Tag Archives: Cecilian Choir

Notes on Music

Image Gallery: ‘The Rose and the Thorns’

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Congratulations to our upper-voices chamber choir, Minerva Voices, the Cecilian Choir, soloists and consort on what one member of the audience described as an ‘immersive’ performance on Friday.

Minerva Voices, accompanied by pianists Hannah Tudor and Ida Bright, presented a first half of choral works from various stations around the concert-hall, in a range of music from Sarah Quartel’s meditative environmental message, This We Know, to the medieval Ah, Robyn and Russell Hepplewhite’s lyrical Fly away over the sea.’

The mixed-voice Cecilian Choir took to the stage for the second half for a dramatic realisation of Pergolesi’s powerful Stabat Mater, featuring final-year soloists Rachel Fung, Florence Kingdon, Leonie Carrette and Amanda Schott. Pergolesi’s setting of the poem reflecting on Christ’s crucifixion came to vivid life, with strong, confident singing from both choir and soloists alike.

Images: Karina Chung

Composer in Focus, Notes on Music

Winter Nights weekend premiere

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It’s always both exciting and a little bit daunting, taking on a contemporary piece of music to give the UK premiere – and even more so when the composer herself is in the audience!

Stephanie Martin attending the afternoon rehearsal
Stephanie Martin

Last weekend saw the Music department’s combination of concerts, ‘Winter Journeys, Winter Nights‘ featuring the String Sinfonia, Concert Band, Chorus, Orchestra, Cecilian Choir and Flute Choir coming together over two nights to perform seasonal works, the centrepiece of which was a marvellously colourful seasonal cantata, Winter Nights, by the Canadian composer, Stephanie Martin. This five-movement work sets a variety of poems focusing on different aspects of the winter season, from the anonymous ‘Cold is the night when when stars shine bright,’  through the fierce drama of ‘Loud rings the frozen earth’ by James Thompson, to the wonder and mystery of Cori Martin’s ‘Could it be true / Old Thomas Hardy’s tale,’ all culminating in Thomas Campion’s ‘Now winter nights enlarge.’

The piece distils a variety of colours, textures and vivid images from the cast of voices, strings and percussion, reflecting the manifold aspects of the season, and the whole cantata captures the full range of the season’s contrasts – its warmth, magic, wonder, jollity, bitterness, wildness, and revelry – bringing the different scenes to vivid life with a vibrant energy.

Stephanie talking with choir and orchestra

We were delighted to welcome Stephanie to the afternoon rehearsal – always a slightly scary moment, the first time performing a piece in front of the composer – and then to the evening performance. With warmth and generosity, Stephanie talked with the performers in the afternoon about the piece, including the three students singing the solo trio heralding the arrival of Winter; and she received a hugely enthusiastic round of applause following the performance later that evening.

Congratulations to all the performers involved across the entire weekend, and our thanks in particular to Stephanie for taking the time to stop over in Canterbury on her flight from Europe to Canada, to come to Colyer-Fergusson and be part of the event.

Enthusiastic applause greets the composer after the performance

Here is the performance in full, filmed and used with kind permission from Stephanie Martin.

Read the full weekend programme here (PDF).

Notes on Music, Summer Music

Image Gallery: Summer Music Week 2024 in pictures

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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!

Now Hear This!

Cecilian Choir singing Evensong at Canterbury Cathedral: watch on demand

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Congratulations to the students, staff and alumni of the University Cecilian Choir, who sang the service of Choral Evensong at Canterbury Cathedral earlier this week.

Group of thirty singers dressed in formal black standing on red-carpeted steps amidst the ornate architecture of Canterbury Catrhedral

The choir, accompanied by organist John Wyatt and conducted by Your Loyal Correspondent, travelled to the heart of the city to take part in the service as one of the visiting choirs that carries on providing music  whilst the Cathedral choir is on half-term break, a wonderful opportunity to sing in the Quire and be part of the tradition of evensong.

If you missed the service, it was livestreamed on the Cathedral’s YouTube channel and remains online for online viewing;  click below to watch the whole service (the Choir begins processing at just after the six-minute mark).

