Cathedral Music: Autumn 2024

MAGAZINE OF CATHEDRAL MUSIC TRUST

IAN KEATLEY

We remember the former Director of Music at Southwark Cathedral

Cathedral Music Trust’s new programme for young children

All things musical at St John the Divine, Kennington

SMALL SOUNDS CONVIVIUM RECORDS

The label celebrates its fifteenth birthday

CHARITY CHRISTMAS CARDS

CATHEDRAL MUSIC TRUST

Royal Patron

HRH The Duchess of Gloucester President

Harry Christophers CBE

Ambassadors

Alexander Armstrong, Anna Lapwood MBE

Honorary Patrons

The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Revd and Rt Hon. Dr Justin Welby

The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, His Eminence Vincent Nichols

Board of Trustees

Jonathan Macdonald (Chair), Jason Groves, David Hill MBE, Sue Hind Woodward, Stuart Laing, James Lancelot, Giverny McAndry, Heather Morgan, James Mustard, Isobel Pinder, Gavin Ralston, Simon Toyne

Chief Executive Officer

Jonathan Mayes

Director of Programmes

Cathryn Dew

Programmes Manager

Olivia Sparkhall

Director of Development

Victoria McDougall (maternity cover)

Development Officer

Katy Ashman

Digital and Communications Manager

Anna Kent

Director of Finance

Jessica Lock

Finance Officer

Amanda Welsh

Cathedral Music Trust is extremely grateful to our team of volunteers across the UK who give many hours of their time each year to support the work we do.

Cathedral Music Trust 27 Old Gloucester Street London WC1N 3AX info@cathedralmusictrust.org.uk 020 3151 6096 (office hours) www.cathedralmusictrust.org.uk

Registered Charity Number 1187769

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CATHEDRAL MUSIC MAGAZINE

Editor  Adrian Horsewood editor@cathedralmusictrust.org.uk

Designer Jo Craig

Production Manager  Kyri Apostolou

Cathedral Music is published for Cathedral Music Trust by Mark Allen Group twice a year, in May and November. Autumn 2024

OFROM THE EDITOR

ne of the challenges (an enjoyable one, I should add) of overseeing a biannual publication is giving ample room to the many events that fall within each six-month portion. Each Autumn issue of Cathedral Music encompasses Remembrance and Advent, then Lent and then Easter – and, writing on the hottest day of 2024 in the hottest place in the UK (Cambridge, 34.8ºC), some of those seasons are harder to conjure up than others … One of the most beloved choral Christmas pieces, heard all over the country every December, is Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. The settings of Middle English lyrics for upper voices and harp never fail to enchant, and Isaac Schaad – a recent chorister at Norwich Cathedral – has written an appreciation of the work.

Remembrance reminds us of those who are no longer with us, and we mourn several recent deaths, notably that of Ian Keatley, Director of Music at Southwark Cathedral who died on holiday aged only 42. The great hymn-writer, The Right Reverend Timothy DudleySmith, also died this year. His most famous hymn is perhaps ‘Tell out, my soul’, a reworking of the Magnificat. In contrast, his version of the other Evensong canticle, the Nunc Dimittis, is less well-known; I hope that it may serve as a consolation to those who grieve:

Faithful vigil ended, Watching, waiting cease; Master, grant thy servant His discharge in peace.

All thy Spirit promised, All the Father willed; Now these eyes behold it Perfectly fulfi lled.

This thy great deliverance Sets thy people free; Christ, their light, uplifted All the nations see.

Christ, thy people’s glory! Watching, doubting, cease: Grant to us thy servants Our discharge in peace.

May they rest in peace, and rise in glory.

Adrian Horsewood

The views expressed in articles are those of the contributor and do not necessarily represent any official policy of Cathedral Music Trust. Advertisements are printed in good faith, and their inclusion does not imply endorsement by the Trust; all communications regarding advertising should be addressed to info@cathedralmusictrust.org.uk.

Every effort has been made to determine copyright on illustrations used; we apologise for any mistakes we have made. The Editor will be glad to correct any omissions.

Front cover: Ian Keatley, former Director of Music at Southwark Cathedral (Photo: Nick Rutter) Back cover: Amy Carson, Excelsis, the London Mozart Players and Robert Lewis record Clive Osgood’s Magnificat for Convivium Records (Photo: Mike Cooter) Editor’s photo: Andrew Wilkinson

28

Cathedral Music Trust’s Director of Programmes, Cathy Dew, showcases our latest early years scheme for young children and their carers

30 On the record

Founded fifteen years ago, Convivium Records has now released over 100 choral and organ albums

Memory lane

Robert Green remembers The Revd Ronald Sibthorp, founder of the Friends of Cathedral Music

We visit St John the Divine, Kennington, to sample its vibrant musical and educational work and to see its impact on the area’s diverse community

The BBC Radio 3 producer recalls his days as a chorister in Belfast, supported by the Friends of Cathedral Music, and discusses his career since

Small Sounds

Mike Cooter Cathedral Music Trust 40 Joseph Zubier

36 Divine music

Ben Sheen

42 A Ceremony of Carols

Isaac Schaad outlines the genesis of Britten’s everpopular Christmas work, as well as his experiences of singing the piece as a chorister

45

Finding direction

David Hill talks to Dr Felicia Barber, Associate Professor of Choral Conducting at the Yale School of Music, about her career and education

3

From the Editor

Adrian Horsewood welcomes you to this new issue

6

News & Previews

Catch up with the latest developments in the world of cathedral and church music

19

People & Places

We offer congratulations to musicians and other figures who are on the move

21

Events

Cathedral Music Trust organises and hosts events for supporters at locations all over the country

22

Award Recipients

Learn how cathedral and church choirs have benefited from Cathedral Music Trust’s investment

50

Reviews

Our writers sample some of the newest choral and organ recordings, as well as recent books and sheet music

66 Q&A

Cathedral Music Trust’s new CEO, Jonathan Mayes, recalls his musical upbringing and formative experiences, revealing the music and places close to his heart

NEWS & PREVIEWS

LEADERSHIP APPOINTMENTS AT CATHEDRAL MUSIC TRUST

Cathedral Music Trust has announced the appointment of its fi rst ever Chief Executive Officer, as well as a new addition to its Board of Trustees.

Jonathan Mayes, who started as CEO in July, brings twenty years’ experience with UK and North American arts organisations including leadership and artistic roles with Clore Leadership, the Philharmonia, Arts Council England, the Pittsburgh and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Southbank Centre and the Barbican.

During his six years at Arts Council England, Jonathan developed relationships with a number of orchestras, opera companies and Music Education Hubs. As Head of Strategic Partnerships & Impact at Clore Leadership, he has led on collaborations across the cultural sector, expanding the organisation’s reach both across the UK and internationally. Jonathan spends time singing with amateur choirs in London and is also Vice Chair of the National Children’s Orchestra.

As CEO, Jonathan will be responsible for implementing the Trust’s inaugural five-year Strategic Plan. Our ambition over the next five years is to make a lasting difference to cathedral music, enabling the high standard of performance and the quality of learning to grow, increasing opportunities for participation and building a firmer support-base for the future –Jonathan will be at the centre of driving this forward. He will also be tasked with propelling our ambitious fundraising efforts, to ensure the

Jonathan Mayes

Trust meets the future needs and challenges of the cathedral music community. This appointment will enable the Trust to work towards its vision for cathedral music: a vibrant choral music scene that champions excellence and provides opportunities for people from all walks of life to thrive and develop.

Jonathan Mayes commented: ‘I am delighted to have joined Cathedral Music Trust this summer. I bring a lifelong passion for choral and organ music and an unshakeable belief in the value of the UK’s choral foundations in the musical ecology of our country. With an industry facing unprecedented challenges, the Trust’s work is a vital support for the excellence and inclusivity of the music in our cathedrals, schools, concert halls and communities. It is a real privilege to lead this organisation towards its seventy-fifth anniversary and beyond, and I look forward to strengthening existing partnerships and forging new friendships.’

Also joining Cathedral Music Trust is our newest trustee, David Hill MBE, widely respected as both a choral and orchestral conductor. David’s current posts include Musical Director of The Bach Choir and Associate Guest Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He was formerly Principal Conductor of Yale Schola Cantorum, Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers, Director of Music at St John’s College, Cambridge, and Master of the Music at Winchester and Westminster cathedrals.

David boasts an impressive discography of recordings, and has been a recipient of both Grammy and Gramophone awards. His commitment to new music has led to premieres of

works by leading composers including Judith Bingham OBE, Bob Chilcott, Sir James MacMillan, Sir John Tavener and Jonathan Dove. In 2018, David was honoured with the Royal College of Organists medal, in recognition of his distinguished achievements in choral conducting and organ playing, and in 2019 he was awarded an MBE for services to music.

David Hill added: ‘I am thrilled to have joined the Board of Cathedral Music Trust with its increasingly important role in supporting the music in our cathedrals and other choral foundations. The amazing choral tradition in our country needs to be maintained and developed in spite of challenging times.’

Commenting on both appointments, Jonathan Macdonald, Chair of Trustees, says: ‘The appointment of the Trust’s first CEO marks an exciting new chapter in our history. Jonathan joins us at a crucial time as we begin to implement our five-year strategy. I am in no doubt that his broad experience in the music world and engaging leadership style will enable us to achieve our ambitious strategic goals, as we embark on a journey to transform more lives through cathedral music.

‘We are also delighted that David has agreed to join our Board – with decades of experience as a hugely successful choral and orchestral conductor, he will bring invaluable knowledge and insight to our organisation. David is a powerful advocate for cathedral music and his international profile will be of enormous importance to the Trust as we continue to build awareness of the issues facing the sector.’

Turn to page 66 for an introductory Q&A with Jonathan Mayes.

‘The amazing choral tradition in our country needs to be maintained and developed in spite of challenging times’

IN BRIEF …

Alexander Armstrong, one of Cathedral Music Trust’s Ambassadors, has released his first children’s book. Evenfall: The Golden Linnet features thirteen-year-old Sam, whose world is blown apart when he discovers that his family was once at the heart of a secret society – The Order of the Evening – that has protected the world for centuries. Now a powerful enemy is on the move and only Sam can stop them – but first he must bring the Order together again and find the source of their ancient and powerful magic. Evenfall: The Golden Linnet is published by HarperCollins and is available now.

Two winners have received first prize in the Laudemus! Composition Competition, which was open to young composers under the age of thirty: John Sturt for his introit Te lucis ante terminum and David Harris for his anthem Hail, gladdening light. Both pieces were premiered at Wimborne Minster on 10 August this year.

David Lammy, the Member of Parliament for Tottenham, has been appointed Foreign Secretary following the General Election held in July of this year. Lammy has spoken warmly on many occasions of his time as a chorister at Peterborough Cathedral, calling it his ‘X Factor moment’ when he won a scholarship to attend The King’s School: ‘I remember singing as a chorister in Peterborough Cathedral, having won a music scholarship to go to school there, and realising for the first time in my life what true excellence was.’

David Hill MBE

IN BRIEF …

This year’s five-day Organ Festival held by the Incorporated Association of Organists in York included the finals of the IAO/RCO Organ Competition. Competitors performed at Central Methodist and St Olave’s churches for the semi-finals and York Minster for the final on 28 July. First prize went to Timothy Stewart of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, while second place was taken by fellow RBC student Thomas Howell; Jonathan Lee, senior Organ Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, was placed third.

The Oxford Choral Experience enjoyed a successful inaugural running in July 2024, in which sixthform state-school students travelled to Worcester College, Oxford for a long weekend of rehearsals, masterclasses and a sung service. The team of tutors was led by Paul McCreesh, Bob Chilcott and Caius Lee, Worcester’s Director of College Music.

A former cathedral chorister will row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in aid of charity. Tom Dowdy, who was at York Minster between 2006 and 2012 before training as a paramedic at the University of Bradford, is being joined by Ken Bordt and Ethan Chapman in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge, setting off from La Gomera in the Canary Islands in December 2024. The trio are raising funds for the Ambulance Staff Charity, Macmillan Cancer Support, and the Stroke Association; you can follow their progress at paroarmedics.com

JOHN RUTTER KNIGHTED

Composer John Rutter was awarded a knighthood as part of the King’s Birthday Honours in June. This closely follows Rutter receiving the Ivor Academy Fellowship last year and marks his ongoing contribution to choral music in the UK.

Born in London, Rutter attended Highgate School where fellow pupils included John Tavener and Howard Shelley. As a chorister at Highgate, Rutter sang on the first recording of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem in 1963. Later at Clare College, Cambridge, Rutter was encouraged to publish his compositions by Sir David Willcocks, who later invited

Rutter to join him as co-editor of the series of Carols for Choirs books. This is not the first time the composer has been recognised by the monarchy: he composed pieces for Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden and Platinum Jubilees and the wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton, and also arranged several works for the coronation of King Charles III in 2023.

Speaking of the honour, Rutter said ‘Music has given me a lifetime of joy and fulfilment but I never dreamed that one day it would bring me the honour of a knighthood. I’m deeply grateful.’

Patrick Allen

SINGING AT ST MARY’S SCHOOL, EDINBURGH

St Mary’s, Edinburgh – the only one of the UK’s five governmentsupported specialist music schools located in Scotland – has announced the creation of two new vocal programmes for its pupils, for those aged between 13 and 15 and those between 15 and 19. St Mary’s, which also serves as the choir school for St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, has appointed mezzo-soprano Kate Aitken as Head of Voice, who will take charge of the senior programme.

‘The vocal department will have two parts initially. The changing voices programme, aimed at pupils aged 13 to 15 years old, is all about your confidence in using your voice. Girls’ voices break too, although in a

much smaller and less obvious way than boys’. Most young people’s early singing experience is a choral one, and what we’re doing here is starting them solo singing. It’s not about blending in with your peers, it’s about how you operate your own instrument efficiently. For young boys it is about keeping going through the break – we have a new teacher, Alexandra Wynne, who has worked at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and set up choirs in the Midlands, who specialises in that niche area of vocal development.’

Aitken has drawn on her own experience, coming to the opera world through music theatre, in crafting the new courses, and is determined to give the younger

generation a grounding in the skills she hadn’t had the opportunity to learn. ‘Fabulous singing lessons don’t necessarily make fabulous singers, because they don’t prepare you for going on to a conservatoire. I spent the first years of my undergraduate studies trying to work out how you take criticism in public without it destroying your confidence. At the moment our choristers finish at S2 [the equivalent of Years 8–9 in England], either auditioning as instrumentalists or going off to schools across Edinburgh. Now they will be able to stay at the school with voice as a first study.’

stmarysmusicschool.co.uk/ vocalprogramme

FIRST GIRL CHORISTERS AT ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL

On Sunday 30 June 2024, two girls from St Paul’s Cathedral School formally joined the St Paul’s Cathedral Choir as full choristers for the first time in its 900-year history. The service of Choral Evensong was the first time that Lila (11) and Lois (10) had sung with the Cathedral Choir as ‘made up’ Choristers, having passed their period as probationers.

The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally, said: ‘It is a great joy to welcome Lila and Lois into the Cathedral community. It was profoundly moving to see the culmination of their hard work, and God-given gifts on show, at the service on Sunday evening. I hope that Lila and Lois can be an inspiration to other young girls as to what can be achieved, in what is

a huge milestone in the 900year history of St Paul’s.’ Director of Music at St Paul’s Cathedral, Andrew Carwood MBE, added: ‘Lila and Lois have worked extremely hard in preparing for this day and we are delighted to welcome them to our musical family. I look forward to their bright futures in the Choir, which I’m delighted to see continuing to grow and flourish.’

NORTHERN IRELAND INTERNATIONAL ORGAN COMPETITION

Jan Liebermann, aged 18, from Germany, has won the 2024 Northern Ireland International Organ Competition (NIIOC), which took place in Armagh on 12–14 August. He was awarded £4,000 by the John Pilling Trust, five international recitals and a trophy presented by Neiland & Creane Organ Builders.

Liebermann is a student of Professor Gerhard Gnann at the Johannes Gutenberg University School of Music in Mainz, where he also studies organ improvisation with Lutz Brenner, having previously studied in Frankfurt with Professor Carsten Wiebusch.

His competition recital programme consisted of the Concert Overture in C minor by Alfred Hollins, the Adagio from J. S. Bach’s Toccata, Adagio and Fugue BWV 564, and the Prelude and Fugue in G minor, Op. 7 no. 3 by Marcel Dupré.

Second place (The David McElderry Award) was awarded to Daniel Colaner (19) from the USA, a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, who won £1,000 awarded by the McElderry family, and three public recitals. Colaner also won the Bach Prize and £300 for the performance of J. S. Bach’s Fugue in G minor, BWV 542 which opened his programme. He went on to perform the Andante Sostenuto from Widor’s Symphonie gothique, and Danse Diabolique by George Baker. Third place of £500 awarded by Wells-Kennedy Organ Builders and three public recitals went to Eben Eyres (20) from the UK, organ scholar at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, for his performance of J. S. Bach’s Fugue in E minor, BWV 548 and works by Gaston Litaize and Maurice Duruflé.

The Dame Gillian Weir Medal and £300 for the most outstanding

performance of a single work was awarded to Adam Suk (19) from the Czech Republic, for his performance of the Finale from Petr Eben’s Sunday Music. Tingshuo Yang, Joseph Hyam and Miriam Reveley, all from the UK, were Highly Commended.

Ludwig Emanuel Haenchen (16) from Germany, a student of the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig, won the Intermediate Category, for players of Grades 6–8 standard who have not yet gained an organ diploma. Second place went to Pascal Georges (15) from Germany, and third place went to Chamberlain Ofosu (14) from the UK; Gavin Phelps (15) from the UK was Highly Commended. Martin Droppa (15), from the Czech Republic, won the Junior Category, for players of Grades 4–5 standard, which took place in St Malachy’s, Armagh.

NIIOC 2024 winner

Jan Liebermann

Liam McArdle

The competition jury was chaired by the British concert organist Thomas Trotter. He was joined by the German organist Anna-Victoria Baltrusch, herself a winner of many prestigious competitions and currently Professor of Organ at the Evangelische Hochschule für Kirchenmusik in Halle, and by regular jury member David Hill, artistic director of the Bach Choir, London and of the Charles Wood Summer School, which runs concurrently with the organ competition, and former Principal Conductor of the Yale Schola Cantorum, Connecticut.

