7.00 pm Tuesday 23 October 2018
St Mary Aldermary, Watling Street, London EC4M 9BW

Tudor Majesty

Works with royal connections from the golden age of English music

City Chamber Choir begin their 2018–2019 season in the stunning venue of St Mary Aldermary, Wren’s gothic master­piece, whose regal interior is the visual counterpart to the superb polyphony of some of the greatest English composers of the Renaissance. Framing the programme are the Great Service settings by William Byrd and his pupil Thomas Tomkins, ‘the last Elizabethan’. Other music, including harpsichord solos, reflects the changing demands forced upon Chapel Royal composers during a period of great religious and political upheaval, and the terrible price paid by those who fell foul of the authorities.

Byrd: O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth; Magnificat and Nunc dimittis (from the Great Service); Earle of Salisbury’s pavan and galliards; The queen’s alman | Tomkins: Te Deum and Jubilate (from the Third or Great Service); When David heard; A sad pavan for these distracted times | Tallis: Te lucis ante terminum; If ye love me; O nata lux | Parsons: Ave Maria | Gibbons: O clap your hands | Munday: Go from my window | Mundy: O Lord, the maker of all thing

Stephen Jones conductor | harpsichord

6.30 pm Tuesday 11 December 2018
The Gresham Centre, St Anne and St Agnes Church, Gresham Street London EC2V 7BX

‘O Magnum Mysterium’ – music for Christmas

An early-evening concert of seasonal music and readings based around settings of the text ‘O magnum mysterium’, plus City Chamber Choir’s usual much-loved mix of carols old and new. With a chance for wine and mince-pie fuelled audience participation!

Poulenc O magnum mysterium | Milhaud O magnum mysterium | McDowall  Regina coeliGjeilo O magnum mysterium | Arr. Claas  Maria durch ein Dornwald ging | Schütz  Supereminet omnem scientiam; Pro hoc magno mysterio pietatis | Martyn-West In the frost of the night time | Samuel Wilson (Composer in Residence) The Kings’ Gloria, for choir and audience (first performance)

With music by Praetorius, Bullard, Chilcott and J. S. Bach and carols for choir and audience

Stephen Jones conductor | Ivan Linford organ | David Kemp reader

Saturday 26 January 2019

The Gresham Centre, St Anne and St Agnes Church, Gresham Street London EC2V 7BX

Workshop on Palestrina, MacMillan and Tallis

With ex-members of The Hilliard Ensemble

Join ex-members of the renowned Hilliard Ensemble and award-winning City Chamber Choir for a day studying, learning and singing music by Palestrina, MacMillan and Tallis.

City Chamber Choir invites you to take part in this workshop on the stunning double-choir Stabat Mater by renaissance master Palestrina and the Miserere and O Radiant Dawn by Sir James MacMillan, the leading contemporary Scottish composer, plus O Nata Lux by Tallis.

City Chamber Choir is delighted and honoured to be working alongside three ex-members of the world-famous Hilliard Ensemble: Rogers Covey-Crump (tenor), David James (counter-tenor) and Gordon Jones (baritone) and expects to gain many valuable insights into vocal technique, ensemble singing and tuning  from their combined wealth of experience.

Our study day ends with an informal concert at 4.00 pm (open to all – please do invite your friends). A bonus will be the performance of Arvo Pärt’s And one of the pharisees by the three ex-Hilliards.

 

7.00 pm Tuesday 12 March 2019
St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside EC2V 6AU

Women of Note

Women of NoteAn exploration of music written by women
Ruth Gipps | Cecilia McDowall | Rebecca Clarke | Lili Boulanger | Katrina Toner | Judith Weir 

Stephen Jones conductor
Hannah Parry organ

A celebration of women composers featuring works by the choir’s president Cecilia McDowall and Judith Weir, the current Master of the Queen’s Music. All the music is distinguished by great individuality and character: Ruth Gipps’ wonderful and powerful setting of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis; the lush and evocative Soir sur la plaine by Lili Boulanger, one of the most exciting composers of the early 20th century, and Rebecca Clarke’s exquisitely crafted miniatures. The choir’s Composer in Association from last season Katrina Toner completes the line-up with her delightful Clouds Away. An evening highlighting composers of originality and imagination.

Ruth Gipps Magnificat and Nunc dimittis | Cecilia McDowall Standing as I do before God; Regina coeli | Rebecca Clarke Weep you no more, sad fountains; Music when soft voices die; My spirit like a charmed bark doth float | Judith Weir Truly I tell you; Vertue | Lili Boulanger Soir sur la plaine | Katrina Toner Clouds away

7.00 pm Wednesday 10 July 2019 – Carpenters’ Hall

‘Joinery’: musical fusions, extensions and elaborations

City Chamber Choir’s programme explores the various ways in which composers have appropriated the creations of their fellow composers to add their own voice to something that has fired their imagination: how they have taken a simple tune or bass line and repeated it in ever more elaborate ways; how they have completed a noble fragment; or how they have transformed an ancient piece through the prism of modern harmonies. So, from Grainger’s ‘rambles’, to Roderick Williams ‘re-imaginings’, from Stravinsky’s com­­pletions to masterful variations by Purcell and Brahms, and a joyfully anarchic ‘re­arrange­ment’ by Gardner, the evening will be full of examples of exquisite and ingenious craftsmanship.

The Carpenters’ Company Charitable Trust supports many charities including The Carpenters and Dockland Centre, the Lord Mayor’s Appeal, St Paul’s Cathedral and The Soldier’s Charity, as well as allocating funds to help offset the running costs of the Building Crafts College.

Brahms O Heiland reiss die Himmel ab | Purcell Hear my prayer | Chilcott My prayer | Praetorius Es ist ein Ros entsprungen | Sandström Es ist ein Ros entsprungen | Dowland Now, O now I needs must part | Grainger piano rambles on Dowland ‘Now, o now, I needs must part’; Bach ‘Blithe bells’ | Byrd Ave verum corpus | Williams Ave verum corpus re-imagined | Copland Simple Gifts | Chilcott The gift to be simple | Purcell arr. Eriksson Music for a while | Purcell When I am laid in earth; On drooping wings | Schubert/Gardner Marche Militaire | Tallis O nata lux | MacMillan O radiant dawn | Gesualdo / Stravinsky Tre cantionae sacrae | Samuel Wilson Le Cygne (First performance)

Stephen Jones conductor
Philip Shannon piano