Carol Service – Early Music and Beer Tasting – Handel’s Messiah – Vivaldi’s Vespers
Join us for the inaugural year of Worcester’s Epiphany Festival, featuring a wide range of musical events.
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Introduction by the Provost of Worcester:
On behalf of Worcester College, I warmly invite the people of Oxford to join us in January 2018, for the beginning of a new year and a new term, as we celebrate our inaugural Epiphany Festival. It will showcase our amazing musical students and Chapel Choir, linking performance with scholarship through collaborations between academics and performers. There will be a wide range of music from the Tudor polyphony of Byrd to the Georgian glory of Handel to the mighty organ works of Howells, offering something for everyone!
THURSDAY 18 JANUARY, 6 pm – EPIPHANY CAROL SERVICE
The Festival begins with a celebration of the Epiphany in a special carol service of readings and music, featuring iconic choral works by Herbert Howells, Jonathan Dove, and Jacob Handl. The service opens with the famous Coventry Carol and includes hymns and carols for all to sing.
In the College Chapel.
Please arrive by 5.50 pm in order to be seated.
Free admission; no ticket required.
FRIDAY 19 JANUARY, 2-5 pm – HARPSICHORD MASTERCLASS
Music students from Worcester College participate in a masterclass given by keyboard expert Terence Charlston, Professor and Chair of Historical Keyboard Instruments at the Royal College of Music in London. Terence is one of the UK’s leading historical keyboard players with an international career as a solo and chamber player. He has
recorded over eighty CDs on historical keyboard instruments and is a highly sought-after teacher.
In the College Chapel. 2-5 pm. Free.
FRIDAY 19 JANUARY, 8-10 pm – ‘BYRD AND BEER’
For tickets for ‘Byrd and Beer’, click here >
Come along to our Friday night event to experience early music as never before! We feature amazing music by sixteenth-century English composers alongside craft beer tasting with drinks from local Oxford Brewery Tap Social.
Tap Social was founded in 2016 in Oxford and makes unique craft beers with a mission in social justice and offers employment and training opportunities to marginalised ex-offenders.
This event is not a formal concert but presents dazzling keyboard pieces and exquisite choral music in a different light to the traditional concert setting with performances happening amongst the guests. Not heard Early Music before? This could be the event for you!
In the Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre. 18+. £10
SATURDAY 20 JANUARY, 7 pm – HANDEL’s MESSIAH
For tickets for Handel’s Messiah, click here >
The Chapel Choir performs Handel’s famous masterpiece, Messiah, in the College Chapel. There is a great deal of variety in this work dating from 1741, which tells the story of the life of Christ and of the prophecy of the Messiah in great choruses and colourful arias. With soloists Rebecca Silverman, Timothy Morgan, Joel Williams, Matthew Cheung Salisbury, accompanied by period instrument ensemble 1714. Pre-concert talk at 5.30 pm by the Revd Dr Tess Kuin Lawton on the theology behind some of Handel’s famous choruses.
In the College Chapel. £10.
SUNDAY 21 JANUARY, 5.30 pm – VIVALDI’s VENETIAN VESPERS
In place of College Evensong, the Combined Choirs of Worcester College (both boy trebles and students) sing a special service of Latin Vespers accompanied by ensemble 1714. The service will feature Antonio Vivaldi’s Magnificat in G Minor (RV 610) and meditative plainchant as it would have been heard by Vivaldi in eighteenth-century Venice. Other than the Vivaldi, the music for this service has been newly transcribed and will be heard for the first
time at this unmissable event. The Bishop of Burnley, the Rt Revd Philip North, will preach.
In the College Chapel. Free.