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College Choir

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In Memoriam

In Memoriam

College Choir

Paul Nicholson

Having been away from Cambridge for the Easter term, due to the pandemic, it was wonderful to have students back in Cambridge for the Michaelmas term 2020. The Choir welcomed 14 new singers, and a new Junior Organ Scholar, Jonathan Lee, who joined us having spent his gap year at Hereford Cathedral.

The Choir’s pre-term rehearsals culminated in a Requiem Mass, sung liturgically with music by Maurice Duruflé, which is available to watch on our YouTube channel. Like all of the videos from this unusual year, it will provide historians with an interesting snapshot into the period we have been through, with the Choir spread throughout the Chapel to give social distance, and putting on masks when not singing.

We were unable to welcome our usual congregations to Chapel for services during the term, but a weekly service of Choral Evensong was streamed for the College community on Sundays. Trinity’s Organ Scholars, Harrison Cole and Jonathan Lee, also gave a series of live-streamed recitals, which featured major organ works by J S Bach.

The Choir rehearsing in Wells Cathedral, July 2021.

To replace our annual Advent Carol Service and also our usual performance of Christmas Oratorio in St John’s Smith Square, the Choir used the time to produce ‘Carols from Trinity’: video recordings of well-loved carols, including Richard Marlow’s wonderful Advent Responsory which would normally begin the Advent Carol Service. These were released on the Choir’s Facebook page in the days leading up to Christmas and are available to watch again on YouTube.

Sacred choral works by Cecilia McDowall – released on Hyperion.

The Choir’s recording of sacred choral works by British composer Cecilia McDowall was released in April 2021. The recording features her Marian Three Latin Motets, amongst other vocal settings of sacred and devotional texts. It also includes music for solo organ: a sequence based on the Advent ‘O’ antiphons which was composed in 2018 and is played by the then organ scholar Alexander Hamilton (2015). This recording is available to buy as a CD and to download from Hyperion Records.

Having been forced away from Cambridge again for the Lent term, the Choir returned to Trinity before the Easter term 2021 to regroup after the winter lockdown. After the end of term, in July, the Choir travelled to Wells Cathedral to give a concert of great British choral works together with Duruflé’s Requiem, repeating the concert a week later in Ely Cathedral. It was wonderful to be performing to live audiences again.

Towards the end of July 2021, the Choir spent twelve days in Salle, Norfolk, singing in the fifteenth-century Church of St Peter and St Paul, and staying on the Salle Estate who very generously hosted us. For the first time in 14 months, the Choir was able to come together and sing in a normal formation, in the extraordinary acoustic of Salle Church, which was an emotional moment for everyone. As the centrepiece of this residency, the Choir rehearsed and recorded music by Swiss composer Ivo Antognini, as well as giving a recital for the staff of the Salle Estate who had been so welcoming to us.

On our return to Cambridge, we recorded some music by Howells and Poulenc in Chapel, followed by the annual Choir BBQ, before the Choir left for a well-earned

summer break. We are very grateful for the patience and resilience of our talented students during this extraordinary year.

Full details of the Choir’s CD releases, forthcoming performances, webcasts of services and YouTube videos can be found at www.trinitycollegechoir.com.

Graham CopeKoga

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