The Exon Singers

performances include the Oxford Festival of Contemporary Music (2000) and the Edinburgh Festival (2004).

Since 1973, the annual Exon Singers Festival has been based in the historic market town of Tavistock on the edge of Dartmoor, and includes the venues of Tavistock Parish Church, Buckfast Abbey and Exeter Cathedral.

Matthew Owens became Conductor of The Exon Singers in 1997. He is also Organist and Master of the Music at St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, a post to which he was appointed in 1999 and which he leaves in June

2004 to become Organist and Master of the Choristers at Wells Cathedral.

The Exon Singers is recognised as one of the UK’s leading chamber choirs. Founded in 1966, it has become renowned for its dynamic and expressive performances of music from the Renaissance to the present day.

The choir broadcasts regularly on BBC Radios 3 and 4 and has made a number of recordings. Under the direction of Matthew Owens, it has also received acclaimed recognition through commissioning new works from some of the UK’s most exciting contemporary composers: Richard Allain, Grayston Ives, Gabriel Jackson and George Lloyd, amongst others. George Lloyd’s Requiem was recorded by The Exon Singers, and released in 2002 on the Albany label to critical acclaim. BBC Music Magazine praised the choir saying: ‘The Exon Singers sing with limpid purity of tone, their harmonies impeccably modulated and expertly disciplined.’ Future commissions include works by Francis Jackson and Philip Moore. The Choir’s festival

For further information on the choir, please visit: www.exonsingers.org.uk

Sopranos

Hannah Ball

Mary Chelu

Ali Darragh

Mary Dawson

Audrey Dean

Nikki Dragonetti

Susie Lamb

Kate Taylor Altos

Biraj Barkakaty

Karl Gietzmann

Claire Goodenough

Ed Tolputt

Ben Turner

Tenors

James Atherton

David Goodenough

Christopher May

Ashley Turnell

Geraint Watkins Basses

Simon Ball

Anthony Gray

Gareth Jones

Maurice MacSweeney

David Stout

Graham Wood Cantor

Ashley Turnell

Born in Manchester in 1971, he studied at Chetham’s School of Music and was subsequently Organ Scholar at The Queen’s College, Oxford. As a postgraduate he studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and the Sweelinck Conservatorium, Amsterdam.

As an organist he has given recitals in France, Ireland, Switzerland and throughout the UK, including numerous festival appearances. As a conductor and solo organist he has premiered many works by leading composers including Gavin Bryars, Gabriel Jackson, Naji Hakim, James MacMillan, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Arvo Pärt, Howard Skempton and Giles Swayne. He is increasingly active as a composer himself and some of his works have been recorded for commercial release, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

From 1993-99, Matthew was Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. In 1999, he made his professional orchestral conducting debut with the BT Scottish Ensemble and in July 2002 conducted the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Hungary; he also regularly conducts the Orchestra of St Mary’s Music School (Scotland’s specialist music school). Widely recorded as both choral conductor and organist, in 2004 he began recording Johann Pachelbel’s complete organ works for Delphian.

Choral music on Delphian

In Chains of Gold

Dunedin Consort

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The Dunedin Consort, praised by critics for its ‘clear-textured beauty and thrilling intensity’, presents William Byrd’s Mass for five voices as a full service, accompanied by motets and organ hymns by Byrd and his teacher Thomas Tallis. The intimacy of one voice per part brings an exceedingly clear vocal texture, and an atmosphere of quiet devotion which is not soon forgotten.

‘The singers luxuriate in the glowing acoustics of Midlothian’s Crichton Collegiate Church, lending warmth to immaculate performances of Tallis’s restful evening motet, O nata lux, Byrd’s intricate five-part mass and much more, including breathy interludes from organist John Kitchen.’ – The Scotsman, May 2003

Francis Jackson: Sacred Choral Works

The Exon Singers / Matthew Owens

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Now in his early nineties, Francis Jackson remains one of the finest, best-loved and most versatile church musicians of our age. The eleven works on this disc, none of them previously recorded, have all the colour, emotional depth and attention to structural detail that are consistent hallmarks of his style. Working closely with the composer, The Exon Singers bring their customary blend of virtuosity, intense commitment and subtle responsiveness to this portrait in sound of a very special composer.

‘With Matthew Owens’ affectionate readings and The Exon Singers’ beautifully tailored singing, not to mention a richly atmospheric recording from Wells Cathedral, this presents as touching and rewarding a compendium of very English 20th-century church music as one could wish for.’ – Gramophone, December 2006

Michael Wise (c.1648–1687): Sacred Choral Music

Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge

Geoffrey Webber conductor & solo organ

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Chastised for ‘excesses in his life and conversation’, Michael Wise lived a notoriously dissolute life which ended when he was hit about the head and ‘kill’d downright’ by the night watchman in Salisbury Cathedral. Thus was St Paul’s Cathedral robbed of its forthcoming Master of the Choristers, and history of one of the period’s most prolific and respected composers. In this recording, the first dedicated to his music, Geoffrey Webber’s Caius choir pays testament to the more respectable music-making that is Wise’s legacy.

‘The music really comes alive, thanks to the superb performances given by Webber’s musicians’ – Church Music Quarterly, September 2007

William Turner (1651-1740): Sacred Choral Music

The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge & Yorkshire Baroque Soloists / Geoffrey Webber conductor

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It is easy to forget that our great English choral tradition was once silenced by Act of Parliament. The restoration of the monarchy in 1660 subsequently ushered in one of the finest periods of English music, though the road to recovery for church music was a slow and difficult one. Turner, in 1660 a precocious nine-year-old, went on to become one of the best-known composers and singers of his day. This disc presents a cross-section of his sacred music, often in premiere recordings, ranging from small-scale liturgical works to one of his grandest creations, the Te Deum and Jubilate in D.

‘invigorating and highly persuasive … a reminder of the still unknown riches of English Baroque music’ – Gramophone, October 2007