Category: News

Organ and Choral Awards Open Day Evensong

On Saturday 25^th April (0^th week) there is an open day for prospective candidates for choral and organ awards. There will be an evensong in Chapel at 6.15 p.m. sung by the Mixed Choir and visiting students. All are welcome to attend.

 

Joint Evensong with St. Peter’s College Chapel Choir

The mixed choir will join the choir of St. Peter’s College for a joint Choral Evensong in St. Peter’s College Chapel on Thursday 21st May (fourth week) at 6 p.m. All welcome.

 

Visiting Choir

On Saturday 23^rd May there will be a service of Choral Evensong at 6 p.m. in the Chapel sung by the Choir of Thomas Hardye School in Dorset. All welcome.

 

Oxford Early Music Festival Recital

On Sunday 17^th May at 1 p.m. there will be a recital in Chapel as part of the Oxford Early Music Festival. Tenor, Nicholas Mulroy and lutenist, Elizabeth Kenny will be performing songs by Caccini, Monteverdi and Purcell. Box Office: 01865 305305, www.ticketsoxford.co.uk (students £5).

 

Plainsong Vespers

The gentlemen of the choir will sing Latin Vespers for the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth on Monday of 6th week (1 June) at 6.15 p.m. The chants have been transcribed from the Denchworth Antiphonal, a medieval service book from a church of which the College is patron. All are welcome.

 

Music for a Summer’s Evening

Music for a summer’s evening, sung by the Mixed Choir and the new Staff Choir, will be performed (weather permitting) in the college grounds on Nuffield lawn, by the lake at 7 p.m. on Monday 15^th June (eighth week). Refreshments will be provided. For further information and tickets, please contact the Chaplain or see the Chapel Website. All welcome.

 

End of Year Concert – Baroque Music with Ensemble Hesperi

The Chapel Choirs’ end-of-year concert will be sung in Chapel on Thursday 18^th June (eighth week) at 6 p.m., including music by Purcell and Handel with the period-instrument group Ensemble Hesperi. All welcome. Drinks served afterwards.

Members of Worcester’s music team enjoyed spending a few days exploring historic organs in Spain during the Easter vacation. Joining with other organ scholars from the University, organ scholars Benjamin Cunningham and Daniel Mathieson, played organs in Cuenca Cathedral and in the Spanish Royal Palace in Madrid. This trip was part of a regular series of study trips abroad organised by the Betts fund for organ scholars to visit and play historic organs. The organ scholars enjoyed exploring repertoire by Cabanilles, Bruna, and José Ximénez. 

 

 

PRESS RELEASE: The Chapel Choir of Worcester College, Oxford invites entries for its carol composition competition. Compositions are invited from composers aged 26 or under to set the anonymous text, Adam lay y bounden for four part mixed choir (with optional divisi). Settings may be unaccompanied or with organ accompaniment and should last no longer than 4 minutes. Compositions must be currently unpublished works. The winning composition will be premiered at the College Carol service in December 2015. Entries will be adjudicated by Professor Robert Saxton, Dr Thomas Hyde and Thomas Allery. The winning composition will win a prize of £350. The deadline for entries is September 1st 2015. Further details of how to apply are available from the College chapel website, http://www.worcesterchapel.co.uk/choirs/carol-composition-competition/

Worcester College is looking forward to welcoming candidates to the chapel for the annual Choral and Organ awards open day. Potential choral and organ scholars will have the chance to visit the college, meet the choral scholars and Director of Chapel Music and sing with the Chapel Choir as part of a special choral evensong. Earlier in the day, the chapel will host an organ workshop for potential organ scholars. For more information or advice, please contact the Director of Chapel Music, Thomas Allery (thomas.allery@worc.ox.ac.uk). For more information about the day and to apply, visit http://www.music.ox.ac.uk/apply/undergraduate/open-days/.

Worcester College is looking forward to hosting a masterclass with Soprano Teresa Cahill on Friday 13th March. In the masterclass, members of Worcester’s choir and students from the University will receive one-to-one coaching on vocal technique and interpretation. All are welcome to attend.

More information to follow, or email thomas.allery@worc.ox.ac.uk.

The chapel choir of Worcester College has a vacancy for a tenor choral scholar. Duties include singing for the four choral services in the college chapel each week during the university term time, under the direction of the Director of Chapel music, Thomas Allery.