The Principal Funder of NIIOC was the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, through its National Lottery Fund. The competition was also funded by the Eric Thompson Trust for Organists and Organs.

Commenting on the standard of performing and on the jury’s decisions, Thomas Trotter said: ‘The NIIOC is a wonderful showcase for young organists and provides an effective entry point to the world of organ competitions without the stringent repertoire requirements. Apart from some general stipulations about repertoire it had no set works, so making comparisons between players could be challenging. But it was precisely for that reason that the sessions were so entertaining and at times very inspiring.

‘Jan Liebermann, winner of the Senior Category, displayed a maturity way beyond his years and was technically in command of

everything he played. Second prizewinner Daniel Colaner impressed us with his sensitivity and insightfulness coupled with a virtuoso technique. The Intermediate Category included a 12-year-old playing Bach’s fiendish Toccata in F! The winner, Ludwig Emanuel Haenchen, played from memory with impressive technique. A close second was Pascal Georges who played with such elegance and feeling for style.

The winner of the Junior Category, Martin Droppa, presented a beautifully articulated and rhythmic performance of a Bach concerto movement. Long may the NIIOC continue to thrive.’

Commenting on the experience, Liebermann said: ‘It is such a great honour to be awarded the first prize at this wonderful competition. I experienced the competition as very open-minded, and it was so great to have this cultivating exchange with all the different participants from all over the world, which is really enriching. I really like the organ, it’s a great instrument in Armagh [Church of Ireland Cathedral] and of course it is also a great pleasure to meet the jury and to have their feedback [on your performance].

‘I can highly recommend participating at the competition, even if you’re not winning a prize. it’s not always about the prize or the prestige, but to get to know a lot of different people. I think that this Northern Ireland International Organ Competition is the perfect place for widening your horizon.’

IN BRIEF …

Lincoln Cathedral has announced the launch of a new Pre-Probationer Programme specifically designed for children in years 1 and 2. The new scheme will give them the opportunity to experience the joys of being a chorister with a reduced set of responsibilities, paving the way for their future as full probationers and, ultimately, choristers. Participants will receive professional training during the week, focusing on singing and music theory, tailored to their age and skill level. Pre-probationers will automatically be eligible to join the cathedral’s lively Saturday morning singing group, Ready Steady Choir, an environment for young voices to grow and flourish.

Cathedral Music Trust Ambassador, Anna Lapwood MBE, was named Personality of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine award ceremony. Organist, conductor and social media sensation, and variously dubbed the ‘TikTok organist’ and ‘the Taylor Swift of classical music’, Lapwood has brought organ music to waves of new audiences with her prolific and hugely engaging social media presence, and has collaborated fruitfully with everyone from electronic artist Bonobo to actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Evangelical about bringing music to new audiences, Lapwood said, ‘There’s potential to reach young people just where they are spending their time, and to say, “You know what, I love this thing, you might love it too. Come along for the ride and let’s see what happens.”’

The principal prizewinners at NIIOC 2024

SALISBURY CATHEDRAL SCHOOL ORGAN SCHOLARSHIP

The Griffiths Chapel Organ Scholarship at Salisbury Cathedral School has welcomed its second pupil: Emma, aged 10, follows in the footsteps of Maksym, who began his scholarship in September 2023.

The scholarship carries a twenty per cent school fee remission, weekly organ lessons, and regular performance opportunities in the school chapel and local churches, as well as the possibility of playing the Father Willis organ in Salisbury Cathedral.

In keeping with its commitment to fostering equal musical opportunities, the Pipe Dreams campaign specifically raised money to provide two scholarship places, one for a boy and one for a girl.

The scholarship was instituted and founded by wife and husband Joanna Marsh and Paul Griffiths. Joanna Marsh is a British composer of choral and orchestral works, who won an Ivors Composer Award in 2022. Paul Griffiths FRCO is CEO of Dubai Airports and also a Vice President, and former Chairman, of the Board of Trustees of the Royal College of Organists.

Griffiths said, ‘My wife Joanna Marsh and myself have been keenly devoted to cathedral music for most of our lives and are motivated to perpetuate this wonderful tradition. We are keen to support the introduction of young people to the rewarding and beneficial study of the organ and all its repertoire.’

50 YEARS OF GIRLS AT LEICESTER

Leicester Cathedral Girls’ Choir held its first rehearsal in September 1974 under the direction of the then Assistant Master of the Music, Geoffrey Carter, becoming the first Church of England cathedral to have a female top line independent of the boys. To mark the golden anniversary of this historic event, the cathedral welcomed back former

members, staff, and choir parents from the past fifty years to a weekend of celebrations on 14 and 15 September, including a concert for the massed choral ranks with Katie Breathwick – Classic FM presenter and former Leicester Cathedral chorister – and a special service of Choral Evensong featuring a new commission from Cecilia McDowall.

RCO Play The Organ Year 2025

The Royal College of Organists has announced Play the Organ Year 2025, a new initiative designed to inspire a year-long effort by the whole organplaying community, not just to increase the number of people learning to play the organ, but

also the number enjoying live and recorded organ music. At the heart of Play the Organ Year will be an attempt to open the experience to as many people as possible: to encourage them to take a step towards the organ, to lay hands on it wherever possible, and to discover for the first time the unique and thrilling experience of playing this remarkable instrument. Anna Lapwood MBE, one of Cathedral Music Trust’s Ambassadors, is serving as Patron for Play the Organ Year 2025. rco.org.uk/play.php

EVENING SONGS AT SALISBURY

Six months of creative workshops and planning culminated in a joyous ‘Evening Songs’ service at Salisbury Cathedral on 2 July, in which students from Exeter House School with special educational needs and young adults from Able Hands Together community farm collaborated with choristers from the cathedral to devise new words and melodies for the traditional Evensong service. The scheme first ran in 2016, then again in 2019. Each manifestation takes place in three creative stages: small-group workshops at the start of the year, followed by rehearsals in the early spring, and in April when

students and Cathedral choristers came together to devise the central part of the service.

David Halls, Director of Music at Salisbury Cathedral, said: ‘Evening Songs spreads the good news about the healing and restorative power which making music together provides, and it is so appropriate that this special project culminates in an act of worship in the breathtaking space of Salisbury Cathedral. Once again it has been a privilege to see the results of what the Cathedral choristers and pupils from Exeter House have created together.’

GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL RECEIVES £1M TOWARDS ORGAN REFURBISHMENT

The Julia Rausing Trust has donated £1 million to Gloucester Cathedral to fund the refurbishment of its organ. Originally constructed in 1666 by Thomas Harris, the organ has a significant history and features the only complete seventeenthcentury cathedral organ case in the country. It has been associated with many illustrious musicians, including Sir Herbert Brewer, John Stafford Smith and Ivor Novello.

The restored organ will be central to the cathedral’s new outreach programme, which will aim to bring the joy of singing and music to school children throughout Gloucestershire, with access to workshops and performances at the cathedral. The grant will help the cathedral to achieve these

ambitions, inspiring the next generation of musicians and opening the doors to the cathedral’s musical tradition. It will also help to fund a new organ scholarship.

The donation comes after The Julia and Hans Rausing Trust provided support for the conservation of Gloucester Cathedral’s cloister in 2022. The Very Reverend Andrew Zihni, Dean of Gloucester said: ‘We are incredibly grateful for this generous donation in memory of Julia Rausing, whose legacy will echo through the magnificent sound of the new cathedral organ. Music has long been a central part of Gloucester Cathedral’s mission and the restored organ will bring joy to our communities as we expand our musical outreach.’

St Thomas’s, Fifth Avenue Choir School at risk

The choir school and music programme at Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue in New York are facing an uncertain future. A message sent earlier this year by the Rector, the Reverend Canon Carl F. Turner, to the wider St Thomas’s community revealed that the costs of music at the church had risen to unsustainable levels. ‘Our music program now accounts for almost half of our operating budget,’ Turner wrote, ‘and 89% of the cost of running the school comes from invested funds and the annual appeal. The general fund has now depleted to a point of critical concern and the Vestry has advised the Choir School Board of Trustees that the current Choir School is at risk of closure.’ In the immediate future, two taskforces have been set up to explore new financial models and to manage communications on the process, and the Vestry and the Board of St Thomas’s have committed to maintaining the choir school in its current form until June 2025.

Oldest known cathedral choir recording rediscovered

The earliest known recording of a cathedral choir singing in its own cathedral has been rediscovered.

The 12-inch shellac record features Rochester Cathedral Choir singing the Magnificat from Stanford’s Evening Service in B flat on one side, and the hymn ‘All people that on earth do dwell’ on the other side of the record.

The cathedral choir was conducted by Charles Hylton Stewart, Organist and Master of the Choristers from 1916 to 1930. The organist in the recording is the composer Percy Whitlock, who had been a chorister at the Cathedral from 1911 to 1918 and then was Assistant Organist from 1920 to 1930.

In 1926, Columbia Records sent technicians down to Rochester Cathedral, who set up electronic microphones to capture the sound of the choir; this recording was transferred, live, by telephone lines to the Columbia Studio in Westminster.

150-YEAR-OLD ORGAN RESTORED TO FORMER GLORY

The organ of St Mary’s Church in Steeple Ashton, Wiltshire is being fully restored to its original decoration and design. Having undergone a restoration in 2012 to make the organ functional, the church has since been raising funds to fully restore it visually to its original form at a total cost of £70,000.

Two specialist restoration artists currently working on the organ said: ‘You want to fulfil the design that was actually there. You want it to be perfect, to recreate it just as they did

originally.’ The artists, Robert Woodland MBE and Debra Miller, are part of The Upright Gilders, an organ restoration company that single-handedly restored the organ of Leeds Town Hall in 2023 and that of York Minster in 2018. The money to restore the organ of St Mary’s was left by a late resident of Steeple Ashton, whose widow continued to raise money after his death. The church also has its own charitable preservation trust which can raise more funds if required.

NEW ORGAN FOR GONVILLE & CAIUS

Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge has commissioned a new organ for the chapel from Frobenius Orgelbyggeri, Denmark.

The new instrument will have thirty-nine speaking stops spread over three manuals, with mechanical key action and electric stop action. Construction will commence early in 2027 and the organ will be delivered and installed during the summer of 2028.

The pipes of St Mary’s, Steeple Ashton are being restored to their original decoration

APPEAL FOR FUNDS TO REPAIR UNION CHAPEL ORGAN

London’s Union Chapel has suspended its organ activities due to the discovery of a dangerous crack. As a result of extreme fluctuations in temperature and humidity, the Swell section of Union Chapel’s organ has sustained a significant crack, making that part of the instrument unplayable. Despite the organ undergoing regular surveys and upkeep (including a complete restoration in 2012–13 by organ builders Harrison and Harrison), the nineteenth-century Father Willis instrument is incredibly vulnerable. The main factors contributing to the damage are the building temperature dramatically dropping during the forced closure during the pandemic, followed by the increasingly dry hot summers. Included in the proposed

restoration will be the installation of a humidifier in order to combat the extreme changes in weather now occurring more often.

Music Director Claire Singer said of the damage: ’It is heartbreaking to see our historic gem suffer damage from the period when I was unable to monitor conditions so closely. After pausing the organ programme this year to concentrate on submitting urgent funding applications, we now desperately need help from the public to make sure we can proceed with the repair.’

As of mid-October, the chapel had raised nearly £72,000 of the £130,000 needed for the repair. A link to donate can be found on the Union Chapel website.

JAMES MACMILLAN AWARDED IVORS ACADEMY FELLOWSHIP

Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan has been named as the recipient of the prestigious Academy Fellowship by The Ivors Academy. Regarded as the highest accolade bestowed by The Ivors, the Academy Fellowship recognises exceptional compositional prowess, profound impact, and enduring musical legacy. The award was given to Sir James at the Barbican on the evening of 15 March, where he conducted the UK premiere of his latest work, Fiat Lux, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. With a collection of over 200 works, Sir James MacMillan has solidified his status as one of the most successful contemporary composers and his influence extends beyond his compositions, having founded The Cumnock Tryst music festival in his hometown in Scotland in 2014, which aims to foster musical creativity and community engagement. Speaking to Choir & Organ magazine, MacMillan said ‘It was a delight and an honour to hear about the award ... when I saw the list of previous Fellows, it’s an amazing array of some of the most wonderful names, not just in classical music, but right across the musical world.’ The Ivors Academy Fellowship, established in 2000, has recognised 25 musicians and composers for their excellence and impact in music creation. The illustrious list of Fellows includes iconic figures such as Sir John Rutter, Sir Elton John and Annie Lennox.

Union Chapel

IAN KEATLEY (1982–2024)

Cathedral Music Trust was shocked and saddened to hear of the sudden passing of Ian Keatley, who collapsed while on holiday and died, at the age of just 42. He was Director of Music at Southwark Cathedral from 2019 until his death, having previously been Organ Scholar between 2002 and 2004. He was responsible for the direction of the cathedral’s music at daily choral services and other performances including concerts, broadcasts, recordings and tours. Prior to this, he held roles at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, Westminster Abbey Choir School, the Chapels Royal at HM Tower of London, Croydon Minster and Wells Cathedral.

The Trust had the privilege of working closely with Ian on a number of occasions where his outstanding leadership always ensured wonderful and uplifting musical performances. He was a loyal and generous supporter of our mission to transform lives through cathedral music.

Jonathan Macdonald, Chair of Cathedral Music Trust, writes: ‘Ian is a huge loss, not only to Southwark but also to the world of cathedral

music. He was a wonderful musician, choirmaster, organist and friend of the Trust. Ian leaves behind an inspiring legacy that will help sustain our great choral tradition for years to come.’

Ian’s funeral took place at St George’s, Belfast, on 23 August; a Service of Thanksgiving for his life will take place at Southwark Cathedral on St Cecilia’s Day, 22 November, at 5.30pm in the context of Choral Evensong.

‘Ian is a huge loss, not only to Southwark but also to the world of cathedral music. He leaves behind an inspiring legacy’

Nick Rutter

IVAN MOODY (1964–2024)

The composer, conductor, priest, musicologist and writer Ivan Moody has died aged 59.

Born in London in 1964, Moody studied music and theology at the universities of London, Joensuu (Finland) and York, where he completed his doctorate. Among his teachers had been Sir John Tavener and, like him, Moody was powerfully drawn to the music, spirituality and liturgy of the Orthodox Church – whose music and faith was to play a foundational part in his own compositions and life.

His substantial body of music includes such works and collaborations as the oratorio Passion and Resurrection (1992), based on Orthodox liturgical texts and premiered by Red Byrd and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under Tõnu Kaljuste, Canticum Canticorum I for the Hilliard Ensemble, and Prayer for the Forests which won the Arts for the Earth Festival Prize, and was premiered by the Tapiola Choir in Finland. Later works have been premiered or championed by groups and artists including Raphael Wallfisch (a cello concerto), Trio Mediæval, The Tallis Scholars, Chanticleer and Cappella Romana, with ECM among labels to have released his music.

Reviewing a recording of his work Simeron for Gramophone in 2014, Alexandra Coghlan caught the influences that shaped his music-

making here and elsewhere, describing it as ‘typical of the composer’s recent work – a distillation and crystallisation of a style that has become ever cleaner and more texturally refined. Setting the Greek text of the Byzantine Holy Week Rite and a sermon by Bishop Melito of Sardis, the work finds a harmonic astringency to balance its yielding, unbending instinct to melody. Chant meets human cries, ecstatic chorales break through scuttling chromatics in a performance whose precision and restraint only heighten its intensity.’

Moody held various academic posts, including Professor of Church Music at the University of Eastern Finland from 2012 to 2014, and worked extensively as a conductor.

A one-time member of the choir of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in London, he subsequently served as cantor in both Greek and Bulgarian parishes in Lisbon. In 2007 he was ordained to the priesthood, becoming rector of the Serbian Orthodox Parish of the Transfiguration in Estoril, Portugal.

Writing and teaching widely, he contributed for a number of years to titles including Choir & Organ and Gramophone, writing on choral music across the full breadth of eras and styles from Hildegard von Bingen to Tavener and beyond, as well as writing on contemporary music more broadly.

FRANCIS O’GORMAN (1967–2024)

The death has been announced of Professor Francis O’Gorman, Editor of Organists’ Review. A world-renowned authority on English literature of the long nineteenth century, he was also a prolific writer on music, as well as being an accomplished organist. O’Gorman was Saintsbury Professor of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh from 2016 until 2022, and was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Historical Society. He was organ scholar at Lady Margaret Hall (LMH), Oxford, where he also directed the choir, achieving a double first and winning the Violet Vaughan Morgan Prize; he later completed his DPhil at LMH. O’Gorman held lectureships at Pembroke and Westminster colleges in Oxford, before holding a personal chair in Victorian literature at the University of Leeds between 2006 and 2016.

TIMOTHY DUDLEYSMITH (1926–2024)

There can scarcely be a church or cathedral musician in the UK and further afield who has not, at some point in their lives, sung words written by The Right Reverend Timothy DudleySmith, the former suffragan Bishop of Thetford in the diocese of Norwich between 1981 and 1991.

The author of over 400 hymns – including ‘Tell out, my soul’ and ‘Lord, for the years’ – Dudley-Smith wrote in his 2017 book on hymnwriting, A Functional Art, that ‘Not all our hymn texts will be, or even should be, Rolls-Royces, but they should all be decently roadworthy, and as true to Scripture, as free from blemish, as carefully constructed, as appealing to the imagination, heart, and will, and as user-friendly as we can make them.’

He read mathematics at Pembroke College, Cambridge, before training for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge.

Dudley-Smith first began writing hymns while on family holidays in Cornwall; when asked by a colleague in 1960 if he had anything suitable for inclusion in a forthcoming hymnbook, he proffered ‘Tell out, my soul’, the success of which acted as a spur to his efforts. In 2003 he was appointed OBE for services to hymn writing.

Dudley-Smith was extremely modest about his achievements, professing to be ‘totally unmusical; I can’t sing in tune and often change key without knowing it. Hymn writing has been a most enriching and entirely unexpected gift.’

