Mar 12 2018
Congratulations to all the performers involved in Saturday night’s annual Colyer-Fergusson Concert, which saw the Nave of Canterbury Cathedral resounding to the heroic strains of Beethoven, Haydn and the premiere of a new work by Matthew King. The Chorus and Orchestra came together under the baton of Susan Wanless in Haydn’s dramatic ‘Nelson Mass,’ joined …
Mar 07 2016
A packed Canterbury Cathedral was the backdrop to Saturday’s performance by the University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra of Berlioz’s epic Symphonie fantastique and Beethoven’s rousing Mass in C. The long day began bright and early with the crew arriving at the concert-hall to load two vans with all the equipment needed, and unfolded across the …
Mar 04 2016
With just over twenty-four hours until the annual Colyer-Fergusson Cathedral concert, the University Symphony Orchestra and Chorus are busily rehearsing ahead of the performance. Last night, both forces were at work on Beethoven’s Mass in C, whilst tonight the Orchestra puts the finishing touches to Berlioz’s epic Symphonie fantastique. The annual concert in Canterbury Cathedral …
Feb 22 2016
The mightiest orchestra the University Music department has ever assembled will gather next week, as the Chorus and Symphony Orchestra come together for a revolutionary tale of dreams, dances, hallucinations and desire in Canterbury Cathedral on Saturday 5 March. Under the incisive baton of Susan Wanless, the Orchestra will perform one of the most exciting, …
Aug 11 2015
About to finish her MA in Comparative Literature, her second postgraduate degree, having finished a Master of Education (English and Maths) in Berlin last year, Svenja Glass looks back on her involvement in music at Kent. I was here first in 2012/13 as an Erasmus student from Free University Berlin (just like Max Mergenbaum, funnily enough, only I came via the …
Jun 02 2015
Students from across the world come to the University of Kent, and this is certainly true of the thronging community which also takes part in the musical life of the University each year. This year, Max Mergenbaum came to Kent to study Politics and International Relations for two terms as an exchange student at the Freie Universität …
Mar 16 2015
There’s no respite in the calendar of performing commitments; fresh from Saturday’s epic Colyer-Fergusson Concert, the University Chamber Choir returns to the Cathedral Crypt this coming Friday for an evocative programme, Then Comes The Day. The title of the concert is taken from a line in the Hymn to the Virgin, ‘Darkest night / Then comes …
Mar 16 2015
From the infinite mystery of the opening bars to the dramatically hushed close, Saturday’s performance of Verdi’s Requiem by the University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra for this year’s Colyer-Fergusson Cathedral Concert was full of high drama. Standing in as a last-minute replacement for the billed soprano soloist, Rachel Nicholls took time out from her current …
Mar 09 2015
A big week this week, as we continue our preparations ahead of the annual Colyer-Fergusson Cathedral Concert on Saturday, for which the combined might of the University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra will come together in Verdi’s Requiem. Here’s the Chorus in fine form yesterday afternoon, rehearsing old-skool style in Grimond, where for many years the …
Mar 20 2014
Images from last week’s annual Colyer-Fergusson Cathedral Concert, with the University Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, together with soprano Sally Silver. Images: Matt Wilson / University of Kent
Vox populi…