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Interview with new Festival Chorus Master Christopher Bell
4 March 2008
There'll be no slouching at the back with Christopher Bell in charge of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus. Only recently, he was rehearsing with the Belfast Philharmonic Choir when one of the singers made a quip about not having time to read the newspaper. The chorus master was puzzled, so the singer explained that under Bell's watchful eye there was no chance of a break. Other conductors, he claimed, would go off and work with another section for 30 minutes, leaving the singers with nothing better to do than read the paper. 'With me, they didn't have time to switch off for even two seconds,' says Bell, 'they have to be concentrating all the time.'