DOMINIC GWYNN (1953–2024)

For nearly fifty years Dominic Gwynn made an outstanding contribution as an organ builder and has left us with many pages of pioneering scholarship. He imperceptibly merged practice and research thanks to his excellent mechanical skills and great intellectual acumen. A craftsman who enjoyed playing a part in a team, Gwynn found himself at the forefront of the nation’s organ builders, and was a familiar face of his industry at home and overseas. He also played important roles in the evolution of the British Institute of Organ Studies and the Institute of British Organ Building.

Gwynn was a pupil at Christ’s Hospital, and a school trip to Holland to see historical organs set the ball rolling. After studying Modern History at St John’s College, Oxford, he commenced his organ-building work with Hendrik ten Bruggencate in 1976. With Martin Goetze, he founded the firm Goetze & Gwynn in 1980. The aim was to work with a small team of committed builders, who were flexible and proficient in a complete range of skills. Gwynn and Goetze (who died in 2015) were also

keen to nurture the next generation. They were kindred spirits. That Goetze possessed (to use Gwynn’s words) a curiosity that ‘extended well beyond the areas needed to produce a good result’, is a description of Gwynn too. The two of them were not just skilled craftsmen, but could also see a larger picture and developed a taste and aesthetic hinterland of their own. They (and later with Edward Bennett) had an interest in the revival of the early and classical English organ. The firm has now carried out around 130 projects, one third of them new organs based on historic models, and the rest restorations, from clockwork barrel organs to large three-manual organs. Of these, the restored instruments at St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, St James’s, Bermondsey, St Botolph’s, Aldgate, and Thaxted Parish Church provide but a small, exemplary sample. Such restorations have provided musicians with access to traditional British organs and associated repertoire on a once undreamt-of scale.

Gwynn is inextricably linked to the reconstructions of three Tudor church organs, all based on early-

sixteenth-century fragments (two soundboards) found in Suffolk that are basically all that remain of such very early organs. They needed a speculative but credible interpretation in order to realise an instrument-type which could only ever be glimpsed in ambiguous documentation. Gwynn’s painstaking research and his examination of the oldest extant English metal pipework, and winding systems and key actions from France and Spain, allowed this to come to fruition.

In a typically thoughtful essay, Gwynn commented that ‘at its best the craft of organ-building has a human being close to the limits of his or her craftsmanship’. He was intrigued by this challenge, and engaged with traditional materials and practices to experience the frisson of working to a limit. In recognition of his distinguished achievement, the RCO Medal was awarded to him in March. Gwynn was a transformative presence in our world and many will miss his insightfulness and eloquence. Perhaps most of all we shall miss his modesty, kindness, and gentleness. Andrew McCrea

PEOPLE & PLACES

We offer our congratulations to the following people, who are on the move

David Francis has been announced as the new CEO of the Three Choirs Festival. Francis is relocating from Australia, where he is currently CEO of Wollongong Conservatorium of Music.

Benjamin Mills has been appointed Assistant Organist of Durham Cathedral and Director of Music of St John’s College, Durham University; he will also support students of Cranmer Hall in developing their musical skills.

Robin Shakespeare is the new Organ Scholar at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin and Organist at the King’s Hospital School; they recently graduated with first-class honours in Music from Durham.

Dr Emma Gibbins has been appointed Director of Music at Chelmsford Cathedral. In charge at Newport Cathedral from 2015, she was formerly Director of Music at St George’s, Belfast.

Oliver Morrell is moving from St Albans Cathedral, where he has been Organ Scholar since 2022, to take up the position of SubOrganist at Winchester Cathedral. He graduated in 2021 with firstclass honours from Durham.

Peter Holder has been appointed Organist and Official Student (Tutorial Fellow) at Christ Church Oxford; he moves from Westminster Abbey, where he has been Sub-Organist since 2017.

James Orford has been appointed Organist at St Paul’s Cathedral in London; he joins from St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, where he is Organist and Assistant Director of Music, and is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Caroline Slade (left) and Jonathan Pinto (centre) have joined the Diocese of Sheffield as Choral Directors, and Billie Robson (right) has joined the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton as Choral Director; all three appointments have been made in conjunction with the National Schools Singing Programme, allowing Sheffield and Arundel cathedrals to extend musical opportunities to children in local primary schools.

EVENTS

Don’t miss the opportunity to join a Cathedral Music Trust gathering near you

SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2024

St Bartholomew the Great Festival Gathering

Book now for a joint gathering of Cathedral Music Trust and the Prayer Book Society; the day’s schedule includes a service of Choral Mattins sung by the Choir of St Bartholomew the Great, talks from Rupert Gough (Director of Music, St Bartholomew the Great) and Thomas Allery (Director of Music, The Temple Church), tours of the church, an organ recital by James Norrey (Assistant Director of Music, St Bartholomew the Great), a service of Choral Evensong and a farewell wine reception in the cloisters.

N.B. Tickets are limited for this event; sales end at 10am on 9 November.

TUESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2024

Annual Friends’ Meeting

Friends and Patrons of Cathedral Music Trust are invited to join members of our board, committees and staff team for our Annual

Friends’ Meeting, starting at 6.30pm.

This is a chance to gather online to celebrate this year’s achievements and hear some of our plans. We will also present the Sibthorp Prize, recognising the outstanding work of one of our volunteers, and there will be a Q&A with members of the Cathedral Music Trust teams.

N.B. This is a free event. The meeting will take place online; in order to receive log-in details for the meeting, please register on our website.

MONDAY 16 DECEMBER 2024

Cathedral Music Quizmas

Join Alexander Armstrong online for our annual festive quiz and test your knowledge against some of the brightest minds in the choral and organ world, starting at 7.30pm.

N.B. This is a free event; to join us, please register on our website.

SUNDAY 23 MARCH 2025

Blackburn Local Gathering

Save the date for a service of Choral

Evensong at Blackburn Cathedral, which will be followed by a talk and an organ recital.

FRIDAY 16–SUNDAY 18 MAY 2025

North-East National Gathering

The Spring 2025 National Gathering will be jointly hosted by Newcastle Cathedral, Durham Cathedral, and Hexham Abbey, taking advantage of the proximity of these three ancient places of worship.

FRIDAY 3–SUNDAY 5 OCTOBER 2025

Canterbury National Gathering

Our Autumn 2025 National Gathering will take place at Canterbury Cathedral; join us for a long weekend of choral services, recitals, talks, and tours over the course of the three days.

For more information or to book, visit cathedralmusictrust.org.uk/events, email info@cathedralmusictrust.org.uk, or call 020 3151 6096 (Monday–Friday, 9am–4pm).

Durham Cathedral will be one of the venues for Cathedral Music Trust’s Spring 2025 National Gathering

Matthew Buck

AWARD RECIPIENTS

IN SUPPORT OF EXCELLENCE

As a Friend or Patron of Cathedral Music Trust, your generosity allows us to make awards to support the music-making of cathedrals and churches in the UK and Republic of Ireland. In 2023 the Trust made thirty-three awards totalling nearly £500,000; some of last year’s recipients discuss their impact

By ADRIAN HORSEWOOD

Hexham Abbey received a grant of £13,000 to support core music department costs, including choral and organ scholarships and junior choristers

‘We really pride ourselves on our inclusivity,’ says Michael Haynes, Director of Music at Hexham Abbey. ‘We have a close connection between the Abbey and the town, and being given the chance to strengthen our chorister and scholarship offerings has made that connection even stronger.’

Cath Newson, Fundraising and Community Engagement Manager at the Abbey – and also mother to a former chorister – adds that having the funds to advertise for musicians to work alongside Haynes as Assistant Organist or Assistant Director of Music has made a significant difference to the whole music department.

‘It allows us to develop the very high standard of training that you see at cathedrals,’ says Newson. ‘We’ve historically been very good at recruiting choristers and retaining them until their teenage years – now this grant allows us to increase what we can offer them, to attract them to stay and sing with us for longer, which gives quality and breadth to the choir.

‘Recruitment is never a walk in the park, but with the Trust’s help we’re feeling very positive about the future.

‘We’ve been able to offer two free singing lessons with a local teacher each term to

HEXHAM

ABBEY

Hexham Abbey

each member of the choir, and we’ve seen a high uptake across the board from those aged six all the way through to school leavers, which has been great.

‘Other opportunities have included workshops with The Sixteen [pictured above] and with local professional choirs –and we’ve seen that having our choirs sing next to professionals ups everyone’s game.’

Haynes and Newson emphasise that being able to offer an active social side to being a chorister and choral or organ scholar at Hexham is vital to recruitment.

‘Tours, too, are so crucial,’ says Newson. ‘We’ve just come back from Beverley, taking a group whose ages ranged from six to eighty-five – giving them the chance to sing in different churches just elevates everything and increases the cohesion of the group.

‘It was also great to see the different groups and generations bonding in downtime. We made a real point that our tours are inclusive and that nobody is excluded – the grant allowed us to offer bursaries to take part without any singling out or discrimination.

‘The life skills and confidence that young people gain through the choir are so valuable – not only musically, but personally.

It’s a welcoming, non-judgemental space, and we saw the benefits of that on the tour when one chorister felt comfortable enough to ask publicly to be referred to as ‘they/ them’ – the fact that they chose that group of people to confide in was very moving.’

The Hexham Abbey choir is a visible presence around the town, and will be taking an active role in upcoming Christmas celebrations. ‘We sing for the town-wide Christmas Fayre, both inside and outside,’ says Haynes. ‘Last year we had over one thousand people come through the doors of the Abbey, which is in marked contrast to the twenty or so we usually get for Evensong on a Sunday!

‘What’s continually rewarding is that you can see the foundations being laid for a lifelong love of music – the fellowship, the confidence you gain. The joy of the choir is that trebles aren’t sent packing when their voices change; nurturing teenagers here has been one of the main joys over the years.’

St Thomas-on-The Bourne Church received a Church Choir Award of £5,000 to support the costs of producing a recruitment video, funding a vocal coach, and contributing to the tour fund

‘We’ve had a really great year, thanks to the grant from Cathedral Music Trust,’ enthuses Jordan Theis, who has been Director of Music at St Thomas-on-The Bourne since January 2022.

‘Our main goal was to make a new video to aid our recruitment, something I can show in assemblies when I visit local schools, rather than having me stand up and talk at the children – the impact is so much greater if they can see and hear something, and it has also been a hit with parents, some of whom may not have been aware of what being in a choir actually involves. We’re very lucky to have strong numbers at the moment, but recruitment is always difficult, and we rely a lot on word of mouth.’

What being in the choir at St Thomas does involve is two one-hour rehearsals in the week followed by a Sunday service, with

roughly twenty girls and twelve boys alternating and always singing with adult lower voices.

Guiding these young voices through their choir workload and periods of voice changes is a new vocal coach. ‘It’s terrifically helpful to have someone else who isn’t me working with the singers, as they get enough of that already! It’s vital for us to let them know that we care about their development over the long-term, and want to give them a good technical grounding early on. It’s not quite the same as having regular singing lessons, which is something we hope to provide in future, but knowing that I can send someone for a twenty-minute session to work on vocal problems or technique is a great help.’

The choir has just come back from a summer tour to Paris, where it gave concerts to full houses in Saint-Sulpice and La Madeleine and sang a service in the American Church. ‘The funding from the Trust allowed us to match donations to the tour fund, which meant that more families could take part, especially those with multiple children in the choir.

‘I really would encourage other parishes to apply for this kind of funding – it’s there to support your ideas, your imagination, and it connects you to a large network of support.’

ST THOMAS-ON-THE BOURNE

St Thomas-on-The-Bourne

Bradford Cathedral received a grant of £15,000 to develop the Schools Outreach Programme and support the salary of the Assistant Director of Music

When we speak, Graham Thorpe is basking in the glow of some unexpected publicity for the choir of Bradford Cathedral, where he has been Director of Music since September 2023: an online comment about the difficulties of chorister recruitment was picked up by various media outlets and he has had a number of enquries since.

‘It’s very gratifying, actually, as like many provincial cathedrals we don’t have a choir school – our choristers come from schools all across Bradford. We probably see between 2,500 and 3,000 children in years 2 to 6 each year across twenty to thirty schools – we run workshops, hoping to inspire them to come to an open day.

‘Sadly, it has been decreasingly successful over the years: in 2019 we had 180 children sign up, of whom 100 actually turned up, and from whom we invited 10 to join as probationers.

‘The generous grant from Cathedral Music Trust has allowed us to employ a Music Education officer at the cathedral, which is a new role, and she has been in touch with dozens of primary schools and other organisations, with the aim of setting up regular weekly singing classes in schools. The uptake might be slow at the moment, but we feel positive that our new model will bear fruit soon.’

The hope is that by targeting younger school year groups – starting with years 3 and 4 – the cathedral will be able to provide a consistency of teaching experience that the children will be able to build on as they grow older. ‘Our vision is to have regular classes with project work – for example productions of pieces like Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo – where we teach a work to children in three or four schools, then invite them all into the cathedral at the end of term. Key to this is getting the parents in as well, to persuade them that choristership is worth carrying on with in terms of the time commitment and the bus fares.’

Thorpe is also being helped in this aim by his recently-appointed Assistant Director of Music, Anthony Gray (pictured), and by a new choir matron, positions that are also being funded by the Trust’s grant.

‘Another key part of our outreach is our back row singers, not least because they act as superb role models for the choristers. Being where we are, we’ve had to design our lay clerkships differently partly out of necessity, in order to attract singers of the right calibre. We sing four services a week and can’t offer as high a salary as other cathedrals, so the funding from the Trust has allowed us to increase this by incorporating an element of outreach and mentoring into the positions – and we’ve been able to advertise for and successfully hire new alto and tenor lay clerks, and are re-opening the advertisement for a new bass.’

Newcastle Cathedral received a revenue grant and the Edington Festival Award, totalling £21,500, to support the Organ and Choral Scholars and singing and music theory lessons for the choristers

Ian Roberts, Director of Music at Newcastle Cathedral, is open regarding the difficulties that he faces in attracting singers and organists to the North East.

‘We’re sometimes lucky in that we occasionally get fantastic singers who have moved up here for other reasons, and then apply to join the choir as a lay clerk, but as one of the smaller cathedrals we don’t have as well-remunerated a package to compete with other places.

‘What the grants from Cathedral Music Trust and the Edington Festival have done is allow us, in particular, to bump up the choral scholar salary, which has meant that we’ve been able to double our usual intake of scholars from three to six.

‘It’s also an important thing in terms of setting up a pathway for the future, in that the lay clerks of the future – whether here at

Newcastle or elsewhere – begin as choristers and choral scholars.

‘In fact, one of our current lay clerks first arrived as a scholar and ended up never leaving – he now does a lot of work in local schools for us – and we’ve just welcomed another lay clerk who was supported by the Trust’s funding as a choral scholar. It really helps to increase the pool of singers available in the local area.’

Another area in which the choral scholars contribute back is in helping out with the various groups that rehearse during the week at the cathedral.

‘We offer quite a mixed menu of choirs and ensembles as our boys and girls don’t all go to the same school; this also means that rehearsal time is shorter compared to other cathedrals, and so the support of the scholars is invaluable.

‘There are normally six Choral Evensongs each week, shared among groups including the Cathedral Consort (in which the choral scholars act as section leaders) and Cambiata Voices for changing voices, which has choral scholars acting as mentors. Cambiata Voices is a real example of “small beginnings”, in that originally there were only four members, but very soon they were able to sing for an Evensong with the tenor and bass lay clerks.

Newcastle

Cathedral/Raoul Dixon, North News

‘Extending our scholarships offering will also help, we hope, to foster our relationships with local universities: we often have singers who are studying at Newcastle and Durham (three of our scholars were there last year), and are hoping to attract some from Northumbria University, which established its music department three years ago.

‘In terms of sustaining our scholars after the grant runs out, we’ve established a relationship with a church in the city that wanted to build on their own choral scholar programme by increasing their numbers on Sundays; they usually have four, and we supplement this by lending some of our scholars on the occasional Sunday in a year; in return, the church contributes towards our choral scholar scheme.’

Newcastle has struck lucky with its organ scholarship, too: James Watson started in September 2023, supported by Cathedral Music Trust. ‘James came as a first year studying music at Newcastle – in fact, it was the first time we’d ever advertised for an organ scholar! He was interested in other universities but chose Newcastle because of what we could offer him here.

‘Having James on board means that we can more easily rehearse other groups while Evensong is taking place – beforehand, my Assistant Director of Music often had to direct Evensong on his own, either unaccompanied or conducting from the organ. It really allows us to sustain the schedule of seven services per week, and gives us a lot of flexibility.’

The Edington Festival Award was directed towards funding chorister singing lessons, and these are already beginning to have positive results. ‘Since the Covid pandemic, we needed a new chorister singing teacher. It’s hard to find teachers in the North East who can work with choristers in the way we need – boys and girls, children with changing voices. We had found a teacher who worked online during Covid, Jane Emmanuel, who is based in Cambridgeshire – she comes up several times a year, but otherwise teaches by video call, which was a boon in lockdown periods. Having someone with this flexibility means that lessons can take place during the evening when the choristers are at home, and it means I can “sit in” on lessons if needed.

‘The Award allowed us to keep the lessons available for all our choristers, which was particularly important as we attract choristers from a wide range of backgrounds, especially less affluent areas of the city; their parents can’t necessarily afford private lessons, so we need to keep things accessible and fair.

‘One of our former girl choristers came back to sing the solos in Bach’s St John Passion on Palm Sunday – she had only received lessons through the cathedral, not privately, and it was clear that the technical work she’d done with Jane had stood her in good stead and set her up well for the profession.’

For more information on the Trust’s grant programmes and on recipients of awards, visit www.cathedralmusictrust.org.uk/programmes

BELOW Participants at the first Small Sounds training days

MAKING A BIG NOISE ABOUT SMALL SOUNDS

Cathedral Music Trust’s Programmes Director introduces the Trust’s new early years initiative

By CATHY DEW

This autumn sees the launch of Small Sounds, Cathedral Music Trust’s initiative to establish music groups for children aged 0 to 5 in cathedral settings. Five cathedrals – Chester, Derby, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Rochester – are taking part in the pilot programme, with a further seven scheduled to start in September 2025. All the cathedrals involved are running weekly, free drop-in music sessions for babies, toddlers and pre-school children, alongside their parents or carers. The emphasis is on making music together, with the leaders focusing as much on empowering the adults to sing with their children as on developing the musicality of the children themselves.

