Innholdsfortegnelse for Autumn 2024 i Choir & Organ

Music is the pathway to so much more. I am constantly struck by the ways in which choral music, composition and the organ are catalysts for advocacy, art, collaboration and friendship. For a ‘serious’ musician, it used to be that other interests would have to be sacrificed, or at least put on hold. During my own conservatoire training, there was a focus on replicating music to the highest possible standard, but for many of us it felt like something was missing. But that was pre-pandemic. When the avenues for work narrowed during lockdown and its aftermath, many felt drawn to creative risk-taking. I believe we are now seeing the fruits of this artistic bravery. Our cover story explores the ever-growing desire of the vocal group Sansara to reflect on society…

St Paul’s Cathedral has announced the appointment of James Orford as its new organist. Orford will join the cathedral from St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, where he is organist and assistant director of music. Prior to his post in Knightsbridge, he held an organ scholarship at St Paul’s Cathedral as well as Truro Cathedral, the Royal Hospital Chelsea, and King’s College, London. Orford succeeds William Fox, the cathedral’s current organist, in September 2024, when Fox moves to become the new director of music at St Albans Cathedral. About his new appointment, James Orford said: ‘I could not be more excited to be taking up the post of organist at St Paul’s Cathedral. St Paul’s has the most extraordinary history and its current organ and choral output under Andrew Carwood’s direction is…

Two girls from St Paul’s Cathedral School have formally joined the St Paul’s Cathedral Choir as full choristers for the first time in its 900-year history. The cathedral’s Choral Evensong service on 30 June officially marked the historic event. The service was 11-year-old Lila and 10-year-old Lois’ first service performing with the Cathedral Choir as ‘made up’ choristers, having undertaken specialist training in preparation. They have passed their probation, and have now taken up their positions as full members of the choir. Two winners have been announced as first prize winners in the Laudemus! Composition Competition. It is open to young composers under the age of 30. Applicants were asked to write an anthem for competent SATB choir with organ accompaniment. John Sturt received the prize for his introit ‘Te…

BRIAN JONES 1943-2023 BEST KNOWN FOR HIS TWO decades at Boston’s Trinity Church, Brian Jones died this past November of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 80. A proud New Englander, he was born in Duxbury (a coastal hamlet on Boston’s South Shore). A grandfather and great uncle were organists, and among Jones’ earliest memories was drifting to sleep while his mother played the piano. Jones himself began piano lessons at eight, and organ soon after. In 1961 he entered the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studying organ first with Garth Peacock and finishing with Haskell Thomson. Of equal influence was renowned choral professor Robert Fountain, whose 1964 US State Department-sponsored tour to the former Soviet Union remained for Jones an unforgettable instance of music’s power to inspire and unite. After…

TOP RECITAL CHOICES ▶ On 5 September, St Paul’s Cathedral presents a unique mix of traditional organ repertoire alongside transcriptions including a medley from John Williams’ Star Wars soundtracks. Chelsea Chen will perform pieces by Franck, Gjeilo, Duruflé, Saint-Saëns and Chen, as well as a melody from the famous Star Wars franchise. Tickets start at £8 and the performance begins at 6.30pm. ▶ Anna Lapwood will perform Camille Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No 3, ‘Organ Symphony’, on 15 September at the Barbican Hall. Conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, Lapwood will perform with the London Symphony Orchestra following Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto played by Yuja Wang. ▶ On 11 November, Christ Church Spitalfields will host a Remembrance evening, starting at 7.30pm. Featuring Saxophonist Patsy Gamble, the programme will include her own Suite for…

ORGAN CDS Francis Grier: Organ Music Stephen Farr (org), Indira Grier (cello), Dobson Organ (2013), Merton College, Oxford, UK Resonus RES10332 [70:36] Grier’s bold and individual voice is perhaps not so well-known as it deserves – particularly the solo organ repertory. A talented organist, Grier’s fast-tracked career led him to replace Simon Preston at Christ Church Cathedral at the age of 25. Four years later he left English cathedrals behind to study music, theology and meditation in India. The resulting music, with its theological grounding and eastern exoticism, inevitably draws parallels with Messiaen’s music of the 1930s, similarly influenced by Indian music. Like Messiaen, Grier’s own mastery of the organ shines through the music with its elaborate and colourful textures. Farr revels in these glorious and meditative sounds, particularly with…

