Elizabeth Bates

Elizabeth Bates studied piano and flute at the Royal College of Music and taught for many years in Primary Schools. She was for several years a Primary Advisory Teacher in the county of Somerset and she is now pursues a freelance career teaching piano and flute.  She is the Musical Director of St John’s Festival Choir, South Parade, which sings polyphonic music in a liturgical setting.

Her interest in conducting started at an early age and she founded the Chantry Singers in 1980. She has been instrumental in re-establishing Bach Festivals in Bath, which had been an intermittent feature in the cultural life of the city since 1950. A seventh week-long Bach Festival will take place in Bath in October 2010. As Artistic Director she has, since 1995, brought to fruition six such Festivals.