 

Notes on Music, Summer Music

In pictures: Summer Music Week 2023

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Another year of extra-curricular music-making has come to a close with this year’s Summer Music Week. Taking place across eight days, the series of concerts ranged from the evocative Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral to a sun-drenched trip to the seaside and Deal Bandstand, two Scholars’ Lunchtime Concerts, the ceremony for this year’s Music Prize Winners (about which more shortly…) and more, all coming to a rousing finale with the closing Saturday gala.

Here are some of the images capturing this year’s series of events; as always, our enormous thanks to everyone who took part – students and staff at a particularly busy time in the academic year, alumni, and members of the local community – in a splendid festival. There’s always a wonderful community feeling to the week, as musicians come together for the last time, some for the final performance before graduating.  To those who are leaving: ave atque vale; to those who are returning in September, see you then!

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View the full album of photos from throughout the week on our Facebook Page here.

Same again next year, then ?!

Images (c): Chris Wenham / University of Kent

Additional images by Laurence Leung / Dan Harding

Keeping It Real: reviews., Now Hear This!

Premiere of new commission by Cecilian Choir and Consort

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Congratulations to all the members of the University Cecilian Choir and Consort on last Friday’s night’s premiere of the new commission piece by Russell Hepplewhite.

The combination of words, music and images brought the new setting of the Magnificat, in which the sacred text was interspersed by new poetry by Nancy Gaffield, to vivid life. The Choir and strings, comprising students and staff from across the University, came together in vibrant form to deliver an accomplished performance of a brand-new work, always a  challenge and especially in front of a live audience including both composer and poet!

If you missed it, the piece will be performed again on Friday 9 June as part of this year’s Summer Music Week, our annual music festival bringing the musical year to a close.

Notes on Music

New music: rehearsing with Russell Hepplewhite

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As part of the continuing ten-year anniversary of Colyer-Fergusson, the Music department continues to explore new musical frontiers in commissioning a piece from composer Russell Hepplewhite; an innovative take on the Magnificat, written for the University Cecilian Choir and string orchestra.

Bringing the Song of Mary together with new poetry by Nancy Gaffield, Emeritus Professor in the School of Creative Writing, the choir has been working on the piece in rehearsals, and we were delighted to welcome the composer to the concert-hall this week as the choir worked together with Russell.

It’s always a nervous experience to rehearse a piece with the composer present, but there was a tremendous rapport between the choir of students and staff and Russell, as the group continued to develop the piece with direct Composer Input.  Heroically, Russell volunteered to be the repetiteur for the rehearsal, and choir, composer and poet spent a lively session bringing the piece to life.

Before the rehearsal, Russell and Your Loyal Correspondent filmed a conversation about the commission, about the process of writing a piece that combines a well-known sacred text with contemporary poetry, and techniques of writing for voices and strings – the interview will appear soon!

Pictured are Russell and Nancy with the Cecilian Choir; the piece receives its premiere performance in Colyer-Fergusson on Friday 31 March; tickets here.

Notes on Music, Now Hear This!

Magnificat commission: rehearsal with poet Nancy Gaffield

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The University Cecilian Choir has been hard at work rehearsing a brand-new setting of the Magnificat, the Song of Mary, which the Music department commissioned as part of its year-long anniversary celebrations of the Colyer-Fergusson Building’s ten years. Last night, the Choir was delighted to welcome poet Nancy Gaffield to the rehearsal; Nancy has written four new poems which are interspersed with the text of the Magnificat, with music written by Russell Hepplewhite for mixed choir and string orchestra.

Poet Nancy Gaffield (centre) with the University Cecilian Choir
Nancy Gaffield

The new piece is an exciting blend of high energy, driving rhythms, lyrical melody and sumptuous harmonic colours, particularly in the sections setting Nancy’s poetry; each of the four poems is written in response to a famous piece of art representing stages in the life of Christ, including Michelangelo’s The Birth of Adam, Ghirandaio’s The Visitation,  and Piero della Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ. Here, the music revels in the same richly-colourful textures as each of the paintings; last night was an opportunity for Nancy to talk with the choir about her poems, the relationship to the paintings, and to hear some of the piece coming to life in rehearsal.

The first performance takes place in Colyer-Fergusson Hall on Friday 31 March, with a second performance on Friday 9 June as part of this year’s Summer Music Week; details and tickets for the premiere performance online here. It should be quite something…