Farmington Valley Chorale + Concora Concert
- Farmington Valley Chorale’s spring concert was “Bach is Back,” a May 9 performance in West Hartford pairing Bach’s Easter and Ascension Oratorios with Concora soloists. - The concert started at 4:00 p.m. at St. James’s Episcopal Church, with $25 general admission, free student tickets, and Ellen Gilson Voth conducting. - It matters because this was a community-chorus and professional-soloist collaboration built around two major Bach sacred works in one local program.
A local choral concert can sound like a small thing. But this one was built around two big Bach scores, a community chorus, professional soloists from Concora, and a conductor who sits in both worlds. The event was Farmington Valley Chorale’s spring program, “Bach is Back,” performed on Saturday, May 9, 2026, at St. James’s Episcopal Church in West Hartford. The point of the night was pretty simple — bring large-scale sacred music into a local setting without shrinking the ambition. ### What was the actual concert? The program centered on J.S. Bach’s *Easter Oratorio* and *Ascension Oratorio*. Those are festive sacred works, but they are not the Bach pieces casual listeners usually name first. You hear the *Messiah* effect with Handel every December; Bach’s passions and Christmas music also get regular air time. These two oratorios sit a little off the standard community-chorus path, which makes the programming choice more interesting. (farmingtonvalleychorale.org) ### Who was performing? Farmington Valley Chorale was the main presenting ensemble, joined by Concora soloists and orchestra. The listed soloists were soprano Jennifer Ferrand-Kelly, mezzo-soprano Megan Roth, tenors Michael McAvaney and Justin McArthur, and bass Jermaine Woodard Jr. Violinist Andrew Smith was set to lead the orchestra, while Ellen Gilson Voth conducted the full performance. ### Why does the Concora connection matter? (choralarts-newengland.org) Because it changes the scale and texture of the event. Farmington Valley Chorale is a community-based chorus of roughly 100 singers, while Concora is Connecticut Choral Artists — a professional vocal ensemble. Put those together and you get something more layered than a standard local sing-through: a broader choral body, named soloists, and instrumental leadership designed for repertoire that needs precision and lift. (farmingtonvalleychorale.org) ### Who is Ellen Gilson Voth in this setup? She is the connecting thread. Farmington Valley Chorale lists her as artistic director, and Concora’s singer materials also identify her as an active member of that professional circle. That means this was not just a guest collaboration arranged from a distance. It was a program shaped by someone with direct ties to both ensembles, which usually helps when you are balancing community singers, professional soloists, and orchestral forces in Bach. (farmingtonvalleychorale.org) ### When and where did it happen? The concert took place on Saturday, May 9, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. The venue was St. James’s Episcopal Church, 1018 Farmington Avenue in West Hartford. General admission was listed at $25, and students were admitted free. That pricing tells you something too — this was meant to be accessible, not treated like a rarefied specialist event. ### Was the preliminary calendar description too vague? (farmingtonvalleychorale.org) Basically, yes. The broader Farmington Valley calendar did surface the event, but the sharper details came from the concert listings tied directly to the chorale and regional choral calendars — the exact program title, the Bach works, the 4:00 p.m. start, the West Hartford venue, and the ticket terms. Without those, you would know a collaboration existed but not what the audience was actually going to hear. (choralarts-newengland.org) ### Why is this a meaningful local arts story? Because it shows how regional music groups keep ambitious repertoire alive. A non-auditioned community chorus does not have to stay small in taste. Here, the group paired itself with professional Concora singers and orchestra to take on two substantial Bach works under a conductor with long local roots. That is the model — local access, serious repertoire, and enough professional support to make the whole thing land. (todaypublishing.net) ### Bottom line This was not just “a chorale concert.” It was a carefully built collaboration — Farmington Valley Chorale supplying the community core, Concora supplying professional solo firepower, and Ellen Gilson Voth tying the whole thing together around a pair of Bach oratorios that do not get programmed every day. (farmingtonvalleychorale.org) (farmingtonvalleychorale.org)