According to Professor Chris Pascal, Director of the Centre for Research in Early Childhood, children who engage in the arts are happier, healthier and do better in school. Evidence suggests that musical activities assist language development, and shared

music-making strengthens the bond between child and parent. At a time when 20% of two-year-olds in the UK are not reaching the expected level of development and one in five women struggle with mental health during or just after pregnancy, there are important social reasons for providing musical activities for children and their carers. Equally important, though, is the sometimesoverlooked fact that babies and toddlers are ‘ripe and ready’ to develop the skills that form the foundations of musicianship. Research demonstrates that aural perception begins at approximately five months’ gestation, so it is never too soon to engage babies and children in music-making. By working with children under the age of five, our cathedral musicians are developing the choristers of the future. I have personal experience of this. I witnessed my own son, who took part in baby music activities from birth (and barely missed a week of the wonderful early years music group at Norwich Cathedral), find his singing voice, learn to pitch-match and develop a deep-rooted sense of pulse and rhythm. He went on to enjoy six years as a chorister and, since leaving the choir, shows a dedicated commitment to composition and his instrumental studies. The fact that a number of other children who attended the group have developed into fine young musicians (not all of them from ‘musical’ families) has convinced me that choristers are ‘made not born’. Young children who have frequent, positive experiences of high-quality musicmaking have the potential to develop the enthusiasm and aptitude that directors of music are looking for in their new recruits. The cathedrals that have joined our pilot programme are ‘in it for the long haul’. The Trust is focusing on getting the start right, so

that cathedral music departments can embed early years music into their core activities. Our programme, therefore, has begun with training. The music leaders from the participating cathedrals have taken part in a residential programme, led by experts from The Family Music Hub, which is being extended through online training sessions throughout the pilot. All the participants in the training programme are, of course, excellent musicians, but not many of them had prior experience of working with early years children and families. As well as introducing appropriate repertoire and ways to bring it to life, the training has explored the dynamic between child, parent and music leader and how to utilise this to create a positive learning environment for all. One participant remarked, ‘This reshaped the way I thought about child and parent behaviours, gaining a deeper appreciation for the complexities behind a child’s actions and the reasons behind a parent’s response. It highlighted the need for empathy [and] understanding in every situation, thinking about the underlying factors that might be influencing their actions.’

Alongside training, Cathedral Music Trust has provided a comprehensive set of resources for each cathedral. These range from instruments for tiny hands to endearing puppets and stretchy fabric, through which children can feel the pulse as it is moved in time to the music.

It is important that Small Sounds is not simply a children’s music group that happens to take place in a cathedral, but becomes a valued part of the cathedral’s musical community. To this end, the Trust is funding special ‘meet the musicians’ sessions, at which children and carers will be introduced

‘Young children who have frequent, positive experiences of high-quality music-making have the potential to develop the enthusiasm and aptitude that directors of music are looking for in their new recruits’

to other members of the music department, such as organists, lay clerks and choristers, hear them perform and take part in activities that involve them in the music-making.

As all musicians know, the learning that really ‘sticks’ comes with repeated practice. This is equally true for early childhood music-making. ‘Little and often’ is the key to success and children consolidate their learning if they sing and play musical games frequently at home. To facilitate this, the Trust has created Small Sounds ‘song sacks’. At each session, the participating families will be given a card featuring a colourful picture on one side and a song on the other, alongside a QR code that links to an audio recording. Families will collect a different song card each week and will receive a drawstring bag to hold their cards. As well as encouraging regular attendance, the song sacks act as an aide memoire for adults and help build their confidence to continue singing at home.

Small Sounds represents the first departure into the field of early years music for both Cathedral Music Trust and the participating cathedrals. We plan to expand this model and are carrying out a thorough evaluation of the pilot. It will, of course, be several years before any participating children are old enough to take their places in the front rows of our cathedral choirs, but, wherever their interests take them, we feel excited and proud to be sharing their first steps on a lifelong journey of musical discovery.

Cathedral Music Trust is continuing to raise funds for Small Sounds. If you are keen to support this valuable work, or to learn more, visit cathedralmusictrust.org.uk/ programmes/small-sounds/

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

Adrian Green founded Convivium Records in 2009 and since then has produced or engineered nearly 100 discs; he reveals the delights and challenges of recording

By ADRIAN HORSEWOOD

It's not easy to pin down Adrian Green, the founder and managing director of Convivium Records. As well as overseeing the label’s activities (Convivium has released over one hundred commercial albums and counting), he is a freelance tenor soloist, a lay clerk at Portsmouth Cathedral, and he runs the choir’s musical outreach programme, Cathedral Sing!

But when we manage to settle on a time and date, Green has plenty to say about his career path, mixing anecdotes with talking enthusiastically about the role of a record label in the twenty-fi rst century.

‘My background was originally as a professional choral singer – I studied at Royal Holloway and sang in the Chapel Choir there under Rupert Gough, and then came to Portsmouth in 2007 as a choral scholar, before being appointed as a permanent lay clerk. I’d decided at the age of ten that I wanted to be a singer; I attended a fantastic independent boys’ school – St James’s School in London – where all the children had to sing, and I had the chance to sing some of the solos in Messiah as part of a full school performance, which got me hooked.

‘Around the same time I was also beginning to dabble with sound equipment, and I acquired my first microphones; funnily enough, one of my classmates from the age of five was Adaq Khan, who is now one of the top sound engineers in the country and is still a good friend.

‘I then spent my gap year teaching in a primary school in Australia, which is where my love of music education was really born.’

Green’s fascination with recording continued while studying music at Royal Holloway, where he took modules in music technology along the way and made rudimentary recordings of various student choirs and vocal ensembles.

This preparation all stood him in good stead when he arrived at Portsmouth, where he made the first ever recording on his specially-created label, Convivium.

‘I engineered and produced CR001, Sing to the Lord, with Portsmouth Cathedral Choir across two sets of sessions, in November 2008 and January 2009.

‘Portsmouth Cathedral is really three distinct spaces, each with its own individual acoustic: St Thomas’s Chapel dates from the 1100s, the quire from the 1600s, and the nave

LEFT George Richford conducts the Choir of Romsey Abbey in a recording session for the album The Tudor Choir Book Volume II at Romsey Abbey, June 2017

Mike Cooter

was completed in the 1900s. Each space has its own distinctive acoustic, so we recorded different parts and combinations of the choir in different parts of the building, to see what worked best where.’

As the record label took off and Green took on more projects, he soon realised that he needed to prioritise where to concentrate his energies.

‘In the early days, from 2009 to 2011, we were taking on whatever projects we could get – which was brilliant in terms of gaining experience.

‘I absolutely love recording, but I didn’t want to go and work for another label and start again from the bottom, and so to begin with I was doing basically everything myself – apart from working with a fantastic designer, John Bevan, who’d also studied music with me at Royal Holloway.

‘What helped was finding other people to whom I could delegate parts of the process –Adaq came on board early on, so I could stop doing the engineering; I met other fantastic producers including Andrew King, George Richford and others, so I could step back on that as well.

‘It allowed me to devote more time to my broader vision for the label, which was to work with young artists and to champion British choral music, which my background really gives me the chance to advocate for.’

Green also reflects on the changes in the recording world he’s seen in the fifteen years of Convivium’s existence, and some of the valuable insight he’s acquired in that time.

‘It’s been an interesting time: from my perspective it feels like recording and releasing choral music has become more accessible to younger and newer groups emerging in the market.

‘I’m proud that Convivium has established long relationships with some of these newer groups by starting at the beginning with them: I think that what sets Convivium apart are these relationships, the willingness to add value where we can to projects that are perhaps less commercial and more creative or artistic.

‘We like to work with choirs who wanted to establish themselves and their reputation, which you see clearly developing over time in our catalogue.’

Green concedes that ‘there is very little money in church music’, and so that the challenge for him and his young label was how to grow Convivium organically, in a sustainable and rewarding way.

‘For me, there are three elements to a recording – the artists, the composers, and the audience. And each of these has different priorities: the artists have an eye on their reputation, the composers are concerned for their legacy and being heard in a way they’d like to be heard, and the audience wants a high-quality product. ‘My job has always been to balance these sometimes competing priorities to try to balance all parties’ desires – and I think it helps that I’ve been on both sides of the microphone, as performer and also as producer, so I have a good perspective of what everybody is after.

‘A recording isn’t a means to an end; it’s an ongoing process – and this is the reason recording is so exciting! Labels now need to do a greater share of the marketing and promotion of their artists and composers –more established ensembles might have their own PR or marketing firm, but younger ones tend not to.

Previously, a couple of major labels have had a monopoly on recording in cathedrals and college chapels, with reputations and relationships built up over many years.

‘As a result, it was a while before Convivium was taking on projects by Oxbridge

BELOW Adrian Green (left) producing the album Brian Knowles: Christmas Things at Real World Studios, Bath, July 2022

‘The best venue is the one that’s naturally right –the more you have to work on it, the worse it sounds’

chapel choirs, or organ projects; we weren’t necessarily the first place that established organists would think to go, for example.

‘But I’m happy to say that is all changing: we’ve worked recently with the Cathedral Singers of Christ Church, Oxford, and the choirs of Oriel College, Oxford, and Homerton College, Cambridge, and the chapel choir of the University of Glasgow.

‘We’ve also made the first recording of the new organ at Magdalen College, Oxford, which will be released in 2025.

‘We are beginning to take on projects that otherwise would have gone to more major players – not that we’re trying to push in, but rather that we’re now finding ourselves where I hoped we would end up, even when I started out fifteen years ago.’

Convivium has also forged links with non-performing groups and organisations, including the Royal School of Church Music as well as music publishers.

‘We’re also partnered with a number of composers to produce multiple albums over a period of several years.

‘For instance, we recorded Clive Osgood’s Magnificat recently, and the disc of his Stabat Mater came out in September; we’ve just finished the sessions for a forthcoming disc of his sacred and secular works with Polyphony and Britten Sinfonia, conducted by Stephen Layton.’

Green still finds time to produce some recordings for Convivium, and he has encountered a wide variety of situations and issues to tackle along the way.

‘A lot of the job of a producer is to use the building to its best advantage, and to know how to use the microphones to get the best sound out of people singing a particular type of music.

‘So many sessions take place in major churches across the UK, and you need the support of the acoustic when recording.

‘The best venue is the one that’s naturally right – the more you have to work on it, the worse it sounds.’

Picking the venues can sometimes be the most challenging part of a recording project.

‘There are often issues of access – you can’t just close a cathedral for a day, and I remember one Royal Holloway project that was done entirely at night, when there was less traffic!

‘And booking a venue because it’s cheaper or more accessible or larger can sometimes actually waste more time and finance because of the work that has to go on behind the scenes to fix all sorts of problems, whereas choosing a more “perfect” venue could mean working faster.

‘That’s especially pertinent when professional musicians are involved, who are being paid for a fixed number of hours. In the end, you learn which churches offer fewer problems, so you tend to return to those for future projects.’

Green can recall countless mishaps with specific Convivium projects but is far too discreet to give away any identifying information for the most egregious examples; however, he’s happy to recount a few of the lighter moments of crisis.

‘We’ve had churches with bees swarming around the microphones; churches with fantastic, well-maintained pianos but which suddenly have a string break on the first day; or ones where the organ pipework goes out of tune the evening before.

‘For one of the Christmas CDs we made at Portsmouth we had to master out the sound of the seagulls; and for one Royal Holloway disc the council came along to make emergency road repairs just as the red light came on, and I spent the whole morning going back and forth trying to negotiate some quiet periods with a team of increasingly bemused workmen!’

A more sombre tone enters Green’s voice when he recalls the Covid-19 pandemic –principally the shutting down of basically all musical activity for an enforced period of time, but also the constraints that had to be worked around when performing and recording were permitted again.

‘Social distancing in Covid was a huge challenge for all of us in the recording industry – what was the best way to record a cohesive sound with members of large choirs and orchestras following the rules regarding social distancing?

‘At the end of the day, there are some things you can plan for, but you can’t predict everything that might go wrong. You have to accept that in a recording, you’re not always in control of things – as a producer you earn your money by limiting what goes wrong, and then managing it.’

MEMORIES OF A MAJOR CANON

Robert Green worked with The Revd Ronald Sibthorp – the founder of Friends of Cathedral Music – as Assistant Organist at Lichfield Cathedral, and recalls an imposing yet generous figure

By ADRIAN HORSEWOOD

As a young organist starting his first cathedral job, the music and the liturgy at Lichfield Cathedral seemed to Robert Green to be from another world. ‘I’d been brought up AngloCatholic, so everything was a real eye-opener to me! I started as Assistant Organist on 1 December 1960, and immediately started working with Ronald Sibthorp, who was Precentor’s Vicar and Subchanter. Sadly, we overlapped for only three years, but he was always very kind and supportive to me as a young man.

‘At that time at Lichfield, it was the job of one of the minor canons and one of the lay clerks to sing the litany on Fridays. While many priests clearly found it boring, I clearly remember how Sibthorp invested the words with such melodrama and theatre. It made for thrilling listening, particularly when he came to intone the words, “and finally to beat down Satan under our feet”, crescendoing to finish with a great flourish on the final word!’

Some of Green’s memories of Sibthorp relate to the unusually cosy living arrangements in the close at Lichfield. ‘He and his wife

Jessie lived in a first-floor flat above the library. It was a Georgian building with thin floors, and she had a particularly strident voice; he had a tendency to head off to the cathedral for a service without some item or other, and she would open the window and shout out after him before he’d gone too far!’

Green remembers hearing that Sibthorp had been instrumental in establishing Friends of Cathedral Music in 1956, although ‘it wasn’t something that he boasted about; in fact, for someone who left such a lasting legacy, he just concentrated on the job and got things done efficiently.’ (Sibthorp himself goes into more detail on this in his book Memoirs of a Minor Canon, in which he pulls no punches about having to battle authority figures at cathedrals to achieve his goals.)

Robert Green would stay at Lichfield another five years after Ronald Sibthorp left, going on to serve as Assistant Organist at Hereford Cathedral from 1968 until 1984. There he worked under another great servant of cathedral music in the UK, Roy Massey, who was Organist of St Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham from 1968 to

1974, and then Organist and Master of the Choristers at Hereford until his retirement in 2001.

‘I got on very well with Roy Massey – we both came from the West Midlands – and I still see him occasionally. He hasn’t changed much over the years! He was always such a fabulous player and director, and his track record in nurturing young musicians speaks for itself; just talking of organists, my successors as Assistant Organist were David Briggs, Geraint Bowen and Huw Williams, all of whom have gone on to be very successful.’

After Hereford, Green moved to Yorkshire to take up the position of Head of Music at Ripon Grammar School, also singing as a lay clerk at Ripon Cathedral. Having retired back to Herefordshire, he still maintains a regular schedule of playing, giving solo recitals and also accompanying visiting choirs at cathedrals across the UK.

If you have any memories of meeting or working with The Revd Ronald Sibthorp, please do contact the Editor at editor@cathedralmusictrust.org.uk to share them – Cathedral Music Trust would love to hear from you!

BELOW ‘It’s a place that isn’t so disciplinarian, where they can make a lot of noise and be a bit silly, and they don’t get told off’

THE CHORISTERS OF KENNINGTON: EIGHTY VOICES, ONE SONG

While

church choirs in the UK

are said to be declining, that of St John the Divine, Kennington provides a remarkable exception

By ROBERT GUTHRIE

In one of London’s most deprived areas, St John the Divine, Kennington (SJDK) has achieved what most only dream of nowadays – having up to eighty child choristers attending weekly rehearsals and singing monthly Masses where they perform such works as Haydn’s Kleine Orgelmesse and Handel’s Zadok the Priest.

The area around SJDK – where Kennington, Brixton and Camberwell intersect – is one where vocal music accompanies both unity and bitter collisions. In 2018, the community was rocked by the violence of a tiny minority of the population, when two young men were tragically shot and stabbed outside the

church primary school. Both victims were affiliated with the gang Moscow17, which has a long-standing rivalry with Peckham-based Zone 2. Both gangs often communicate their tensions through rap music.

But far more often than not, music unifies in this extraordinarily vibrant area, the sounds on Camberwell Green frequently being those of Jamaican quadrille dancing, African drums, and Ghanaian dance-hall reggae – a soundscape to which the eighty children and twenty-five adults of SJDK have brought new dimensions since 2013.

‘[The children] think it’s normal to sing in a choir, and read sheet music, and go to the places associated with it – cathedrals and Oxbridge colleges,’ says Ben Vonberg-Clark, who was SJDK’s Director of Music and Precentor from 2013 until July 2024, and now works as a conductor, tenor and teacher in Essex and London.

Joe Tobin took over as Director of Music in September; he previously held the same position at St Thomas of Canterbury Church in Brentwood, and conducts The Lerion Consort. Joe joins SJDK’s Organist and Keyboard Teacher, Edward Picton-Turbervill, a former organ scholar of St John’s College, Cambridge, who has been associated with SJDK for around ten years.

Workshops that Ben held in the church’s partner schools – currently St John the Divine CofE Primary, Van Gogh Primary, John

St John the Divine, Kennington

Ruskin Primary, and CofE secondary school

St Gabriel’s College – between January and March 2013 enabled the recruitment of an initial thirty-five girls and twenty-five boys for separate girls’ and boys’ choirs. Rehearsals started properly that April. ‘We sang in church for the first time in July 2013, a big service with the full Mass,’ Ben says. ‘It wasn’t a watered-down thing. Then we went to Cambridge for our summer school [held annually through a continuing partnership with St John’s College] that July. It became a convincing force incredibly quickly.’

For Ben, gamification is the secret to motivating choristers. ‘In a choir, most of the music available for 500 years is religious and classical. There’s no reason that it should be dry. I don’t think it is dry – it’s hilarious! Haydn is an incredibly funny composer. You just have to find the humour. People think that it is not suitable for children or that they wouldn’t be able to do it. That’s complete rubbish. Children can do anything if you put them in the right circumstances with the proper tuition. I’ve never seen a group of

children more thrilled than when they sang Zadok the Priest

‘Whilst I might occasionally have done a song with religious overtones [in recruitment workshops], I’d always do something slightly on the more accessible side, with games, rounds, singing in a couple of parts. I get them to do things with their body and voice that they don’t normally do. They’re quickly amazed at how they can do all this without realising.’

