent on conducting? Most people agree that you need some real experience playing and singing before you start telling others how to do it. What got me into it was that there was so much amazing music that I felt other conductors weren’t programming that I really wanted to get done. And the easiest way to make that happen was to conduct it! So I founded The Façade Ensemble to play this music and – I think – am also getting a lovely reputation with the choirs and orchestras that I work with for mixing the old and the new. For performers and audiences it’s so, so important that as well as the buzz of hearing/performing something you love, there is also that buzz of discovering a new piece, composer, or style of music.

Q. You are a professional tenor, a composer and arranger and you play the piano and French horn. Are all these skills a crucial part of the musician you are?

The French Horn is sadly gathering dust under the stairs, but certainly I use all those other skills almost daily, and they really do all feed into each other. It has also, over the years, helped me access a whole range of musical styles. For example the last Bath Bach Choir concert had music that was 6th century through to contemporary pieces all woven together – I think it was unlike any concert the choir had done before.

Q. You have many roles with different music companies. What is it like to travel so much?

The travelling is quite tough (Google says I do around 3,000 miles a month) but when the trains are running I do enjoy travelling as I am almost never going at commuter time so I get to spread out with a coffee and some scores and do my preparation and planning. With all the travelling, it is also important to feel like home is really home. As for switching between them, I hope I manage to do this as well as I think I do! Making music is so interactive that the mood in each rehearsal room is so different – it’s part of the joy of the job.

Q. Which location do you count as home? I’ve now lived in the beautiful city of Ely for about eight years – I went there for a 10month job and arrived expecting to leave for London at the end of that time. But here I still am – I love it and feel really at home here. I got married 10 months ago and my wife and I have just bought a house here so I think it will be home for some time yet.

Q. How would you define your music tastes? Haha – varied?! Unpredictable? The two songs I can’t get out of my head today are the 14th-century French composer Machaut’s De toutes flours and P!nk’s God is a DJ Go figure.

Q. How do the auditions work for Bath Bach Choir?

The auditions are never as scary as people think – I ask them to bring me something that they like to sing so I can hear what their instrument sounds like. Then I like to assess how well they can read music (the better a choir can read, the more efficiently you can rehearse things). I’m looking for an enjoyment of singing, a nice noise, and for someone who is up for being challenged to give their best.

Q. Tell us about the concert of Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Bath Abbey on 8 July.

Q. You set up The Façade Ensemble, a group specialising in 20th-century chamber music. What was the inspiration behind this group? It was honestly the music itself – it is just so engaging and imaginative and exciting and no one else really wants to put it on. More fool them. In fact I have just finished up teaching a course at the Courtauld Institute (where we are Ensemble in Residence) exploring why 20th-century art is some of the most popular (and most expensive) art out there, but the music that was being written alongside it isn’t anywhere near as well-known. Every programme we have put together has left members of our audiences coming up and saying how blown away they were by something they didn’t know. Or that they are glad to have had an opportunity to hear

I am so looking forward to this! I chose this piece as it is such an excellent evening’s drama and storytelling. The most dramatic episode is a contest of the gods in which Jehovah consumes on offered sacrifice in fire as the ever more frantic prayers of the Baalworshipers fail. Despite the piece being named after the baritone solo part (sung by the fabulous Matthew Brook), I feel that it is the choir that are central to the story – as well as being crazed Baal-worshippers, they get to sing some of the most beautiful and gentle music too. Something for everyone, I promise *and* a whole orchestra (The Southern Sinfonia) to enhance the drama. n

Bath Bach Choir plays Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Bath Abbey on Saturday 8 July at 7pm. Tickets £11–£30; bathboxoffice.org.uk; bathbachchoir.org.uk

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