Where did your choral journey begin? I began my choral journey as a probationer chorister, at New College Oxford, aged seven and a half. David Lumsden was the choir director, James Bowman was a lay clerk and New College Chapel had ripped out its ageing organ and would, by 1969, have installed its magnificent Grant, Degens & Bradbeer organ, the Pompidou Centre of organs. That instrument, whose dazzling modernity, combined with Baroque-era voicing, gave me a lifelong passion for organs. What were the highlights and lowlights of your experience? Best by far was the experience of singing glorious choral music every day of my school life, from eight to 13, and learning the organ. Lumsden was an outlier for the time, giving much of the ‘classic’ Victorian repertoire of the…

The Marian Consort The Choir of King’s College London VOCES8 St Paul’s Cathedral University of St Andrews Music Centre MertonCollege, Oxford St John’s College, Cambridge Salisbury Cathedral PRS for music National Youth Choirs of Great Britain Canadian International Organ Competition Orgelfestival Holland Saint Thomas, Fifth Avenue Royal Holloway University of London Three Choirs Festival BBC Singers Association of British Choral Directors Southbank Centre Oundle for Organists Royal College of Organists European Cities of Historic Organs International Federation for Choral Music Clare College, Cambridge Royal Canadian College of Organists St Albans International Organ Festival Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition European Choral Association-Europa Cantat ASSOCIATES American Guild of Organists American Institute of Organbuilders Association of Canadian Choral Conductors Chorus America Cornell University International Society of Organbuilders Leicester Chorale Mount Royal University Oberlin…

THE THREE CHOIRS FESTIVAL HAS announced David Francis as its new chief executive officer, following the departure of Alexis Paterson, who leaves to become the senior music programme producer with Oxford University’s new concert venue the Schwarzman Centre, opening in 2025. Currently CEO of Wollongong Conservatorium of Music in Australia, Francis studied singing at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and earlier in his career held senior positions with the BBC Symphony Chorus, CBSO, Arts Council England, and Dartington Hall Trust. He was also a major contributor to the launch of the PRS Foundation and was its first manager prior to his move to Australia in 2014, when appointed to the post of general manager of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Francis said of his appointment: ‘I am delighted to be…

Three Afro-Cuban Poems – Odaline de la Martínez ORA Singers Saturday 28 September Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama In her 75th birthday year Cuban-American composer and conductor Odaline de la Martinez sees the world premiere of her Three Afro-Cuban Poems with the ORA Singers in September. Set to poems taken from Motivos de Son (1930) by Cuban poet and writer Nicolás Guillén, the work traces various relationships between a man and a woman and mirrors the speech, music and rhythm of the Afro-Cuban language. Guillén’s poems are written using the everyday language of the Afro-Cubans and were instrumental in establishing the importance of Afro-Cuban culture as a valid genre. As part of the concert, five graduate composers’ new works and a piece by Paul Mealor will also be…

In the UK, you must be 16 years old to drive a tractor, 17 to fly an aeroplane and 18 drive an HGV. Fortunately there is no lower age limit to play a cathedral organ, which is a gift to any budding organist, as the thrill will set them on a path to musical success. Full organ is bold, majestic and awe-inspiring, but simultaneously controllable. You feel the kind of pleasure that Kant described as the ‘dynamical sublime’. Village church organs are, however, very different. Most are not afforded the luxury of monthly tuning and expensive renovations. They slumber away in the chancels of parish churches, often unplayed, and rarely commented on. The mechanical action is heavy, couplers work themself loose with intense playing, and tutti is not so rewarding…

How has the reaction been to your Southbank residency so far? There has been a great feel in the hall at each of the three concerts I’ve done so far – the reception seemed really good from the stage. It was great to have so many people from a non-organ music background at both concerts. Then the third concert in June involved my own keyboard ensemble, performing music by three generations of contemporary composers: Gabriella Smith, Philip Glass and John Adams. What can you tell us about the experience of playing the hall’s Downes designed Harrison & Harrison organ? Playing the Royal Festival Hall’s organ is an absolutely hair-raising experience. For one, you’re right up close to the pipework, with the pedal mixture just above your head, and secondly the…