‘A single committed, inspirational person makes all the difference if they’re properly supported,’ Edward adds. ‘I guess it’s to do with having people trained as animateurs. You don’t need a technically skilled musician, although Ben is very technically skilled. You just need someone personable and enthusiastic. During the pandemic he went around taking food to all these families, visiting all the children.’

Each week, SJDK’s current thirty girls and fifteen boys of primary age, plus its thirtyfive-strong secondary-age consort consisting mostly of former choristers, rehearse

ABOVE The choirs practise separately and unite for Mass on Sundays

‘If we’re serious about the future of choral music in this country, we need to reach talented children from different backgrounds’

separately for an hour-and-a-quarter. The children are then joined for monthly Masses by the adults, who perform weekly themselves.

‘It’s a place that isn’t so disciplinarian, where they can make a lot of noise and be a bit silly, and they don’t get told off,’ Edward adds. ‘Our hope, I suppose, in an area where there is a danger of children being recruited into gangs, is to provide an alternative source of community.’

While SJDK’s results speak for themselves, they certainly don’t appear by themselves. Ben has generated an impressive number of partnerships with leading musicians and personalities. Even the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, attended this year’s Easter Day service. ‘I’ve kept up a performing career myself, and I’ve managed to involve the children in various things that I’ve been involved in,’ Ben says.

SJDK choristers have joined Gabrieli Consort & Players’ Roar outreach project, recently performing Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem. Ben says: ‘I just asked, “I’m coming [as a Gabrieli Roar tutor anyway], can I bring some kids [from the SJDK Consort]?”. I said, “This is what my children can do,” and they helped me to find the funding.’

Last year SJDK’s choristers joined David Bates’s La Nuova Musica. ‘I looked at the

repertoire and saw it was Handel’s Coronation Anthems, which I’d already taught the children. I just asked David, “Can they come and sing?” and he said, “Yeah, absolutely!”. People are really up for having thirty primaryschool children standing at the front. The kids knew Zadok off by heart, and all the pros said, “We’ve got to up our game!”’

The Rodolfus Foundation has also funded a regular peripatetic teacher at St John the Divine and John Ruskin primaries, and SJDK has received money from the Diocese of Southwark and the Church of England.

Former SJDK choristers have gone on to join the choirs of King’s and St John’s Colleges in Cambridge, His Majesty’s Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Southwark Cathedral. Recently, a chorister who started in 2013 received a full Royal Academy of Music scholarship, while a Year 4 pupil joined the Royal Opera Chorus for Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle.

St John’s College, Cambridge, has hosted annual summer schools with SJDK since 2013, while it has funded a keyboard scheme to teach children the piano or organ since 2017. SJDK has also purchased the College’s current Mander organ, and is now fundraising for the roughly £1m needed for its installation.

SJDK is an extremely successful operation, but the logistics are complex. ‘The reason our

BELOW (left to right)

Edward Picton-Turbervill, Joe Tobin, Ben VonbergClark

Carla Watkins Helena Cooke

Benjamin Ealovega

choirs work is that we chaperone the children from the school to the rehearsal, so that parents can drop their children off at 8am and pick them up at 5.15pm,’ Ben says. ‘We don’t have the budget to put on minibuses. We just rely on volunteers and public transport. It takes resources and it takes people giving their time.’

Eleven years after SJDK’s children’s choirs started, several learnings emerge. SJDK looks like a replicable case study for starting and maintaining a twenty-first-century church choir with the capacity for growth while nurturing age-old traditions accessibly.

‘People at Church House will know about SJDK as a success story. But how do we try and replicate that somewhere?’ Ben asks. ‘Everyone cares about this stuff. But a choir that looks like mine? I don’t know if I’ve seen another. Maybe it’s not advertised enough. But I haven’t come across one.’

There is perhaps a case for constructing a church-music ecosystem that allows musicians at all levels – whether parish churches, college chapels or cathedrals – to work more reciprocally and closely together, to support each other, to widen access and to increase the diversity of musicians in the UK’s churches.

‘If we’re serious about the future of choral music in this country, we need to reach talented children from different backgrounds,’ Ben says. ‘Culture like this, that’s slightly harder to access, will have trouble in the future.’

‘We need to form meaningful, two-way partnerships. It seems so obvious to me that if you’re sending some choristers there, then there need to be resources in another direction. Do you help with funding? Do you help by coming to do a joint service?’

Communicating the value of church music accessibly and making its traditions relevant in the context of growing faithlessness appear to be priorities. ‘It’s quite niche,’ Ben adds. ‘A lot of us are talking to the converted. We know about the existence of all these things. We just need to remember that most people don’t.’

It seems that church music might have a broader twenty-first-century relevance than we might think.

‘You’re singing for some sort of higher reason, whatever that is,’ Ben says. ‘I think that is deep within our psyche as a species. We’re always searching for meaning. A lot of this stuff is not there to be showy. It’s deeply

profound. And whether you agree with the original reason as to why it was written, I don’t think matters.

‘I’m not saying at all, “Who cares what the substance of the text is,”’ he notes. ‘If you’re singing Evening Hymn by Balfour Gardiner and you’re standing there with the rumble of the organ and you build up to that wonderful sound … if you do it in a concert hall for an audience to clap afterwards, you don’t get the same thrill.

‘When you’re singing Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices and you don’t have a clue what it’s about, you can tell there’s something at play here that is bigger than the individuals performing.’

TOP Choristers receive training in music and aural skills, as well as having the chance to learn a variety of instruments

BOTTOM Some of SJDK’s choristers learning Bob Chicott’s St John Passion

Robert Guthrie is a London-based writer and publicist. guthrieportfolio.co.uk

St John the Divine, Kennington

St John the Divine, Kennington

ROBERT GUTHRIE

GFROM SMALL BEGINNINGS

Joseph Zubier’s life was changed when he joined a choir supported by the Friends of Cathedral Music. Now a producer for BBC Radio 3 in Salford, he relives his musical journey

By ADRIAN HORSEWOOD

rowing up in Belfast, Joseph Zubier’s early musical steps were, as for so many of us, made at primary school; in his case, he was lucky that his school had a designated music teacher, who ran a weekly lunchtime choir for all comers.

Zubier recalls how, one Thursday in 2008, his teacher came in with a man who was starting a new choir at St Peter’s Cathedral and was visiting schools to find potential new choristers. ‘After he’d finished speaking, Mrs Hennessy said, “Anyone who wants to sing should stay behind afterwards – but I wanted to get back to my lunch! In any case I didn’t have any idea what he was talking about; I could have told you what a church was, but the idea of a cathedral was completely alien.

‘However, a message soon came through to my classroom, basically ordering me to come back and see this gentleman, Nigel McClintock, and – very reluctantly – I went and sang a few scales and did some aural tests. After five minutes he said, “We’d love you to join,” and gave me a letter to take home to my parents. Thankfully, they had a much better idea of what was going on, and so the following Tuesday I was taken along to sit in on a boys’ rehearsal at St Peter’s.

‘After ten minutes’ warming-up, they started to rehearse Howard Goodall’s setting of Psalm 23. One of the boys sang the opening solo and I remember my whole jaw

just dropped – I’d never heard anyone my age sing so beautifully. My school choir was great, and I loved it, but there wasn’t any emphasis on anything technical – just on getting a group of kids of mixed ability to sing in time and not too loudly! This, on the other hand, was different: I’d never heard anything like this, not even on the radio. I wasn’t from that world, I didn’t know this kind of music, and in that moment a light switch went on in my head: I knew that I wanted to sing like that, that I wanted to be part of this world, and I was going to put everything I have into it.’

The choir of St Peter’s was in a period of rapid expansion in 2008; the cathedral had just undergone a complete restoration, including the installation of a new organ.

‘Most importantly there was a new Dean who really wanted to develop a musical life at the cathedral. There had previously been a voluntary amateur choir, and he was keen to establish a boys’ choir alongside this.

‘I was one of the earliest new recruits, joining in March 2008, and looking back it was extraordinary how much we did in the first three years. I remember that in May of the same year all the choristers were taken on a tour to London, not to sing but to hear several choirs with boy trebles; we went to Choral Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral and Choral Vespers at Westminster Cathedral. I was only nine at the time but it was inspiring

Ben Sheen

– we were being shown the pinnacle of choral singing and being told that this is what we could achieve.’

In 2009 the choir of St Peter’s received a grant of £6,000 from Friends of Cathedral Music, the predecessor organisation to Cathedral Music Trust, to support the continued growth of the choir. By this time a regular weekly schedule was in place: rehearsals on Tuesday and Friday evenings, with Mass every other Sunday for the first eighteen months of the young choir’s existence, then increasing to every Sunday. ‘There wasn’t a choir school, and there wasn’t any infrastructure in the early stages –everything was reliant on parents giving up their time to drop their children across Belfast three times a week.

‘When the choir was started basically from scratch, it had nothing – no robes, no music, no folders, no rehearsal piano. There weren’t even any choir stalls in the cathedral for us to sing from! That’s where the grant from Friends of Cathedral Music played such a vital role, because we couldn’t have done what we did do in such a short space of time.’

The summer of 2009 saw the choir of St Peter’s make its own overseas tour for the first time, visiting Paris. ‘I got to sing the solo in the Agnus Dei of Schubert’s Mass in G major in Notre-Dame, and standing there and looking down the length of the cathedral was the high point of my life!’

The choir was going from strength to strength: it was the subject of a three-part BBC One documentary, Choirboys, that followed the choir as it sang for Pope Benedict XVI in Rome (in which a ten-yearold Zubier appears prominently); and the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, became the choir’s Patron.

Zubier sang at St Peter’s between 2008 and 2015, and when he was sixteen he was asked where he saw his future. ‘I was still loving my singing – I’d become a countertenor by this stage, after my voice changed – and so I said I wanted to be in the choir of King’s College, Cambridge. Rather than laughing me out of the door, everyone took it very seriously, and said, “If that’s what you want, then you’ll need to go away for sixth-form to somewhere you can sing more than just one Mass each week. That really only meant moving to an independent school in England, because there wasn’t that sort of experience available

in Northern Ireland; thankfully, I was given a full bursary to Winchester College, where I got to learn all about the Anglican repertoire – I’d never even heard an Anglican psalm chant or a Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis!’

Zubier’s hard work paid off when he was awarded a choral scholarship to King’s in 2017; he threw himself into the busy life of the choir as well as into his degree in music. He had plans to become a professional opera singer, but his life was changed again – like so many others – by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

‘The first lockdown was in my last term as an undergraduate – I remember filling my suitcase with books to take home, and then taking my finals remotely.

‘I remember seeing my friends and colleagues across the music industry really struggling and thinking that maybe I should consider something else for me. I wanted something that combined performance and my other interests, and the eureka moment came when I was studying with the radio on – could I become a presenter?

‘I’d started an MPhil at Cambridge, but partway through the BBC launched its Open Music entry pathway for people who wanted to get into radio. I won a place on the presenter pathway, and got to spend twelve months being mentored by Radio 3’s Georgia Mann – I learnt so much from shadowing her, sitting in on broadcasts, meeting people from all parts of the organisation and even getting to present a few BBC Singers concerts.

‘Just as my time at the BBC was drawing to a close, I saw a producer role at Global Media advertised, to work on Classic FM. Even though I didn’t have all of the skills they wanted I thought it would be a great opportunity, and managed to convince them to give me the job! I spent two amazing years there, getting to be producer on all the shows at some point or other before moving to Salford to rejoin the Radio 3 team.

‘If you’d told the eight-year-old me that one five-minute audition on a rainy Thursday at school would lead me where it has, I’d have laughed – but joining the choir at St Peter’s really was the catalyst for everything.’

Nigel McClintock resigned from St Peter’s Cathedral in 2022. He received a three-year probation order in 2023 for an offence committed after he had left the cathedral.

A CEREMONY OF CAROLS

A former chorister reflects on ‘the antidote’ to a secularised and commercial Christmas

By ISAAC SCHAAD

In early spring 1942, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears were crossing the Atlantic after three years in the USA, aboard the Swedish cargo ship Axel Johnson . According to Pears, the cabins were ‘hot and stuffy’ and the crew and fellow passengers ‘callow, foulmouthed and witless’. As if this were not enough, the voyagers lived in continual fear of attack by German U-boats. It was of some relief to Britten when the ship docked at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he purchased The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems. It was certain medieval poems therein which inspired Britten to write, during the voyage, a great choral masterpiece of the twentieth century – the piece that eventually became A Ceremony of Carols. It would be a few short months before ‘Seven Christmas Carols’, as it was first known, received its premiere in the library of Norwich Castle, but the work

itself was yet to undergo several modifications, including the addition of five new movements.

The combination of the medieval texts and Britten’s exquisite musical writing seamlessly fuse the elements of a liturgical Christmas. This cycle is as far removed from a contemporary ‘Christmas’ as seems possible, without a single merry-faced pensioner or levitating land mammal in sight!

Since the season has become more secularised, Christmas seems to begin earlier every year. For the Church, Christmas does not truly commence until Christmas Day, and that is precisely where this cycle begins, with the medieval Latin antiphon borrowed from the Christmas liturgy for Vespers –‘Hodie Christus natus est’ (Today, Christ is born). This is sung unaccompanied in procession, with all three voice parts in unison. The choir then breaks into glorious

three-part harmony, accompanied, unusually, by a harp for the next and subsequent movements. ‘Wolcum Yole’ sets the scene for the cycle to follow, as a joyous account not only of Christmas day, but also each of the four feasts after Christmas (St Stephen, St John the Divine, Holy Innocents and St Thomas Becket), New Year’s Day, Epiphany and Candlemas (when liturgical Christmas ends), before inviting the listener to ‘make good cheer’.

In many and various ways, the cycle holds the Virgin Mary at its centre and reflects her significance in medieval European theology. Mary was greatly revered in medieval Catholicism, referred to as ‘the second Eve’, as, by her willingness to obey God, she undid the harm done in the Garden of Eden. The tenth movement (‘Deo Gracias’) portrays this in its parallel exposition of the disobedience of Adam and the ascent of Mary to the throne of heaven.

Bill Smith

Other movements present Mary in a different light, referring to her as a ‘rose of virtue,’ (in ‘There is no rose’) a ‘makèless (matchless) maiden’ (in ‘As Dew in Aprille’) and as a gentle mother, by means of the two lullaby movements (‘That Yongë Child’ and ‘Balulalow’). Britten’s choice of the harp over piano or organ as the accompanying instrument enhances this theme as it presents a gentle quality, even in the music’s more frantic moments. In ‘Balulalow’, for example, the harp is used to create an image of a rocking cradle through the lilting slurred crotchet pairs.

Another recurring theme is the eternal conflict between the forces of good and evil (or heaven and hell), most noticeably in the sixth movement, ‘This little babe’, the text of which presents the defenceless Christ Child as a supernal military commander. The text is drawn from Robert Southwell’s New Heaven, New Warre (1595), comparing the stable of Bethlehem to an encampment of the heavenly army. This unexpected comparison is characteristic of Metaphysical poets such as George Herbert and John Donne, on whom Southwell was a great influence. Conflict is reflected in the music by sudden juxtapositions of major and minor tonalities. For example, the first 61 bars of ‘This little babe’ are in E-flat minor but when the text becomes more optimistic, the key changes to E-flat major. A similar technique is used in the other movement which sets Robert Southwell, ‘In freezing winter night’, where the opening section describing the birth of Christ as ‘piteous’ is largely in G minor, but the key swiftly shifts to G major when the text makes another ‘Metaphysical’ comparison, this time between a stable and a royal court. In ‘Balulalow’, the changes of tonality are rather more rapid and frequent, as the melody and accompaniment spend alternating bars in F-sharp minor and F-sharp major.

One of the most ingenious techniques used by Britten is the apparent complexity yet actual simplicity of the music. Examples include the use of stretto (canon

Music has always been an important part of my life, writes Isaac. As a toddler, I attended several early years music sessions, including one at Norwich Cathedral. I took up the violin at the age of three, and the piano two years later. I started to compose small melodies and piano pieces soon afterwards; my love of composition has grown ever since, and I compose almost every day. I joined Norwich Cathedral Choir in September 2018 and left in July 2024, and this gave me an enthusiasm for choral music which has not, to this day, abated. I achieved distinctions in my violin and piano Grade 8 exams in June 2023, and in an ARSM diploma on the violin in June 2024. Alongside my love of music, I have a growing interest in the natural world, particularly insects, and write my own entomological ‘journal’, covering diverse subjects from the Swallowtail butterfly to domestic woodlice! I am currently writing my fourth violin concerto, and a field guide to beetles of Britain.

I first sang A Ceremony of Carols at the age of ten in Norwich Cathedral Choir, but I had been listening to it avidly since I was a toddler. I attended annual

with increasingly close entries) in ‘This little babe’ and a very similar technique in ‘Deo Gracias’, where voices enter with the same melody a beat apart. This represents the theology surrounding Christmas, contrasting the simplicity and beauty of a child’s birth and the many and interwoven consequences it sparked.

The cycle falls into two halves, divided by the longest movement, which uses no voices at all, the harp interlude. This builds on musical themes that appear in the plainsong ‘Hodie’ and an ostinato pattern which is a slightly modified version of a melody in ‘Wolcum Yole’. It is, again, a delightfully simple yet effective movement, perhaps the

performances of it at Norwich Cathedral from the age of five (or possibly younger), and although the Cathedral Choir made a recording of it while I was a probationer, I was very disappointed that I was too young to join in! I have performed the work in its entirety three times.

My preferences have fluctuated over the years. When I was very little, I enjoyed the rhythmic excitement of ‘This Little Babe’ and ‘Deo Gracias’, but as my musical taste has matured, I have found myself focusing much more on the beautifully lilting ‘Balulalow’.

