Congratulations to the String Sinfonia, directed by Elina Hakanen, who made Studio 3 Gallery resound to bustling lunchtime concert on Day Five; bristling Bach with soloists Lydia Cheng and Claudia Hill, lyrical Borodin, and closing with fiery, passionate Piazzolla.
Day Six tomorrow features the Cecilian Choir, Sinfonia and soloists in a Baroque extravaganza out at St Michael’s and All Angels, Harbledown.
The University Cecilian Choir, together with the String Sinfonia, was featured on BBC Radio 3’s The Choir on Easter Sunday.
The weekly programme dedicated to all things choral has a regular feature, ‘Meet My Choir,’ and last Sunday, Dr Michael Hughes – lecturer in linguistics in the School of English and a member of the Cecilian Choir – introduced the Choir, its ethos and its place within the University community. The musicians can be heard during the episode performing Monteverdi’s Beatus Vir.
The feature is permanently on the Radio 3 website here: click here to listen.
The Cecilian Choir and Sinfonia rose to the occasion in splendid fashion last Friday, and delivered a scintillating concert full of festive Baroque favourites to launch Christmas music-making from the Music department.
Excerpts from Part One of Handel’s Messiah were combined with instrumental concerti by Vivaldi, with four out of the five soloists being drawn from the School of BioSciences – second-year oboist and National Youth Orchestra member Jonathan Butten, second-year singing Scholarship students Charlotte Webb and Ruth Webster, and Senior Lecturer in BioSciences, oboist Dan Lloyd. Vivaldi’s Double Oboe Concerto had a crisp vigour, and Elina Hakanen‘s performance of Winter with the Sinfonia combined moments of drama with expressive lyricism in a sure-footed and musically articulate performance.
The Cecilian Choir were in rousing form in the Handel choruses, aided by the Sinfonia, directed from the department’s new harpsichord by Your Loyal Correspondent, and the enthusiastic audience even rose to its feet for the concluding ‘Hallelujah Chorus.’
Bravo to everyone involved; the festivities continue this Saturday as the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus come together in music by Vaughan Williams, Shostakovich and Sibelius – details here.
With the festive season lurking just around the corner, rehearsals are really beginning to pick up pace here in Colyer-Fergusson.
Last night, the Big Band were in festive form as they cracked open seasonal swing arrangements for their already-sold-out Christmas Swing-along next month. Earlier in the week, Minerva Voices were getting into performance mode as they wielded Carols for Choirs, preparing to sing at the University Carol Service in Canterbury Cathedral in mid-December.
And yesterday afternoon, the hall rang to the sound of buoyant choruses from Handel’s Messiah as the String Sinfonia and Cecilian Choir came together ahead of their ‘A Baroque Christmas’ concert on 4 December.
Even the Flute Choir was getting into the seasonal spirit earlier in the day, with some sparkling carols for the Watch This Space event on the foyer-stage at the end of term. With Chorus and Orchestra also learning Vaughan Williams’ The First Nowell, t is very nearly the season to be jolly…
In rehearsal yesterday, the String Sinfonia as it prepares for its first concert of the year next month.
The players were working on sections of Handel’s Messiah, as well as Vivaldi’s ‘Winter’ with soloist Elina Hakanen, developing some of those rigorous and dramatic tutti sections alongside the more lyrical central movement. The group is also preparing Vivaldi’s Double Oboe Concerto with soloists second-year Jonathan Butten and lecturer in BioSciences, Dan Lloyd (pictured).
The concert on Friday 4 December opens the Christmas season in Colyer-Fergusson with some sparkling music of the Baroque; details here, come and launch the festive period with us and some popular musical favourites.
Drum-roll, please: our new events calendar for the Autumn term is now available online.
The termly Lunchtime Concert Series opens next month with a recital of Baroque recorder music by Naomi Okuda Wooderson, and a musical aperitif from our ensemble-in-residence, CantiaQuorum, of music by Saint-Saens, Stravinsky and Torelli prior to their evening concert; we launch our December seasonal music with A Baroque Christmas, including movements from Handel’s Messiah and Vivaldi’s Winter from the Cecilian Choir, String Sinfonia and soloists; the Christmas theme continues with a rare performance of Vaughan Williams’ The First Nowell by the Chorus and Orchestra, together with works by Sibelius and Shostokovich, and the term is rounded out with the now-customary Christmas Swing-along from the Big Band. There’s also an antidote to wintry blues from Kasai Masai as they bring the infectious rhythms and melodies of Congolese music for the final Lunchtime Concert, and the Musical Theatre Society will be inviting you to ‘Do a Little Duet’ with them too.
We welcome a host of visiting ensembles and musicians to Colyer-Fergusson throughout the term, including Trevor Pinnock as he brings Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and there are two events as part of this year’s Canterbury Festival; find out about all these and more online here – printed brochures will be arriving around the start of the term. Find out what’s in store…
Images from some of the various events that took place from Sunday 7 to Saturday 13 June, as the Music department bid farewell to another year at the University of Kent. Photos from the Scholars’ Lunchtime Recital on Day Two; jazz on the foyer-stage on Day Three; the String Sinfonia on Day Four; the Chamber and Cecilian Choirs in rehearsal on Day 6; and the marquee reception on the final day.
Other photos from throughout the week on our Pinterest board here.
Images © Matt Wilson / University of Kent
Some sunny music from the String Sinfonia on Day Five of Summer Music, led by Elina Hakanen.
