13 December 2022 |Christmas concert
18 October 2022 | Iberia and beyond Music from Spain, Portugal and the Americas
12 July 2022 | Journeyings, including Cecilia McDowall premiere
10 May 2022 | Concert in aid of Ukraine – Rachmaninov: Vespers Op. 37
22 March 2022 | Rachmaninov: All Night Vigil (Vespers) Op. 37
5 March 2022 | Workshop on Rachmaninov: All Night Vigil (Vespers) Op. 37
16 December 2021 | The CCC Christmas Concert
16 October 2021 | Workshop on Handel: Messiah
A choral voyage of discovery bringing together varied music (including piano and violin solos) from across the centuries, to create a fascinating programme with something for everyone to enjoy.
City Chamber Choir’s concert in the beautiful surroundings of Carpenters’ Hall, explores journeys both physical and spiritual. The choir is honoured to be giving the first performance of a new work by its award-winning President, Cecilia McDowall. Commissioned by Geoffrey Smeed for CCC and its conductor Stephen Jones, Good news from New England, for choir and solo violin, is inspired by the Mayflower voyage and draws on the journal of William Bradford, the leader of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts for its text.
Programme
McDowall Good news from New England | Mathias Full fathom five | Hughes Three swans | Jackson A ship with unfurled sails | Clarke My spirit like a charmed bark doth float | Grainger Shallow Brown | Lauridsen Sure on this shining night | Whitacre The seal lullaby Gibbons The silver swan | Chilcott Even such is time | Weelkes Thule, the period of cosmography; The Andalusian merchant | Vaughan Williams Valiant for truth
This concert is in support of the Carpenters’ Company Charitable Trust.
The fifteen movements of Rachmaninov’s Vespers were written in the space of just two weeks, in 1915. The composer drew on the a cappella tradition of Orthodox church music, weaving authentic Russian and Ukrainian chants into nine of the movements and creating his own ‘conscious counterfeits’ in the others.
Join the award-winning City Chamber Choir for a performance of this moving and uplifting twentieth-century masterpiece.
This concert is in support of the Disaster Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
Stephen Jones conductor
‘Even in my dreams I could not have imagined that I would write such a work.’ Sergei Rachmaninov, after the first performance
The fifteen movements of Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil were written in the space of just two weeks, in 1915. The composer drew on the a cappella tradition of Russian Orthodox church music, weaving authentic chants into nine of the movements and creating his own ‘conscious counterfeits’ in the others.
Join the award-winning City Chamber Choir for a performance of this moving and uplifting twentieth-century masterpiece in the beautiful surroundings of the church of St Katharine Cree.
We are delighted that at this concert, through the generosity of our audience’s donations to a retiring collection, we raised well over £300 for the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
Stephen Jones Workshop leader and director of City Chamber Choir
Philip Shannon Accompanist
If you are an enthusiastic amateur singer, who would like to explore this a cappella masterpiece, brush up on singing technique and find out about the historical and musical context of the All-Night Vigil during the course of an enjoyable day, then this is for you.
10.00am Doors open for registration, coffee and music distribution
10.30am–12.30pm Workshop session 1
12.30pm–1.30pm Lunch (own arrangements)
1.30 pm–3.30 pm Workshop session 2
3.30pm–4.00pm Tea and cake
4.00 pm Informal sing-through
Sadly we had to cancel our Christmas concert at St Katharine Cree in the light of the latest news on the pandemic. This is was a very difficult decision but at least it meant that two members of the choir who are doctors were able to report for vaccination duties.
Our workshop features some of the less well known choruses from Handel’s great oratorio.
With City Chamber Choir | Stephen Jones: Director | Philip Shannon: Accompanist
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