As a former cathedral chorister, I have been exposed to a huge quantity of sacred Christmas choral music, and to choose a favourite is extremely difficult! William Mathias’s Sir Christèmas and A Babe is Born are perennial favourites of mine, largely due to their playful melodies and intricate cross-rhythms, as are Peter Warlock’s Benedicamus Domino and the haunting Bethlehem Down. I have also enjoyed performing Handel’s Messiah, which, at Norwich Cathedral, is traditionally performed during Advent.

most moving in the cycle. The plainsong procession, repeated at the close of the piece in recession, contributes to the structure of the piece by beginning and ending the music in the distance.

This piece has perhaps gained its level of popularity by providing each and every listener with a unique step into the past, granting them solace from the bright lights and loud sounds associated with the modern festive season, and an opportunity to meditate upon the true meaning of Christmas.

The choristers of Norwich Cathedral next perform A Ceremony of Carols on 26 February 2025.

You’re invited to one of the oldest choral music festivals in the world

as three exceptional cathedral choirs sing together

in thanksgiving for the ministry of clergy and their families

in one of the UK’s most iconic, majestic cathedrals.

The 370th Festival Service

Tuesday 13 May 2025, 5pm | St Paul’s Cathedral | Free www.clergysupport.org.uk/cathedral-music

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THE SIBTHORP CIRCLE

The Sibthorp Circle brings together and recognises the support of all generous individuals who are leaving a gift to Cathedral Music Trust in their Will. The Circle is named after our Founder, Revd Ronald Sibthorp, in honour of the far-reaching impact of legacy gifts.

Michael Antcliff

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DAVID HILL IN CONVERSATION WITH...

DR FELICIA BARBER

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF CHORAL CONDUCTING AT YALE SCHOOL OF MUSIC

DH: What is your musical background?

FB: I do come from a very musical family, but none with formal training. My mother was our church pianist, and my sister is currently the organist at my home church in western New York. My sister has played since she was a teenager and plays brilliantly by ear. My maternal grandfather was a band leader in World War II, composed music and played guitar, clarinet, saxophone, and sang. He died before I was born, but I was told that he was a wonderful jazz musician. He taught my mother both saxophone and clarinet.

My fondest memories of music making are of hearing my mother and aunts sing together at church; I loved it.

What were you doing from a young age?

I fell in love with singing. It is funny that I find myself as a professional choral conductor: that was never really part of the plan. The love of singing continued, and I often was selected as a soloist for school events. I also participated in state and regional singing festivals.

I also played clarinet all throughout school and into college, but choir and singing has always been my first love. Unfortunately, my school choral programme was affected by budget cuts which led to several choral directors leaving, so there was no choral-only instructor for my last two years of high school.

Nothing changes it seems! When did you learn the piano?

Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to begin until I went to college at eighteen. I’d wanted to learn since I was a child, but I experienced a situation which I shared in a recent presentation on bias and racism in the music classroom. When I was seven, my mum found a piano teacher and I was supposed to be sharing lessons with my friend Jenny Crane. We went there for our first lesson and

Dave Fried

at the end of it the teacher took me into the parlour, away from Jenny, and then she proceeded to tell me she couldn’t teach me. I didn’t know if I had done something wrong. She said, ‘I can’t teach you as your hands are too small’. But as soon as I left and reached for Jenny’s hand to walk down the street, I realised that it wasn’t about the size of my hand but rather the colour of my skin. Our hands were the same size. That’s one of my first memories in which I experienced direct racism. I never took another lesson until I got to college.

That’s truly shocking. Where did you go to college?

In Oklahoma: My undergraduate degree is from Oral Roberts University in vocal performance. I didn’t know what I should major in, I just knew I loved to sing. I didn’t have much direction from counsellors about what type of music to major in – no one really guided me. I had been accepted pre-law to Spellman College in Atlanta, Georgia. But after a visit to ORU and my acceptance to the music programme there (I auditioned without my mother knowing, with a hymn), I enrolled there instead. Whilst there, I had an affinity with music theory and found myself tutoring in theory almost immediately. In my junior year, some of the theory faculty had me working for them!

It sounds like you knew more about all this than they did!

Ha ha! I’m not sure about that, but I did really enjoy theory classes. After completing my bachelor’s degree, I enrolled in a Master of Choral Music Education at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania. As a teaching assistant I taught courses in music theory and appreciation as well as assisting the choirs. My mentor was Dr Peggy Dettwiler, who was pivotal in my choice to pursue a career in choral music. We are still very close.

What was involved in the music theory process at university?

In the US undergraduate collegiate curriculum, we have two years for music theory, and then additional courses in counterpoint, orchestration, and form and analysis. All these classes included eartraining, aural dictation, and analysis, which I loved. In my Master’s I continued with theory, and even wrote an analysis treatise on music theory of Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben which I went on to perform as well in a Master’s recital. I was able to explore voice performance, conducting, and my love of

theory during my Masters as I tried to figure out the next steps for my career.

Too many interests are a good thing, Felicia! Maybe! I am pleased that my first degree was in vocal performance which has allowed me to incorporate vocal pedagogy into my instruction and rehearsal process.

What next after Mansfield?

After completing the degree, I began teaching at a high school near Nashville, Tennessee. While there I started an Advanced Placement (AP) music theory course for the county, and also became a national AP theory grader. I also taught music appreciation, strings (briefly), and three choirs (an auditioned SATB & treble, and non-auditioned SATB ensembles). It was there that a light bulb finally went on, and I knew this is what I was supposed to do with my life.

I think taking your time to decide is commendable. When did you decide on the next stage of a doctoral programme? I felt it was time for a new challenge. I hoped to pursue a degree in Tennessee, but I couldn’t find a doctoral programme that fitted. Three years earlier, I attended a conference with Dr André Thomas of Florida State University and thought, ‘If I ever go back to school, I would like to work with him’. That led me to apply to FSU, which not only had Dr Thomas as the director of the programme, but also offered a dual emphasis in music education and conducting, which was a great fit for me. I was accepted and became the first Black female to go through that degree programme.

Is André your main mentor in choral conducting?

Yes, along with Dr Judy Bowers also at Florida State and Dr Peggy Dettwiler from my Master’s degree. I really appreciate how committed Dr Thomas is in mentoring his students even beyond their time with him at the university. He continues to encourage and mentor even beyond the degree, which is why he is so admired and appreciated by all of us.

He was with us in Yale during Covid and was deeply impressive for the reasons explained. What after Florida State?

Yale is only my third post. I taught at Westfield State University in Massachusetts where I was director of choral activities and instructed undergraduates in basic and choral conducting as well as choral pedagogy. I also taught for five summers at Gordon College in the Boston

‘My fondest memories of music making are of hearing my mother and aunts sing together’

area for their summer Master’s programme, giving courses in conducting and pedagogy.

You know more than anyone how difficult it is to be recognised being Black, a female and entering the conducting world. How do you think things are shaping up currently?

It can be difficult to break into the field, I’ve seen a collective shift in the US within the last decade. Many professional organisations have started to recognise the racism and bias that we have known and experienced our entire lives but were never actually talked about in that space. For example, I have been involved in the American Choral Directors’ Association my entire professional life: they established a national diversity committee in 2017. We met at the national convention and had realistic and meaningful discussions about a wide range of topics. It continues to be real progress.

When I started in the early 2000s, as a young teacher, I remember reaching out for mentorship in my first year or two and being completely rejected. When I got to Florida State, and saw myself represented, I cannot describe the profound impact of that experience (referencing André Thomas). I think we are heading in a good direction with more people of colour (BIPOC) successfully breaking into the field.

You and I are colleagues at the Institute of Sacred Music in Yale: can you tell us something about your role?

It’s been interesting after my first year in Yale how many people of colour (at Yale as well as across the country) have approached me, so appreciative of my presence and work at the university. The feedback I have received has made it clear that my appointment at Yale has made a meaningful impact on others in the field (especially in the BIPOC community).

My primary role in Yale is to teach conducting to secondary conductors, create new courses emphasising choral pedagogy,

and to conduct Yale Camerata. New to Yale is the part of my position that involves education initiatives, particularly classes that emphasise choral pedagogy, including African American Choral Literature and Advanced Choral Pedagogy. In addition, I have been developing professional development sessions for teachers in the New Haven public schools. During my first year, we had four major sessions together and more are being planned.

A central pillar of your work in Yale is being Director of Yale Camerata: can you tell us about that?

Yes! It’s called a town and gown chorus, and I love that it is multi-generational and, especially this year, how diverse it is. Currently our youngest singer is seventeen and we also have members in their seventies. Yale undergraduates, graduates, and area high school students and their teachers are also involved. It’s been a delight to see all this emerge. We saw over 150 people audition this year, which has been wonderful. The choir is currently made up of around seventy-five singers and I am thrilled Camerata really represents our community in Yale.

Such a positive story! Finally, are there composers or works you would find it difficult to live without?

My first love or passion is Gospel music, because it’s what my mother played in the house – the only thing! I also adore jazz –Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Nina Simone are some of my favorite jazz musicians. How can I not mention spirituals – having just written a book about them! In that genre, works by William Dawson, Jester Hairston, and Undine Moore. Other favourite African American composers include Nathaniel Dett, Florence Price, and Margaret Bonds. I love classical music as well, Mozart, Beethoven, but especially Chopin, Faure, and Debussy –I’m a bit of a romantic!

He

DAVID HILL

David Hill MBE is Musical Director of the Bach Choir and of Leeds Philharmonic Society, and Associate Guest Conductor of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

is a Trustee of Cathedral Music Trust.

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CHORAL CD s

Hewitt Jones: Regards from Rochester

Harriet Mountford (sop), Simon Thorpe (bar), BBC Singers, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Rochester Choral Society, John Mountford (dir) Vivum Music [52:00]

In Regards from Rochester, composer Thomas Hewitt Jones (who also crafted the libretto from various sources and his own words) has given us a heartfelt ode to one of England’s oldest towns, home to the second

oldest bishopric in the country. Hewitt Jones’s heart-on-sleeve composition style – which has won him plaudits and critical acclaim throughout his career – is very much to the fore here, and the ten movements of this modern-day oratorio showcase certain moments in Rochester’s history, from the founding of the cathedral in 604 CE through to the modern day. The work was commissioned by Rochester Choral Society to mark its 150th anniversary in 2023, receiving its premiere in the cathedral in March of that year.

The BBC Singers are tasked with the bulk of the choral singing, and are – unsurprisingly – thrillingly persuasive advocates for Hewitt Jones’s music; they are accompanied by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, while Rochester Choral Society join for the final movement, ‘The Medway Hymn’, which also calls for audience participation in a prayer for ‘hope

and kindness in a complicated world’. Regards from Rochester is a heartwarming portrait of a town, filled with enchanting and invigorating musical moments but also with plenty of introspection – and is a useful history lesson, to boot.

ADRIAN HORSEWOOD

Duruflé: Requiem; Poulenc: Lenten Motets Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, Harrison Cole (org), Stephen Layton (dir) Hyperion CDA68436 [55:57]

David Priestman

Composer Thomas Hewitt Jones’s heartfelt ode to his home town of Rochester receives a spirited performance

One suspected this final offering (if so it proves) from Stephen Layton conducting the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge would be something of a treat, and it does not disappoint. They recorded the Duruflé Requiem – here in its 1961 guise for organ (plus cello solo in the Pie Jesu) as opposed to the original 1948 version with orchestra – in July 2022 in St Eustache, Paris with its very remarkable van den Heuvel organ (played by Harrison Cole, who is excellent throughout). Some might find the acoustic over-resonant, but to my mind it fits this music like a glove, with a lovely bloom to the sound. Layton’s grasp of the musical architecture is impressive, with carefully graduated climaxes and musically shaped lines from the choir, whose tone is never forced even at the loudest moments.

There are thrilling crescendos and fortissimo interjections together with some exquisite quiet effects with high, angelic sopranos –extremes of contrast apparently influenced by Charles Tournemire’s improvisations, with their transfigured, pianissimo codas based on the relevant plainsong melodies, these being sung here with delightful rhythmic fluidity. And if pre-release video clips online were anything to go by, the choir sings the entire work from memory, which certainly pays dividends in terms of clarity and commitment.

Baritone Florian Störz is excellent and musical in the Domine Jesu Christe and the Libera me, and mezzo Katherine Gregory combines beautifully with cellist Myrtille Hetzel in the Pie Jesu. The modal Sanctus and the In paradisum inescapably evoke the respective movements of the Fauré (despite Duruflé’s protestations), and who knew that the latter is the only movement where Duruflé allows no development of the plainsong, as –apparently – we are already perfect and in paradise?

As if the Duruflé weren’t enough, we also have the delight of the four Poulenc Lenten motets, recorded in July 2021 in the clear acoustic of

Trinity College Chapel – ideal for this unaccompanied repertoire. Phrases are beautifully shaped and characterised, the sopranos acquitting themselves fearlessly with their exposed high entries, and the chording and intonation are excellent in these challenging motets – often rather severe in character, but with occasional warmer moments, for instance the lovely, conciliatory C-sharp major of Vinea mea electa, and occasional more active textures, like the dramatic mini-scherzos of Tristis est anima mea, which also starts with a delightful soprano solo from Sumei Bao-Smith; but who can complain when the results are as exquisite as they are here. A wonderfully realised final chorale too, apparently the fruit of Poulenc’s Bach chorale studies with Charles Koechlin.

All is quite brilliantly recorded (David Hinett and Adrian Peacock) in two very contrasting acoustics and overall, this is a fabulous swansong from Stephen Layton, which really is an absolutely essential purchase. Highly recommended!

MARK BELLIS

O Beata Virgo Maria

luminatus, David Bray (dir)

Convivium Records CR090 [72:46]

This is truly a disc of two halves: tracks 1 to 13 are Renaissance polyphony by Marenzio (his motet Iste sanctus pro lege), Guerrero (his parody mass on Marenzio’s motet), and Massaino (the Marian motet cycle O beata Virgo Maria); these are followed by three works by living female composers – Melissa Dunphy (her evening canticles for St Paul’s Burlingame), Kerensa Briggs (her Alma Redemptoris mater), and Cecilia McDowall (her St Pancras Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis).

As the album’s title suggests, a Marian thread runs through the programme (only thinly in places –the text of Iste sanctus pro lege is taken from a Magnificat antiphon at Vespers for the feast of a martyr), and the choice of repertoire –especially the rarely-heard Massaino, with its non-canonical text –presents many different facets to Mary. The performances of the older repertoire are clean and wellbalanced, if not spectacular; where the disc comes alive is in the modern works, particularly Dunphy’s haunting Magnificat and McDowall’s more strident settings.

ADRIAN

HORSEWOOD

This Spiritual House: In Celebration of the 900th Anniversary of St Bartholomew the Great Choir & Choral Scholars of the Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great, London, James Norrey (org), Rupert Gough (dir) Barts 900 [78:13]

Marking the 900th anniversary of London’s oldest church, this intelligently programmed recital deftly assembles pieces associated with St Bartholomew’s and new works into two services. The whole is sung with the artfully blended voices that increasingly marks out its choir for attention under Rupert Gough’s direction. The addition of choral scholars from Royal Holloway adds welcome colour and depth. Of interest are first recordings of finely judged pieces by Brian Brockless and Edmund Rubbra that lend the disc its title. There are also first outings on disc for Peter Maxwell Davies’s St Bartholomew’s Prayer, John Rutter’s God is earth, Andrew Fletcher’s Benediction Motet, and Gough’s own brass-augmented Missa

brevis (The ‘Great’ Service). All are pleasingly miniature in scale but luminous in scope.

MICHAEL QUINN*

Masters of Imitation

The Sixteen, Harry Christophers (dir) Coro COR16203 [66:37]

Experts in ‘the sincerest form of flattery’, renaissance composers inspired by others feature in this clever celebration of ‘parody’. Works from the ‘usual suspects’ Lassus and Josquin justly impress, and Jean Guyot de Châtelet’s thrilling arrangement of Josquin, adding six extra parts to Benedicta es caelorum Regina, is a corker. The album also

includes premiere recordings of two madrigals by Maddalena Casulana –only one given consort treatment, alas – and a specially commissioned sacred parody of a Lassus madrigal by Bob Chilcott. Singing of the expected efficiency, shapeliness, expression and technical refinement abounds, though one might wish for greater scoring and acoustic contrasts.

REBECCA TAVENER*

Pärt: Essential Choral Works Theatre of Voices, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Ars Nova Copenhagen, Pro Arte Singers, NYYD Quartet, Paul Hillier (dir) Harmonia Mundi HMX2904087.90 (4 CDs) [264:02]

Estonian-born Arvo Pärt developed as a composer in the isolation of the Soviet-bloc in the 1950s, largely unaware of contemporary musical trends in the west. By the 1960s, however, he was at the forefront of serialist experimentation and other techniques, producing some major compositions at this time. But the first of several periods of selfimposed silence led him to reassess his musical style and evolve a musical language radically different from his earliest compositions. By 1976 he had formulated the technique to which he has remained loyal which he calls ‘tintinnabuli’ (derived from the Latin, ‘little bells’), which he describes thus:

‘I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me. I work with very few elements – with one voice, two voices. I build with primitive materials – with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of a triad are like bells and that is why I call it tintinnabulation.’

Michael Putland

Harmonia Mundi’s box-set of essential Arvo Pärt recordings documents the close working relationship between the composer and the conductor Paul Hillier

Pärt settled in West Berlin in 1980, where he has pursued his minimalist techniques in a series of concentrated settings of religious texts, the majority of which are included in this magnificent 4-CD boxed set.

Many of these pieces are brief and achieve powerful effects using common scales and triads that have been liberated from their former associative values and relationships.

Paul Hillier is the key figure in these recordings (made between 1996 and 2010): he has been a leading interpreter of Pärt’s vocal music for decades, and with these recordings set down authoritative readings of the music whose legacy will last. His special relationship with the composer and his music is evident throughout and all is lovingly presented. The recordings are brought together for the first time as a single set at a special price. No one who loves Pärt’s music will want to be without this set.

PHILIP REED*

Poston: Carols and Anthems

St Albans Cathedral Girls Choir, Lay Clerks of St Albans Cathedral, Oliver Morrell (org), Tom Winpenny (dir) Naxos 8.574576 [79:03]

Some musicians leave one slightly breathless with admiration at their enthusiasm for unusual repertoire and Tom Winpenny, Assistant Master of the Music at St Albans, is a trailblazer in this regard. He has treated us to CDs of organ music by Grier, Pott, Lutyens, Cooke and Hendrie – to name but a few – and here he appears as conductor rather than recitalist, directing the Girls and Lay Clerks of St Albans Cathedral in music by Elizabeth Poston (1905–87).

