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Keeping you updated with the latest news
 

2023

28 June 2023
A Rousing end to the 2022/23 Season with Viva Italia!
9 June 2023
Cathedral Visits - Summer 2023
12 May 2023
Simon Toyne appointed as our new Musical Director
20 March 2023
Dame Ethel Smyth Mass in D - A resounding success!
13 February 2023
The Ethel Smyth full score has arrived

2022

13 December 2022
Christmas 2022 Concert & Fundraising
1 October 2022
New Accompanist Announced
1 September 2022
2022/23 Season Launched
31 August 2022
2022/23 Season : Our Conductors
1 August 2022
2021/22 Season - Done!
30 July 2022
Another (!) Special Evensong
13 June 2022
Jubilee Proms - Staggering Success
30 May 2022
MD steps down after 15 years
29 May 2022
A Special Evensong
2 April 2022
Carmina in Style
1 March 2022
Song for Ukraine
21 February 2022
#22for22 Update
7 February 2022
The Armed Man

2021

16 December 2021
#22for22 is launched
4 December 2021
Christmas is Back! with a brassy bang!
6 November 2021
714 Days... Back in Concert
27 October 2021
660 Days... We're Back
4 October 2021
Annual General Meeting
1 August 2021
2021/22 Season Launched
7 June 2021
Expanding the Canon
18 May 2021
Live Singing started ... stopped
17 May 2021
Fridays and the Future
14 April 2021
Virtual Video
12 April 2021
Summer in the Alps
26 March 2021
Fridays at Four - Spring Done
9 March 2021
International Women's Day
22 February 2021
Cooking up a Feast
12 February 2021
Centenary Classics
11 January 2021
Classical Classics

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

 

Christmas Choral Alphabet

31 December 2020

Following our Choral Alphabet over the Summer of 2020 focusing on choral composer surnames from Kerry Andrew to Jan Dismas Zelenka, and our Concerto for Ten over the Autumn half-term focusing on ten unusual instrumental concertos, over Christmas we have had our Christmas Choral Alphabet!

Week One - A to G

This time the alphabet was for Christmas choral works, and the alphabet was not by composer surname but by the title of the work. So we began with Angelus ad pastores ait, followed by Be Merry, and Carol for all Children, and ended with our special Zoom Carol!

Week Two - H to N

Again we had a wonderfully diverse selection of music and composers, including a huge number we had not encountered before, from all across the globe, and one or two which had been specially recorded or uploaded for us to hear.

Week Three - O to T

This website’s editor particularly enjoyed the entries for E, M, S, and U, which you can hear by clicking on the links at the bottom of the page. Special mention must be made of the Zoom Carol. The words were specially written to conclude the Christmas Choral Alphabet by Gesa Beales, Chairman of the Wellingborough Singers, to fit the music of Sir Malcolm Sargent’s arrangement of the Zither Carol. The Wellingborough Singers recorded this for us in a virtual choir video (see link below) - with one or two of us joining them - and this video has, to date, been watched by over eight thousand people online, and has been shared by dozens of choirs and individuals. It is very witty indeed, and reflects exactly how many of us feel about singing on Zoom. Thank you, Gesa!

Week Four - U to Z

If you missed these twenty-six posts, each made on our Facebook and Twitter streams at 8:00am throughout December, you can work through them one-at-a-time by clicking on the links below!

A - Angelus ad pastoris ait - Raffaella Aleotta 
B - Be merry - Stephen Cleobury 
C - A Carol for all Children - Adolphus Hailstork
D - Ding Dong! merrily on high - arr. Naji Hakim 
E - En Etsi valtaa, loistoa - Jean Sibelius
F - Fayrfax Carol - Thomas Adès 
G - Go tell it on the mountain - arr. Evelyn Simpson-Currenton
H - The Holly and the Ivy - Richard Rodney Bennett
I - In the bleak midwinter - arr. Abbie Betinis
J - Carol of Joy - Dan Forrest
K - Khorurd Metz - arr. Vahram Sarkissian
L - Lullaby Carol - Molly iJames
M - My dancing day - Carl Rütti
N - African Noel - Andre Thomas
O - O magnum mysterium - Jennifer Higdon
P - Personent hodie - arr. Lara G. Hoggard
Q - Quem pastores laudavere - arr. Susan La Barr
R - Rise up, shepherd - arr. Stacey V. Gibbs
S - A Spotless Lamb - Herbert Howells
T - There is no Rose - Cheryl-Frances Hoad
U - Unto us is born a Son - arr. Aidan Liddle
V - Venite, Gaudete - Adrian Peacock 
W - What cheer? - Rhian Samuel
X - Ex Maria Virgine (Nowell! Nowell!) - John Tavener
Y - Ya Viene la vieja - arr. Alice Parker
Z - Zoom Carol - arr. Malcolm Sargent