Turning Point
It’s hard to believe we officially enter autumn this weekend! Usually at this time of year, we would be freshly returned from our away weekend, reinvigorated for the start of a new term.
Sadly, this year we weren’t able to have our away weekend due to a confluence of multiple factors, but we are already looking ahead to next year.
The Year So Far
It has been an eventful few months for the choir. We hosted our Come & Sing of Handel’s Messiah in January. It was a lovely day of singing with familiar faces and new. These days are fast becoming one of our favourite days in the calendar, and we’re hoping to be able to schedule another one again very soon so keep an eye out!
After the Come & Sing, we spent our spring term preparing for our concert on 23rd March.
We repeatedly rehearsed the final movement of Rossini’s Stabat Mater in the hopes that we would come to know it backwards and forwards. It’s a challenging sing, full of raging fugue and prolonged high notes – in sempiterna, indeed.
We did it justice at the concert, in which this piece constituted the opening act – the second half calmed down a bit with the lovely Requiem by Niccolò Jomelli. We were joined by a string quartet as well as organ accompaniment, and it was a very enjoyable evening indeed. Thanks to the musicians, and to our soloists.
This concert was our last conducted by outgoing Musical Director Adam Hope. We want to sincerely thank Adam for his enthusiastic leadership over the last 4 years, especially for keeping us going during the doldrums of the pandemic. We also bid a fond farewell to our rehearsal accompanist Charlie Penn. Best of luck to both of you with what’s next!
In Between
We conducted a recruitment for a new Musical Director during our summer term. Jonathan Pease very graciously stepped in to conduct us on an interim basis. We prepared a programme of music based on the theme Music of the Night, featuring Morten Lauriden’s Nocturnes and several smaller pieces, including Schumann’s The Dream and Purcell’s Hush, No More from The Fairy Queen (for the full programme, see our archive).
As part of this concert, alto Katharine Schopflin made a generous donation to the choir and sponsored our performance of Kodály’s Evening Song (Esti Dal) in honour of the memory of her father, Professor György Schöpflin, who passed away in 2021.
As Professor Schöpflin was a noted scholar and even served as an MEP for Hungary, we were honoured by the presence of the cultural attaché for Hungary at our performance.
Our summer concert took place on 6th July which some might remember was the same day as England’s Euro quarter-final against Switzerland. As it happened, we broke for our interval right as the match went to penalties. It’s a cherished memory for those of us who gathered round two proffered iPhones in the atrium of St George the Martyr to witness Jordan Pickford’s masterclass. And those enjoying refreshments in the front of the church admitted they felt concerned there had been a disturbance when they heard what was actually the raucous cheers accompanying England’s victory and progression to the semi-final.
Looking to the Future
After an initial round of interviews, our members attended rehearsal auditions and voted on our new Musical Director. We’re very pleased to announce that interim conductor Jonathan Pease has been appointed as our new permanent MD. We look forward to continuing to work with him, and we get to do that very soon! Our new term begins on Thursday, 26th September, and we can’t wait.
Since we didn’t get to have our accustomed away weekend, we did at least meet up in September for a picnic. We couldn’t have asked for better weather for it, and we enjoyed catching up on everyone’s summer in the sunshine.
We can’t wait to get back to music making next week. As usual in the autumn term, we’ll be preparing for our Christmas concert on 7th December. If you just like to watch, save the date – tickets will be on sale soon. And if you’re a singer looking for a good time, please do come along to a rehearsal and have a sing!