I suspect few of us can remember a time when we didn’t know her perfect miniature, Jesus Christ the apple tree (1961) – which receives a really exquisite performance here – but what do we know of her other music? Apart perhaps from an arrangement of the Boar’s head carol (also included on this CD) I imagine very little, if anything. This new survey of sixteen of her carols and anthems – all but these two being first recordings – is therefore very welcome.

Poston was a friend of Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine), becoming quite an authority on his music, was taught by Vaughan Williams and from 1939, worked for the BBC Music Department. The latter role led to the one substantial work we have here: The Nativity, written in 1950 for BBC radio – a sequence of eleven carols scored for six soloists, choir and organ, lasting about thirty minutes. Her debt to Vaughan Williams is evident immediately: she even begins with The truth sent from above, which he had used to start his

The St Albans Cathedral Girls Choir explores the neglected music of Elizabeth Poston

wonderful Fantasia on Christmas carols (1912).

We have a judicious compilation of real carols and folk songs, together with cleverly crafted original linking material in much the same style.

The work as a whole is well worth revival, though two spoken carols perhaps betray its genesis as a radio broadcast. A few movements: There is no rose, with its delightful, ‘floating’ bass-less textures, I saw a maiden featuring tenor and soprano solos and nice rhythmic flexibility and Qui creavit coelum for upper voices, could perhaps reasonably be extracted as stand-alone carols, and the performance here is very effective throughout.

Poston called herself a ‘littlemonger’ (!) and eschewed longer or bigger compositional formats, so it is slightly frustrating that nearly everything here is quite so miniature in scale, but all very charming, nevertheless. A rather larger-scale anthem with organ (Oliver Morrell – very reliable) Sing unto the Lord (written in 1959 for Peterborough Cathedral) does have nice rhythmic freedom with its quintuplet-based refrains and some effective, folk-inspired tonal contrasts, and would certainly be an interesting addition to cathedral music lists. Full marks yet again to Tom Winpenny for his choice of repertoire here – as ever, hugely enterprising!

MARK BELLIS

Choir

Convivium Records CR094 [65:33]

Dan Locklair (b. 1949) has had three previous appearances on Convivium,

most recently his very powerful and moving Requiem (CR070).

This latest selection features a number of recent a cappella works and further cements his reputation as a choral composer on both sides of the Atlantic.

The title work, which opens the disc, is a joyful Christmas celebration with brass, percussion and organ, rather in Flor Peeters’s image. Three Christmas Motets, especially the rapt O magnum mysterium are worthy additions to the catalogue, as is Dona nobis pacem.

The triumphal mood returns with the eloquent anthem The Lord is My Light, notable for its splendid organ part. I especially liked the medieval flavour of The Texture of Creation with brass, percussion and organ.

Locklair writes very effectively for this combination and the triumphal pieces really stand out on the album. He has very persuasive advocates in the Royal Holloway choir, whose committed singing gives added punch, and this alone is sufficient to merit a recommendation.

There are excellent sleeve notes and full texts of all the pieces, and the recording, made in two different churches, is of very high quality.

BRET JOHNSON

Choir of Royal Holloway, Grace Davidson (sop), Rupert Gough (dir) Decca 4854635 [56:00]

Ola Gjeilo’s music breathes his native Norway and with The Road he takes us from Hallingskarvet all the way to Hardangerfjord, a journey undertaken in companionable song. Charles Anthony Silvestri also wrote the texts for Autumn, which the Royal Holloway choir approaches with the same intimate address, and

for Dreamweaver, which touches on the popular medieval dream poem Draumkvedet, about a man who sleeps from Christmas Eve to Twelfth Night.

It’s a sombre piece in some respects but the Holloway singers don’t go sad-sack on it but simply and subtly temper their delivery. It’s not pictorial music, but it wonderfully conjures up a place.

BRIAN MORTON*

Peace I Leave With You: Music for the Evening Hour

Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, Mark Williams (dir) Coro COR16205 [72:27]

This CD from Informator Choristarum Mark Williams and the Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford uses the themes of ‘Peace’ and ‘Music for the evening hour’ as threads connecting a programme of eighteen anthems and carefully avoids the obvious pitfall of too many slow, quiet works with a highly contrasted selection of repertoire from widely different periods, all most sensitively realised.

We start with Amy Beach’s charmingly simple, introit-like Peace I leave with you (1891) –beautifully done – and straight away the current choir’s strengths are evident: a highly confident treble sound, firm basses grounding the texture, and no intrusive individual voices emerging in the inner parts; in all, a most lovely, blended sound.

There are too many highlights to mention, but I enjoyed the rather rarely done verse anthem Behold, thou hast made my days by Orlando Gibbons, written in 1618 for the funeral of the Dean of Windsor, Anthony Maxey, and unusually ▷

Gjeilo: Dreamweaver

Locklair: From East to West and other choral works

of Royal Holloway, Onyx Brass, David Goode (org), Rupert Gough (dir)

featuring only one soloist – either an alto, or as here, a tenor (Sebastian Hill: excellent) alternating with the choir. This is all very stylistically done, with nice organ accompaniment from Alexander Pott. Stanford’s Eternal Father (1913), an unaccompanied, six-part setting of Robert Bridges also receives a first-class performance, with good balance and excellent light and shade. It comes across as a really significant work, and one which again deserves to be heard rather more frequently.

Of the modern offerings I particularly liked Andrew Gant’s recent (2021) An evening hymn of Sir Thomas Browne, an atmospheric, well-composed piece of highly effective contrasts displaying a distinctive compositional voice from a composer whose two sons sang in the Magdalen choir.

Not perhaps quite up to the standard of Harris’s famous setting of the same words (Evening hymn: The night is come) or that of Nicholas Maw (Three hymns) but a very enjoyable piece nevertheless.

Overall, a most enterprising and

enjoyable CD from a choir clearly on top form at the moment.

MARK BELLIS

Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius

Anna Stéphany (mezzo-sop), Nicky Spence (ten), Andrew Foster-Williams (b-bar), Gabrieli Consort and Players, Gabrieli Roar, Polish National Youth Choir, Paul McCreesh (dir)

Signum Classics SIGCD785 (2 CDs) [95:10]

A Dream of Gerontius from these forces is a mouth-watering prospect and McCreesh and his musicians do not disappoint in this their latest adventure in the major oratorio repertoire. With exemplary soloists – tenor Nicky Spence is outstanding in the title role – and a chorus largely made up of the Polish

National Youth Choir and Gabrieli Roar, the latter Gabrieli’s innovative choral training programme in which young people are placed at the heart of professional work, the vocal forces alone are hugely promising.

Inspired by McCreesh and his professional support team, the choral singing is outstanding – fresh voiced, with clear diction and 100 per cent-plus commitment. What a life-changing experience this must have been for these young people.

As Mahan Esfahani, an unexpected yet inspired choice as liner note writer, points out, in Gerontius, voices and instruments operate on almost equal footing, with Wagner, especially Parsifal, a major influence.

McCreesh has lovingly recreated Elgar’s orchestra, using early twentieth-century wind instruments, percussion and harps, as well as strings using mainly gut strings.

The transparency of sound, especially when Elgar employs multiple divisions of the string orchestra, is fascinating and revealing, especially in terms of the dynamic range available.

The details of the instruments

Apollo5’s daring repertoire choices create an enthralling listening experience

(including Léon Goossens’s Lorée oboe no less) are catalogued in the booklet and McCreesh’s notes give contextual explanation. The whole is a remarkable achievement and provides an important document in our appreciation of Elgar’s masterpiece. But more than that, it’s a thrilling performance that should grab the attention of anyone who loves Gerontius.

PHILIP ORFORD*

Saint Louis Reflections

The Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, Spencer Smith (org), Diana Umbali (pf), Philip Barnes (dir) Regent REGCD578 [76:31]

Although commissioned for this first-rate professional choir over a period of fifteen years, almost all the eleven works presented here reflect upon despair, with or without a hopeful resolution.

They include two powerful settings of Psalm 130 Out of the Depth / De profundis, by Carl Rütti, who uses the German text, and Kerensa Briggs – the whole of her very impressive trilogy Height in Depth is included. That commission was supported by the friends and the estate of Sarah Bryan Miller, classical music critic for the Saint Louis Post

The album also includes an atmospheric setting of Psalm 121, Lift thine eyes, written in Bryan Miller’s honour by Judith Bingham. It opens with a marvellous Missa Brevis by Dobrinka Tabakova, whose Kyrie really does plumb the depths, responding to the range of one of the choir’s regular basses by employing a particularly low register, while its Sanctus makes correspondingly stratospheric demands upon the sopranos.

The choir’s stamina is tested and its excellent tuning showcased by a

substantial setting of Horace’s ode Aequam memento by David Matthews (whose degree is in Classics). A lighter mood is evoked by Sasha Johnson Manning’s beautiful Christmas Bells, its dense textures representing the pealing bells from beginning to end; and a more optimistic note is struck by the concluding track, Melissa Dunphy’s We are the music makers, written during the pandemic with the intention that it could be performed effectively by just four singers (SATB) and a piano. A useful inclusion in the liner booklet is a list of the composers’ publishers, should listeners fancy performing any of these excellent pieces with their own choirs.

CLARE

STEVENS*

Haven

Apollo5: Penelope Appleyard (sop), Clare Stewart (mezzo-sop), Oscar Golden-Lee, Oli Martin-Smith (ten), Augustus Perkins Ray (bass) VCM Records VCM151D [68:29]

This comes tricked out in a psychedelic cover, but it isn’t in the wrong browser. Inside is some of the most insightfully earthy singing of Byrd (the Mass for Five Voices) you’re likely to hear. There’s no plumminess about Apollo5, who take their mythological name seriously and always root the human and divine in one another. The five voices create an unbroken spectrum, which creates the illusion of larger forces or some kind of chordal instrument behind. They make clever choices of subsidiary material as well: ancient pieces like de Monte’s Voce mea ad Dominum clamavi and six works commissioned especially for this disc, woven together into an hourplus of enchantment.

BRIAN MORTON*

Victoria: Tenebrae Responsories

I Fagiolini, Robert Hollingworth (dir) Coro COR16204 [71:50]

The austere beauty and relative simplicity of Victoria’s Tenebrae Responsories for Holy Week suit I Fagiolini’s approach, both in terms of one voice per part (restoring the composer’s low pitch and voicing) and the group’s very even emotional response to the music. Not for Hollingworth extremes of dynamic, emphasis or characterisation; rather, his cool approach pays dividends that begins to answer a question he poses in the liner notes: ‘How can so little mean so much?’ Victoria’s stark musical sequence is enhanced by poems by Christopher Reid (read by Hollingworth), which punctuate each set of three motets. Reid’s poems mourn the death of his wife and provide a contemporary response to grief and mourning that echo with the theme of Victoria’s motets.

PHILIP ORFORD*

Chilcott: Christmas Oratorio

Sarah Connolly (mezzo-sop), Nick Pritchard (ten), Neal Davies (bass), Choir of Merton College, Oxford, Oxford Contemporary Sinfonia, Benjamin Nicholas (dir) Delphian DCD34321 [72:10]

How do you take a story 2,000 years old, now less cherished than it was, but representing what Rowan Williams called ‘the most important event in human history’ and retain its

grandeur while still allowing that it happened to the simplest and most lowly?

For this first recording of Bob Chilcott’s shining Christmas music, the original soloists from the 2019 premiere have been brought back. Nick Pritchard’s Evangelist is a wonder, youthful but steward to an awe-filled secret; Sarah Connolly conveys Mary’s wonderment and even fear with grace and not a flutter of girlishness, while Neal Davies’s Herod stands as reminder that the world isn’t ready to love. Orchestrated with a light hand –especially round the Evangelist –and impeccably recorded in the Delphian manner, this is a Christmas must.

BRIAN MORTON*

Sancte Paule Apostole

The Choir of Old St Paul’s Episcopal Church, Edinburgh, John Kitchen (dir)

Praxa Studios PXSC0001 (2 CDs) [86:07]

Tucked into an awkward site between Waverley Station and the Royal Mile, Old St Paul’s Scottish Episcopal Church (OSP) is one of Edinburgh’s best-kept secrets. This double CD takes us up the steps and into the beautiful building to eavesdrop on its two feasts of title, the Conversion of St Paul in January and St Peter and St Paul in June, presenting a compendium of the music typically performed by its young choir at High Mass, Solemn Evensong and Benediction on those occasions. Highlights include world premiere recordings of a mass setting Tu es vos electionis Sanctissimae Pascale by Cristobál de Morales (c. 1500–1553), using an edition prepared by the choir’s Scholar-in-Residence Paul NewtonJackson, and of a Magnificat and

Nunc dimittis from the Leiden Choirbooks by the sixteenth-century Flemish composer Johannes Flamingus (d. c. 1598), using an edition by Newton-Jackson and Rowan Hawitt. But I was equally entranced by Director of Music John Kitchen’s setting of a poem by Alan Spence written to sit alongside Alison Watt’s painting Still in the Memorial Chapel at OSP; by Assistant Director of Music Calum Robertson’s anthem Liturgy, setting a poem by Irene Zimmerman, and his performance of James MacMillan’s clarinet solo For Galloway. Psalms and hymns are performed with as much care as the less familiar works. There is a wonderfully collaborative feel to this music-making – Kitchen and Robertson have worked together at OSP for many years and share the roles of conductor and accompanist on these discs, with no indication in the track listings of who is taking which role. The shimmering candles on the festal cake are provided on more than one occasion by the Zimbelstern on the church’s Willis organ; and Kitchen does allow himself to be credited with the spectacular performance of the Toccata in E minor Op. 29 by the Belgian composer Joseph Callaerts (1830–1901) that concludes this evocative and wonderfully varied sequence.

CLARE STEVENS*

A Winged Woman

The Marian Consort, Rory McCleery (dir)

Linn Records CKD 724 [70:05]

This superbly executed and beautifully recorded album of contemporary vocal music – the disc’s title is taken from Electra Perivolaris’s twelve-minute piece at the album’s outset – presents no

fewer than seven premiere recordings among its ten tracks. With music from a range of composers including Perivolaris, Dani Howard and Chloe Knibbs, it is a programme that not only challenges traditions of approach but entirely restores one’s faith in the future of concerted vocal music. Rory McCleery and his colleagues are to be applauded for such a fine addition to their already significant discography.

PHILIP REED*

ORGAN CD s

Langlais: Organ Works, Volume 2 Fausto Caporali, Giorgio Benati, Alessandro Perin

Brilliant Classics 96361 (5 CDs) [70:00]

This complete survey of the vast organ legacy of Jean Langlais (1907–91) moves several steps further with this new budget priced release. Giorgio Benati and Francesco Caporali who covered the whole of Volume 1 (released last year) are joined here by Alessandro Perin on three different Italian instruments, none of which featured last time.

This is only the second Langlais organ cycle and the first took one player over thirty years to complete.

Langlais is a composer very familiar to organists and audiences and yet the vast majority of his music remains unexplored. Recent discoveries and publications, including some by the composer’s widow, the organist Marie-Louise Jacquet Langlais, will add several new pieces. By any yardstick this is an extraordinary enterprise and its accomplishment at reasonable cost to the inquiring music lover deserves the highest commendation in itself.

Some monumental pieces populate this volume. The Troisième Symphonie (1959–79), a re-working of the American Suite, derives from his early concert tours of the USA in the 1950s.

Like his contemporary Flor Peeters (shown especially in his Lied Symphony), Langlais, despite his blindness, was deeply affected by the vast scale and potential of the Americas.

Many works from the 1960s onwards reflect this American awakening. But the tradition of folksong, especially from his native Brittany, finds voice in two large suites. The Huit Chants de Bretagne (1974), a collection of beautiful little chansons, is easily within the capability of the determined amateur, as is the earlier Folkloric Suite (1952), especially notable for the opening fantasy on the Easter chant ‘O Sons and Daughters’.

The power and mystery of Gregorian chant permeates several works, including the exquisite Deux Offertoires (1943), written as brief memorials to two friends, and the powerful Triptyque Grégorien (1979), evoking his teacher Charles Tournemire, his predecessor as organist at the Basilique de Sainte-Clotilde.

More familiar to organists is the much earlier Triptyque, published by Novello in 1958 and dedicated to his friend Maurice Duruflé. I found the tempi, especially on the first movement, on the slow side and with unusual registration.

The Suite Médievale (1950) is also well known and there are many alternative recordings to choose from: a low mass setting for the Sunday after Easter, garlanded with superb arabesques and timeless chants.

Another monumental work is the Première Symphonie of 1942, composed at the height of the Second World War.

It is, along with the later Cinq Méditations, a work in the grand romantic tradition cast in an uncompromising mould, the dark austere hues reflecting a sombre mood. It is still relatively unknown on

account of its length and technical difficulty.

The short but celebratory Fête (1945), however, is beloved of recitalists as a voluntary or encore, and Incantation pour un Jour Saint (1949) is possibly his most popular and widely performed organ piece.

Another facet of his art was that of the pedagogue. A half-hour suite, Sept Etudes de Concert for pedals alone may not sound immediately appealing but the sheer variety of content and dynamic and stylistic range turn it into a fascinating concert suite.

And there is purely liturgical music: Langlais wrote two organ masses in the 1950s (Sante Trinité and Sante Famille) which are full of interest and variety. Stylistic range is also a hallmark of the three suites entitled Mosaïque dating from the 1970s.

The first suite includes two more movements rescued and recomposed from the American Suite, and a richly coloured Double Fantaisie for two organists. Then Trois Offertoires (1990), one of his final works with subtle reflective harmonies, citing some of his favourite Breton themes.

The gentle, chiming motifs from Trois Méditations sur la Sainte Trinité (1962) revisit the triptych format again using several well-known Gregorian melodies, and finally the triumphant ‘St Anne’ fugue theme used by Bach. Fantasy on Two Old Scottish Themes (1986), an 80th birthday commission, explores two Gaelic love songs in extended variation form.