THE GERMAN ORGAN BUILDER JÜRGEN Ahrend died on 1 August aged 94. A creator of new instruments, he was most notably a restorer of Baroque organs, especially that of Arp Schnitger in the Jacobikirche, Hamburg. Ahrend was born in Göttingen on 28 April 1930. From 1946 to 1948, he served an apprenticeship in the firm of Paul Ott before forming a partnership with Gerhard Brunzema in Lower Saxony. Since January 1972, the workshop has been operating under the name Jürgen Ahrend Orgelbau and has been run by his son Hendrik Ahrend since 2005. An obituary will follow in the winter issue of Choir & Organ…

With What Sudden Joy – Cheryl Frances-Hoad (composer); Kate Wakeling (libretto) Southwark Festival Sinfonia and Southwark Festival Voices Sunday 25 August Southwell Minster ‘There’s something fairly intimidating about writing a piece about the value and joy of music’. Cheryl Frances-Hoad meets me in London Bridge, just a few months before her new work With What Sudden Joy premieres at the Southwell Music Festival. She’s recently completed it, hugely proud of the collaboration with Kate Wakeling and when she speaks about it, I sense its significance, that it perhaps stands out among recent commissions. It’s also the first work to be commissioned by the 10-year-old Nottinghamshire festival, originally planned as a partner piece for the Mozart Requiem. ‘Marcus Farnsworth, the artistic director, wanted to commission a piece that was celebrating the…

Pershore Abbey in Worcestershire is a beguiling and lovely place. The former Benedictine Abbey bears its scars; the Dissolution saw the destruction of the nave (1540), and the north transept subsequently collapsed (1686). What remains today is the result of a restoration by George Gilbert Scott (1862-65) and consists of a south transept, crossing and choir. This remarkable church features elements of the Norman abbey (1190-1230), while the Early Gothic chancel (the Norman chancel burned in 1223) is famed for its soaring ‘ploughshare’ vaulting. Pershore is also famous for its ‘floating’ ringing platform, Scott having opened up the tower to reveal the internal tracery. The modern organ history of Pershore Abbey is similarly turbulent. An undoubtedly fine three-manual 1872 instrument by John Nicholson was rebuilt by Walker in 1940 and…

B Birmingham Cathedral Scholarships cs (sopranos), o Gap yes Contact David Hardie, he ad of music, 0121 262 1840, david.hardie@birminghamcathedral.com www.birminghamcathedral.com Blackburn Cathedral Scholarships cs, o Gap students or recent post-grads Contact John Robinson 01254 277 442, john.robinson@blackburncathedral.co.uk blackburncathedral.com Bristol University/Cathedral Church of the Holy/Undivided Trinity, Bristol Scholarships c, o Contact Mark Lee 0117 926 4879, music-resources@bristol.ac.uk bris.ac.uk/music/scholarships C Cambridge University (all colleges unless listed separately) Scholarships c (boys – King’s College only – contact King’s College), cs (men & women), o; post-grad lay clerk positions at Selwyn College Contact (c & cs) Louisa Denby, choralawards@groups.cam.ac.uk; (o) Andrew Arthur, organsch@group.cam.ac.uk Cambridge, Jesus College Scholarships c (boys) Trials Benjamin Sheen is available to hear potential applicants all year round. Contact Eleanor Lancelot, 01223 339699, choir@jesus.cam.ac.uk jesuscollegechoir.com Cambridge, St John’s College Scholarships…

The Choir of St John’s College Cambridge has recorded its first album with director of music Christopher Gray. Music on the disc will include a new commission of a triptych from composer Joanna Marsh and poet Malcolm Guite. St Albans Cathedral Choir recorded a disc of Philip Moore’s music in mid-July. The recording will feature the choir with Tom Winpenny on the organ and will be Andrew Lucas’ final album as master of the music at the Cathedral at St Albans. Oliver Tarney’s work The Night before Christmas is to be recorded in August in Newcastle for Convivium Records by the Durham Singers, Vox Popul and Newcastle Youth Choir. July saw the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge record its first disc under new director of music Steven Grahl, centred around…

Why does the work of Hildegard resonate with you as a group? We essentially grew up singing Hildegard’s music! She holds a central place in our shared history as singers, from the Oxford Girls Choir where we first sung her chant, to re-connecting with her music when we formed the trio in 2006. It’s been foundational to the blended sound we create and has been the impetus for new works we’ve commissioned, inspired by her words or music. Are there any challenges to performing her music? The greatest challenge is that we can never know what a truly authentic performance of Hildegard’s music would sound like. We’ve learned and developed our own interpretation of her works along the way. It can be quite tricky to hold a sustained note for…