Experience Carefully Curated Choral Concerts
Revel in the Joy of Music
Sadly, we had to cancel many events because of the pandemic. However, we went on to perform many of the planned programmes in following seasons.
Throughout the COVID pandemic, the choir members regularly rehearsed and chatted (often mostly chatted!) on Zoom.
Late summer 2020 | Spain and Beyond: Hispanic music14 May 2020 | Bach Mass in B Minor4 April 2020 | Choral Evensong28 March 2020 | Workshop on Dvořák’s Requiem1 February 2020 | Workshop on J. S. Bach’s Mass in B minor
10 December 2019 | ‘A Winter’s Night’: music for Christmas
7 December 2019 | Music for Christmas
26 October 2019 | RSPB Bexley 40th anniversary concert
22 October 2019 | Little Birds
2019-20 Season of Events
Workshop on J. S. Bach’s Mass in B minor
Saturday 1 February 2020
St Mary-at-Hill Lovat Lane Eastcheap EC3R 8EE
City Chamber Choir invites you to take part in this workshop on one of the greatest works in the choral repertoire: J. S. Bach’s Mass in B minor.
The workshop is led by City Chamber Choir’s Music Director, Stephen Jones, who has a wealth of experience in all aspects of choral singing, as conductor, singer and accompanist. As well as putting the work into its historical context, he will give you many valuable insights into vocal technique, ensemble singing and tuning.
Our study day, in the beautiful Wren church of St Mary-at-Hill in the heart of the City of London, ends with an informal sing through at 4.00 pm (open to all – please do invite your friends).
If you are an enthusiastic amateur singer, who would like to explore this choral masterpiece, brush up on singing technique and find out about the historical and musical context of the Mass in B minor during the course of an enjoyable day, then this is for you.
Stephen Jones workshop leader | Anna Le Hair accompanist
‘A Winter’s Night’ – music for Christmas
6.30 pm Tuesday 10 December 2019
The Voces8 Centre, St Anne and St Agnes Church, Gresham Street London EC2V 7BX
Our Christmas concert this year features Cecilia McDowall’s Christmas cantata A Winter’s Night, in which she conjures up ‘a joyful atmosphere, delighting with familiar and surprising material in equal measure’. We also include carols by Peter Hurford, the renowned organist who died earlier this year, as well as Howells’ rarely heard Tryste Noel, and the usual mixture of familiar, well loved join-in-able pieces, as well as a first performance by Guildhall School of Music and Drama student Mathis Saunier, this year’s CCC Composer in Association.
Programme to include: McDowall A winter’s night – Christmas cantata | Peter Hurford carols and organ solo | arr. Claas Maria durch ein Dornwald ging
With readings, and carols for choir and audience.
Stephen Jones conductor | Ivan Linford organ | David Kemp reader
Little Birds: music inspired by nature
7.00 pm Tuesday 22 October 2019
St Mary-at-Hill Lovat Lane Eastcheap EC3R 8EE
Our first programme of the season contains a menagerie of feathered friends as well as numerous other animals. From the various characters in Bob Chilcott’s settings of Aesop’s Fables, to pieces that evoke the nightingale (from Granados, to Howells and thence to Sherwin), it is the swan that takes pride of place, with musical settings by Saint-Saëns, in turn reimagined by Samuel Wilson, Chilcott and Gibbons (the composer!). Of course, there is much more besides, and the evening comes home to roost with Eric Whitacre’s joyous and witty Animal Crackers and Little Birds.
Chilcott Aesop’s fables | Granados The maiden and the nightingale (piano solo) | Howells King David | Stanford The bluebird | Vaughan Williams Silence and music | Saint-Saëns The swan (piano and cello) | Wilson Le Cygne | Neilsen Sidskensang (Song of the siskin) | Anon Sumer is i-cumen in | Janequin Chant des oiseaux | Gibbons The silver swan | Daquin The cuckoo (piano solo) | Vautor Sweet Suffolk owl | Anon Dindirin, dindirin | Beatles arr. Runswick Blackbird | Sherwin arr. Kirby Shaw A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square | Whitacre Animal crackers | Whitacre Little birds
Stephen Jones conductor | Philip Shannon piano | Mirjam James cello
RSPB Bexley 40th anniversary concert
7.15 pm Saturday 26 October 2019
The Slade Evangelical Church Plumstead Common SE18 2NB
Programme as 22 October.
Stephen Jones conductor | Philip Shannon piano | Mirjam James cello
Music for Christmas
7.30pm Saturday 7 December 2019
St John the Baptist, Boughton, Northants NN2 8SF
Stephen Jones conductor | Jem Lowther organ
Spain and beyond: a world of Hispanic music
Late summer 2020
CCC finish their season with a Hispanic programme that features the charming Misa Criolla by the Argentinian composer Ariel Ramirez. From this celebrated 20th century composition we range across the centuries to the origins of church polyphony in South America with the earliest known notated music in the Quechua language and on via the Golden Age and one of South America’s best loved Spanish composers Francisco Guerrero. Romancero Gitano Castelnuovo Tedesco’s wonderfully evocative settings of one of Spain’s greatest poets, Federico García Lorca, complete our programme.
Programme to include: Ramirez Misa Criolla | Castelnuovo Tedesco Romancero Gitano
Stephen Jones conductor
Bach Mass in B Minor
7.00 pm Thursday 14 May 2020
St Paul’s Church Covent Garden
(The Actors’ Church)
The centrepiece of the choir’s 2019-2020 season is J. S. Bach’s masterwork, the Mass in B minor. A testing piece for any choir, this work encapsulates the miraculous qualities of Bach’s music. There will be a special twist to our soloists line-up, because father and son, David and Sebastian James will feature.
Stephen Jones conductor | Sebastian James treble | Charlotte Bowden soprano | Emily Sierra soprano | David James counter tenor | Mark Dobell tenor | Jonathan Brown bass
Workshop on Dvořák Requiem
Saturday 28 March 2020
St Mary’s Church, Salehurst, nr Robertsbridge,
East Sussex
Stephen Jones workshop leader
Dvořák’s Requiem
If you are an enthusiastic amateur singer who would like to explore this unique choral work and brush up on singing technique over the course of a sociable and enjoyable day, this is for you!
A rare opportunity
We have chosen Dvořák’s Requiem because it is rarely performed, and it is even rarer for amateur singers to have the chance to sing it.
Dvořák himself intended this powerful, fire-and-brimstone work for an English-speaking audience, having visited England nine times. He conducted the piece at its premiere in Birmingham in 1891
Mentor & Soloists
Mentor for the day is Stephen Jones. He has worked with leading choirs as a conductor and chorus master.
Joining Stephen will be the amazing soloists Katherine Boyce, Aino Konkka, Sam Barton and Steve Hawksley.
Support Choir
City Chamber Choir is delighted to be partnering with the Robertsbridge Arts Partnership.
The Choir will provide singing support and is looking forward to meeting like-minded singers for an enjoyable day of singing.
Early Evening Concert
Not a singer? At the end of the day, the workshop singers will give an informal concert. Come along!
On Sunday 29 March 2020 the choir will also sing choral mattins in the church.
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