The final work we hear is Three Characteristic Pieces (1957), a homage to the eighteenth-century blind English organist John Stanley whose voluntaries Langlais often played. A graceful finale to this set which is, once again, filled with fascinating evidence of one of the twentieth century’s greatest geniuses of the organ.

There is much brilliant playing, and the Ruffati organ at the church of San Vittorio Milan I found the most impressive of the three used (all of them different from those in Volume 1).

The Padua (Tamburini-Bonato) instrument has some amazing reeds and mixtures. Many corners are generously filled with miniatures and it is an amazing achievement for this second volume to reach us just one year after the first.

Great treasures are yet to come including the Cinq Méditations, Roman and Gothic Sketches and much more. This series will do much to bring Langlais before a wider public, and it is replete with extraordinary insight and value.

BRET JOHNSON

Bach: Organ Works, Volume 5 Masaaki Suzuki, Treutmann organ of the Stiftskirche St. Georg, Grauhof BIS BIS2661 [65:00]

For this fifth volume of Suzuki’s impressive complete Bach series the focus is the second part of the Orgel-Büchlein. Like the previous volume, it is recorded on the historic Treutmann organ which is generally regarded as one of the finest representations of the north German organ sound from Bach’s time.

Suzuki finds well balanced and colourful interpretations of each of the chorale preludes here. Alongside this are the Preludes and Fugues in C and D major and B minor, the latter taken at a rather sprightly tempo – one where the printed staccatos rather fight with the organ.

That aside, Suzuki performs with his usual natural confidence and is not afraid to revel in many flamboyant ornaments. The fugues too are transformed from mere contrapuntal ingenuity to virtuosic exuberance and yet in a way that would not be out of place in the early eighteenth century.

RUPERT GOUGH*

Gardner: Complete Organ Music, Volume One

Tom Winpenny, Nicholson organ of Christchurch Priory Toccata Classics TOCC0724 [70:00]

Just before John Gardner’s death in 2011 Toccata issued a CD of his music

for brass and organ, worthy of exploration (TOCC048). He was a prolific composer in most genres, and this is the first of a projected two volumes of organ works, an instrument he wrote for regularly during his career. He won an organ scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford and although he abandoned organ performance it is clear from this disc that he fully understood and was able to exploit its potential with music of considerable interest and skill. The early Intermezzo (1934) is a charming lullaby, whereas the Five Hymn Tune Preludes use all sorts of contrapuntal and canonic devices to

disguise and embellish the melodies so as to produce a set of symphonic studies in miniature. The Fantasia and Fugue on a Prelude of Bruckner is dramatic and impressive. Later on in life he wrote a number of pieces for the late Catherine Ennis, including the Organ Sonata (1992), a work replete with many intricate contrivances which play on the interval of the minor third and on Catherine’s initials. He also wrote for her Intrada and Finale (2000), for a BMA Millennium Conference, and in music of brilliant virtuosity and exuberance pokes gentle fun at the incipient pomposity and gravitas which often attends the official functions of corporate bodies.

The programme notes by Tom Winpenny and Gardner’s son Chris are most comprehensive and illuminating, and the fine Nicholson Christchurch organ, combined with Tom Winpenny’s masterful playing, sounds wonderful on this recording. I look forward to Volume Two.

BRET JOHNSON

Messiaen: La Nativité du Seigneur

Mark Steinbach, Cavaillé-Coll organ of the Eglise Saint-François de Sales, Lyon Aeolus AE11401 [54:30]

This is another typically elegantly presented, if slightly stingy, release from Aeolus. Mark Steinbach, organist at Brown University in Rhode Island, performs La Nativité du Seigneur on one of the bestpreserved organs from Cavaillé-Coll’s later period. That said, I’m not entirely convinced by Steinbach’s conviction that the Lyon organ closely resembles the organ at La Trinité prior to Messiaen’s substantial intervention of 1962–67. The publication and premiere of La

Mark Steinbach plays a varied programme on the Silbermann organ of the Hofkirche, Dresden

I Saw Eternity - choral works from British composer Alexander Campkin

Choral works celebrating themes of nature and the Earth, the debut album from North Yorkshire’s Jervaulx Singers with pianist Alison Frances Gill.

A profound odyssey from darkness to light, showcasing some of Alexander Campkin’s existing compositions and arrangements, as well as debut performances of new works, recorded by the young voices of the Phoenix Consort.

“Deeply reflective, evoking a quiet, sacred space… not just an ‘up-and-coming’ choir, but already a formidable presence in the world of choral music.”

Expressive Audio

A re-mastered version of the original 1971 Merry-Go-Down LP, showcasing Peter Warlock’s extraordinary range of musical and literary knowledge and achievements.

Settings of the treasured words of the Book of Psalms, performed by The Charter Choir of Homerton College, Cambridge. “Terrific album.” BBC Music Magazine ★★★★

The eagerly-awaited second album of sacred music by the 17th century Oxford priest, architect and composer Henry Aldrich, performed by Oriel College Chapel Choir.

Nativité are surely closely tied to the initial changes directed by Messiaen in 1935 and, in particular, the addition of independent flute-scale mutations on both Positif and Récit.

In Lyon, the Nazard is notably absent at the opening of Les Bergers for instance. And, if Steinbach’s playing is uniformly excellent, I wonder if it’s also a bit quick on occasion; Messiaen himself takes a minute longer over Les Bergers, a minute longer over Les Mages (Steinbach’s may be the quickest on record) and fully three minutes longer over Le Verbe.

The ubiquitous void between Messiaen’s recordings and his written instructions inevitably renders questions such as those of tempo highly subjective however; ultimately this is a beautifully recorded La Nativité on one of the most beautiful organs in France.

CHRIS BRAGG*

Lambert: Music for Brass and Organ

John Jermy (tpt), Chester Concordia Brass Ensemble, Robert Marsh and Philip Rushforth (org), Richard Lambert (dir)

Toccata Classics TOCC0718 [73:00]

Richard Lambert (b. 1951) is a composer with wide musical interests, as he eloquently explains in the sleeve notes. A musical background as a silver band trumpeter, and then as an organist, he admits many influences from Malcolm Arnold to Britten, Williamson and Holst (and,

intriguingly, Rautavaara and the serialist British composer Benjamin Frankel). Lambert captures the festive possibilities of organ and trumpet in three short pieces grouped under the title ... the festal trumpet sounds, which includes elaborations of the hymn tunes ‘Thornbury’ and ‘Hyfrydol’. Little fanfares for small brass ensembles parade reminders of Edward Gregson and Elgar Howarth.

Two-thirds of the CD comprise organ works, and demonstrate his commitment to the instrument, which he studied with Dudley Holroyd at Bath Abbey. He is essentially a miniaturist, writing short effective pieces over a period and issuing them as anthologies, rather than working in the longer more complex symphonic formats. As a result, his music has a directness of appeal and immediate accessibility whether for celebratory occasions or for liturgical use by church musicians. He has a very pleasant stylistic language, and this album exploits well the splendour of the Chester Cathedral organ (as a native of the area I recall the instrument’s rebuilding around 1970 during Roger Fisher’s tenure as organist and it sounds every bit as good today). Fine playing by Messrs Rushforth and Marsh and the brass instrumentalists.

BRET JOHNSON

Grier: Organ Works

Stephen Farr, Dobson organ of Merton College, Oxford Resonus Classics RES10332 [70:36]

This is the second CD devoted entirely to the organ works of Francis Grier (b. 1955); the first, recorded by Tom Winpenny in 2018, has very little repertoire overlap with this CD. Grier has written

Florence Price’s Suite no. 1 features in Alexander Ffinch’s recital disc

extensively for the church and the organ and on wider canvases. The breadth of his interests and learning, derived not only from his experiences as a top level cathedral musician but also from the time he spent living and working in India and his professional study of psychoanalysis, inform his music with a unique and multi-faceted character. Like Messiaen, who also enjoyed a fascination with Eastern music (and echoes of whom percolate into numerous Grier compositions), the organ has always remained a dominating influence in his life and music. Complex rhythms, virtuosic technique and mysticism abound, nowhere more apparent than in the brilliant Celebration for All Saints (2022) at over thirty-five minutes the largest piece on this disc. It is full of contrast and interest: the French-style Toccata of Let the bells peal yields to the glinting multi-layered nocturne of Justorum Animae. Fanfares in Flourish give way to deep contemplation in Reverie and Méditation De Profundis for cello and organ is an intensely felt reflection on Psalm 130.

The Merton organ is an instrument of crystalline clarity in an acoustic which reveals the stunning detail of this music. Stephen Farr adds to his distinguished catalogue (which includes the organ works of Kenneth Leighton and Philip Moore on the Resonus label) with another very fine release. Highly recommended.

BRET JOHNSON

Resonance & Resilience

Mark Steinbach, Silbermann organ of the Hofkirche, Dresden Raven OAR-183 [70:21]

This was Silbermann’s last organ, situated high in the west gallery, last renovated by Jehmlich and Kristian

Tom Winpenny features as director and organist in this issue’s reviews

Wegscheider in 2001–02, and with outstandingly resonant acoustics. Undoubtedly, equal temperament (not Silbermann’s!) enabled Steinbach to record this varied programme of Bach (BWV 542, 572, three Orgelbüchlein and one Schübler chorale preludes),

Buxtehude, Heiller, Eric Nathan, Wang Lu and Messiaen’s Le Banquet Céleste, the latter sounding very well. Nathan’s and Lu’s pieces are long and improvisatory, lacking musical development, but BWV 542 is a fine performance, although the ‘gravement’ section of BWV 572 lacks clarity with the manual 16′. The recording catches both organ and building very well.

DAVID PONSFORD*

Hendrie: Complete Organ Music, Volume Two

Tom Winpenny, Harrison organ of St Albans Abbey Toccata Classics TOCC0731 [79:00]

This sequel to the very impressive first volume (TOCC0684) released last year opens with Six Concert Etudes, only completed in 2023. Each of these (technically very complex and demanding) pieces exudes dynamic energy and drive, confirming Hendrie’s admiration for

the French romantic organ school (Vierne especially, but also the Etudes of Jeanne Demessieux).

The diversity of Hendrie’s interests extends to ragtime and the intricate counterpoint and variation technique of Bach (Etude no. 5). Indeed you may hear many composers in these pieces, from Mendelssohn to Dupré, but that is not to detract from Hendrie’s skill in recalibrating their styles in his own image so as to present an entirely new and original creative musical experience. Pastorale (2017) is a gentle bucolic reflection which to some extent recalls César Franck, and its companion Fughetta (2023) continues the mood. The Sonate en Trio (2006), composed for the late John Scott, is a masterclass of precision engineering and textural clarity that the format requires. The large-scale Sonata: In Praise of Reconciliation is the earliest work here (1995). Commissioned as a personal memorial by an American citizen, the piece evolved into a much wider commemoration of the wartime destruction of two cities: Coventry (1940) and Dresden (1945). A dramatic work rich both in allusive content and thematic development, it is one of the most significant and original British organ sonatas of recent decades.

Tom Winpenny again demonstrates his brilliance and empathy with the music of this most interesting composer, played on the St Albans organ he knows and loves so well. It is a worthy addition to the growing catalogue of contemporary organ literature.

BRET JOHNSON

SHEET MUSIC

Carols of Our Time: Hymns and Carols for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany & Candlemas

Sarah MacDonald and Timothy Rogers (eds)

Encore Publications

ISMN 979-0-900-25181-7

Paperback; 156 pages. RRP £18.95

It’s a brave editor who publishes a new collection of Christmas choral music: not that there aren’t fresh compositional voices emerging all the time (as this collection amply shows), but rather that many singers, organists, and directors of music are so wedded to their favourite carols and anthologies of carols that any new kid on the block has to make a strong case for choirs to splash the cash.

I’m happy to say that, for those willing to take the plunge, Carols of Our Time will be well worth it. The editors, Sarah MacDonald – Fellow and Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of the Girl Choristers at Ely Cathedral – and Timothy Rogers – founder and Head of Publishing at Encore Publications – have cannily included a mix of the old and the new.

The book begins with arrangements by MacDonald of eight favourite Christmas hymns (‘Come, thou Redeemer of the earth’, ‘O come, O come, Emmanuel’, ‘Of the Father’s heart begotten’, ‘Once in

royal David’s city’, ‘It came upon the midnight clear’, ‘While shepherds watched their flocks by night’, ‘O come, all ye faithful’, ‘Hark! the herald-angels sing’); these arose from final-verse descants that she composed for Harry Christophers and The Sixteen in 2022.

These are followed by twenty-two carols in a wide range of styles and voicings, with most pieces (sixteen) being for unaccompanied choir. The contents include charming arrangements of traditional tunes, expansive settings with soloists and organ, and rhythmically virtuosic and thrilling miniatures.

All the pieces are composed or arranged by women, with many of the texts also being by female authors, and this only serves to strengthen the case for Carols of

Our Time. MacDonald’s experience as director, organist, composer and commissioner of new works is an invaluable asset to Carols of Our Time: as well as the exciting selection of works, she has included suggestions of where each piece could come in a traditional service of Nine Lessons and Carols, as well as indications of those pieces that could be used at other times in the church year.

As choral Christmas anthologies go, this is one of the best I’ve come across in recent years, and gives those from more established publishing houses a run for their money – this ought to go straight into choral libraries up and down the country.

ADRIAN HORSEWOOD

Sarah MacDonald has co-edited a vibrant new collection of carols

BOOKS

On Voice. Speech, Song, Silence: Human and Divine

Victoria Johnson

Darton Longman Todd

ISBN 978-1-913-65798-7 (paperback); 978-1-913-65799-4 (e-book).

Paperback/e-book; 192 pages. RRP £14.99

The Reverend Canon Dr Victoria Johnson, who has recently taken up the role of Dean of Chapel at St John’s College, Cambridge, will be a familiar figure to readers of this magazine and to supporters of music at York Minster, where she served as Canon Precentor before her move south to the Fens.

The impetus for On Voice arose during Johnson’s time at York, although, as she discusses in her deeply personal introduction, the complexities surrounding the place of the voice in faith and worship have occupied her thinking ever since her childhood experiences in her parish choir, right through her journey to ordination and early ministry to her current position.

Johnson illuminates her writing with both anecdotes and also more introspective, searching passages, particularly when relating the mental and physical sensations of using her speaking and singing voices: ‘I open my mouth and in a sense I’m in the hands of God. It’s like leaping into the unknown, a flight of faith. This isn’t just public speaking, it’s speaking or

singing between heaven and earth, making sound into a liminal space, and carving out a prayer that reaches from the material to the things which are above.’

There are moments of joy and moments of seriousness in equal measure: she discusses the cessation of all worship and communal singing at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and the many effects, both good and bad, that arose as a result, and is candidly open about her nervousness (mixed with pride) as a woman occupying a historically male – and still male-dominated – role. And Johnson’s background as a research

scientist before she entered into ministry also comes to the fore in discussions of bio-acoustics in the animal world and sound/silence in deep space.

This delightful book – which feels like a selection of extended sermons, and are written with a beautifully clear and welcoming tone – is moving, thought-provoking, and full of insight and wisdom, and a thoroughly original contribution; it’s certainly one that will repay repeated reading and revisiting, as I fully intend to do.

ADRIAN HORSEWOOD

Victoria Johnson writes openly about her experiences of the voice in faith and worship

What is your earliest memory of music in church?

My early years were shaped by a vicarage upbringing, living within the context of a village church in semi-rural Warwickshire and being involved with music-making in one way or another from the age of five. This wasn’t high choral tradition – it was rough and ready, and it was as often contemporary praise music as hymns and oratorios, but it was worship. A performance of Stainer’s Crucifixion resounds most strongly: about as far from professional as you can get and yet filled with such collective joy, that it has stayed with me for over thirty years.

Is there a cathedral or church especially close to your heart?

If I’m allowed to, I’ll pick two establishments as they both have personal significance. Firstly, Birmingham Cathedral where I had piano lessons with the then Assistant Director of Music, Rosemary Field, from the age of ten. Those famous Edward Burne-Jones stained-glass windows are indelibly printed on my brain and, whilst not a grand or ancient building, I always enjoyed the wonderful acoustics. My mother still volunteers at the cathedral every week, so there’s an ongoing family connection. Secondly, Temple Church in the heart of London; a

JONATHAN MAYES

‘Music allows us to tap into truths that go beyond words and beyond intellectual understanding, and it is no surprise to me that there is an increasing hunger for choral music’

Interview by ADRIAN HORSEWOOD

place we barely knew until our eldest son was lucky enough to join as a chorister in 2021. The music tradition at Temple speaks for itself, but I think what brings me most joy is seeing the choristers leap around the tombs of knights long-forgotten, blissfully unaware of the history to which they are contributing.

Figures indicate that the number of churchgoers in the UK has been declining for decades, yet cathedrals report ever-growing congregations for choral services. What does this say about the role of music in worship today?

Music and worship are inseparable. The words used in liturgy are themselves poetry and full of music, but more than this, music has always been integral to human expression and to acts of worship. Music allows us to tap into truths that go beyond words and beyond intellectual understanding, and it is no surprise to me that there is an increasing hunger for choral music in a liturgical setting. As our world becomes increasingly digital and constantly ‘online’, the analogue space provided by choral services is a haven of refuge and peace. I’m lucky in my new role to be travelling around the country and seeing the great variety of our cathedrals and choral foundations – they are all

fascinatingly idiosyncratic. Yet, despite the differences, the music they offer provides reassuringly consistent spaces for thought, reflection and awe.

What do you think is the most important part of your role as CEO of Cathedral Music Trust?

Supporting music. That may sound a bit flippant, but actually the core purpose of Cathedral Music Trust is very clear: we are here because we care deeply about the musicians who enrich us all with their music and because our supporters share that passion. Everything that my colleagues and I do at the Trust is in service of that.

If you were introducing a newcomer to the world of cathedral music, what piece do you think would get them hooked for life?

This is a hard question and it really would depend on what other music and cultural influences that person had in their life. However, if I really had to pick just one it would be Purcell’s Hear my prayer, O Lord. It’s about as close to perfection as you can get in two-and-a-half minutes of music: visceral cries of help straight from the human heart turned into one sweeping choral outpouring. I defy anyone to listen to that and not be enthralled!