Tag Archives: Cathedral Crypt

Summer Music Week 2025: Crypt Concert

Congratulations to Minerva Voices, the upper-voices chamber choir, the Cecilian Choir and Consort, and soloists on a gloriously technicolour concert in the Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral on Friday night, launching this year’s Summer Music Week.

Our annual festival was launched with a first half of ravishing colours from Minerva Voices, in works ranging from Sarah Quartel’s This We Know to Russell Hepplewhite’s evocative Fly away, over the sea, the Tudor round Ah, Robyn, and other pieces, accompanied by first-year Music Performance Scholar, Hannah Tudor.

The second half saw the mixed-voice Cecilian Choir, comprising students, staff and alumni, in a vivid performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, accompanied by a five-piece consort, and featuring solos from final-year students Leonie Carrette, Florence Kingdon, Rachel Fung and Amanda Schott.

As always, the concert is supported by the David Humphreys Fund, a bequest left by David in honour of his wife, Julia; the opportunity to perform in such a richly-sonorous, historic and intimate space is one of the highlights of the musical calendar, and we remain grateful to the Humphreys family for their generous support.

Image Gallery: Summer Music Week 2024 in pictures

A marvellous end to the academic year at the University, our annual Summer Music Week festival saw a packed programme of events bidding a musical adieu to the year.

From the opening Bond and Beyond with the Big Band, String Sinfonia and Festival Voices, through the Big Band gigging at Deal Bandstand, two student lunchtime recitals, Minerva Voices and Consort at the Cathedral Crypt, and concluding with Chorus, Orchestra, Cecilian Choir, Concert Band and student soloists in the closing gala, it’s been an action-packed week showcasing the extra-curricular music provision here at Kent in vibrant, robust form.

(Here’s a small snapshot of the events over the course of the festival; many more can be found on our Facebook Group).

Congratulations and huge thanks to everyone who took part, to all the performers, to the various donors and music supporters, and to the audiences who came to support the concerts. It’s been a great year of music-making – we’re already looking forward to the next!