Worcester College chapel is unique maintaining two choirs who sing the services throughout the week. Choral scholars sing as part of the choir of boys and men, and as part of a mixed choir of around 20 voices.

Services take place on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

In addition to its duties in the chapel, the choirs of Worcester College undertakes regular external projects and performances. The choirs tour regularly (recently to Germany, Italy and France), and make regular BBC broadcasts and CD recordings. This summer the choir will be performing in South Italy.

Choral scholars at Worcester College receive numerous perks and renumeration. In addition to a stipend, choral scholars are entitled to singing lessons throughout the year, regular workshops with experts, and free meals in college after every service.

Some experience of choral singing is required, as well as the ability to sight read.

The director of chapel music, Thomas Allery, is happy to receive enquiries about membership of the choir at any time. Please email him on thomas.allery@worc.ox.ac.uk for further details and to arrange an informal audition.

The mixed choir are very excited to be singing as part of the Brandenburg Festival at St. Martin in the Fields, London, on Friday 9th January at 9.30pm. The programme, called “Allegri Miserere by Candlelight”,  features the famous setting of Psalm 51 as well as music by Tomkins, Weelkes, Tallis, Parsons and Villette. More details and booking information can be found by following the link below:

http://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/event/allegri-miserere-by-candlelight-5/

We are thrilled to announce that Worcester College Chapel Choir’s latest recording for the Resonus Classics label under the direction of Stephen Farr,  Nowell sing we (2014), has been named BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Christmas Choice’ for this year.  This disc now follows in the footsteps of  our first volume of contemporary Christmas carols, This Christmas Night (2012), which was also named ‘Christmas Choice’ in 2012.

Reviews:

‘[…] would that all new Christmas issues were as fresh and enterprising as this one! There isn’t a routine setting among them, and many are strikingly successful […]  Stephen Farr directs well-contrasted performances’

BBC Music Magazine (Christmas Choice 2014, 5 stars performance & sound)

‘[…] a most impressive collection of contemporary carols […] superbly detailed, even within this rich acoustic, and the outstanding choral contributions, under Stephen Farr, are interlinked with seven Nico Muhly organ antiphons, brilliantly played by Farr […] A magnificent example of the modern gramophone at its best’

International Record Review

‘Highlights of the Worcester College CD are the first recording of Lennox Berkeley’s ‘Sweet was the song’, Gabriel Jackson’s short and sweet title track and works by Colin Matthews and Michael Finnissy […] Nico Muhly’s brilliant ‘O Antiphon’ preludes for solo organ provide effective punctuation, immaculately played by [Stephen] Farr’

Choir and Organ

 

The disc is available to download through iTunes or via this link:

http://www.resonusclassics.com/nowell-sing-we-worcester-college

 

As part of the College’s Tercentenary celebrations, Worcester College Chapel Mixed Choir are extremely pleased to announce the release of a new CD, Echoes of the Lake. Available from the Porter’s Lodge, or after Chapel services, the CD is of music composed by Worcester Composers, including the Tercentenary Commission Benedicite by Deborah Pritchard. Other music includes At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners by the current Fellow in Music, Robert Saxton, As a Lily Among Thorns by Thomas Hyde, College Lecturer, Let all the world by Kenneth Leighton (Fellow in Music 1968-70), and Edmund Rubbra’s (Fellow in Music 1947-68) bombastic Canticles in Ab, and much more.

Directed by the new Director of Music, Thomas Allery, this CD gives a unique insight into the music of Worcester composers over the past 300 years. Only £10.

Following the great success and critical acclaim of This Christmas Night, Worcester College Chapel Choir are pleased to announce the release of its second CD of contemporary Christmas Carols with Resonus Classics, under the expert direction of Stephen Farr, Nowell sing we. The CD includes music by Gabriel Jackson, Peter Maxwell Davies, Lennox Berkeley, Colin Matthews, Francis Pott, Edmund Rubbra, Richard Rodney Bennett & Herbert Howells, among others. It also features nine world-premier recordings. The carols are interspersed with Nico Muhly’s seven O Antiphon Preludes for Organ, played by Stephen Farr. It is available to download now from www.resonusclassics.com, or via iTunes.