Our resident ensemble, CantiaQuorum, returns to Colyer-Fergusson next week for the first of two concerts this term.
Next Wednesday’s lunchtime concert sees seven members of the group in a programme including Saint-Saens’ Septet in E flat major and Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne, in which Stravinsky returned to his ballet Pulcinella, which itself re-imagined music by Pergolesi.
Admission is free with suggested donation of £3; more details online here.
The String Sinfonia has launched again this year, and we’re busy working hard in preparation for the concert at the start of December.
A Baroque Christmas will see the ensemble performing excerpts from Part One of Handel’s enduringly popular Messiah with the Cecilian Choir and Scholarship singers, as well as two instrumental works by Vivaldi, including the seasonally-appropriate ‘Winter.’
Barring a few of the players who were away yesterday, here is the group in the hall, which yesterday resounded to joyous choruses from the Handel oratorio, and also includes the department’s new harpsichord, played by Your Loyal Correspondent. The ensemble seems to have a natural stylistic empathy with Baroque repertoire, and has already developed an exciting sound.
Come along on Friday 4 December (details here) to hear them in action; on the strength of these early rehearsals, it already promises to be quite something…
Some serious preparation has been taking place this morning, as some of the Music staff had a brass sectional rehearsal, led by the Deputy Director of Music’s son, himself a budding trumpet player.
To the astonishment of Ian Swatman, Jonty put the Director and Deputy Director of Music through their paces in a bid to form a fledgling brass ensemble for the department’s Children in Need event on Friday 13 November.
Open to anyone who’s ever started an instrument – and then stopped! – or only taken up to Grade 3, the Unsemble will be getting together for a scratch performance of ‘The Pink Panther’ theme on the day to raise money for this year’s Children in Need appeal.
Come along and find out how we get on (there’s even the prospect of two sousaphones adding to the brass section, and the Music Assistant on viola); and if you’ve an instrument yourself, come and take part!
More details here.
With the start of the new academic year, choral life at the University has also burst into renewed life; over on the choral blog, Cantus Firmus, we take a look at our newest ensemble, Minerva Voices, an upper-voice auditioned choir which has begun rehearsing ahead of a busy year; the Cecilian Choir has also sprung into bloom as it starts rehearsals on Handel’s Messiah for a Christmas Baroque concert in December; and the ‘In-Choir Within’ series introducing choral singers at the University continues with an introduction to first-year soprano, Alice Scott.
With the University Chorus also at work in preparing Vaughan Williams’ rarely-performed The First Nowell, you could almost say that the music department is on song… Read all about it on Cantus Firmus here.
Have you ever taken up an instrument – and then stopped ?! Did you get to Grade 2, or even 3, and then give up playing ?
Well, if you did – then the Unsemble is for you! Next month, as part of Children in Need, we’re inviting any instrumentalists amongst the students, staff and alumni who didn’t progress beyond Grade 3 to come and take up their instrument once more, head to Colyer-Fergusson Hall at lunchtime on Friday 13 November, and join in a scratch group performance of The Pink Panther theme – all in a good cause!
(Yours Truly will be borrowing his son’s cornet for the occasion, and there’s even the promise of a member of the Health and Safety team bringing a sousaphone… What could possibly go wrong ?! )
All this musical mayhem will take place from 1.10-1.30pm on Friday 13 November; if you don’t have an instrument (or have actually progressed beyond Grade 3!), then you’re welcome to come along and listen; come and find out how we all get on…Find out more online here, and join up to the Facebook Event page here.
Next week brings a brace of Baroque performances from some renowned musicians to Colyer-Fergusson.
Our new Lunchtime Concert series launches next Wednesday with a recital from Baroque recorder specialist, Naomi Okuda Wooderson, accompanied by Tom Foster; the programme includes Bach, Telemann and Handel, and features our new harpsichord in its first formal outing. Admission is free, with a retiring donation.
The Baroque theme continues at the weekend with a performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas under the direction of distinguished performer and conductor, Trevor Pinnock, in a preview of the concert which will be appearing at London’s Wigmore Hall the following week. The chorus for the performance is none other than Tenebrae, one of the country’s foremost vocal ensembles; the concert also promises a Purcellian miscellany of songs and dances.
Details about both concerts can be found on our What’s On page online here. To whet your appetites, here’s Sarah Connolly singing that famous lament…
