Newsletters written by Arna Blum unless noted.
Stephen Hope will be our next Musical Director and Conductor.
Following on from our highly successful March Messiah concert, that concluded with our tribute to our retiring Founder Director Patrick Salisbury, The All Saints Singers are proud to announce that our new Musical Director and Conductor will be Stephen Hope , who will join us for the 2008-2009 season starting in September.
We are privileged to be looking forward to making music with Stephen Hope. He is an enthusiastic and dynamic musician, with an extremely wide-ranging background of choral, orchestral and operatic conducting, both professional and amateur, in both this country and overseas on tour. He is also a professional organist and experienced musical administrator, who has developed new choirs, managed and presented concert series, and organised choral and orchestral tours to France, Belgium, Bavaria and Italy. He has also formed his own chamber orchestra of professional performers, the Sinfonia da Chiesa, whose primary focus is to raise funds for the hospice movement. With backing from the Sinfonia da Chiesa he has formed the Sussex Festival Choir and the Essex Festival Choir, performing summer festival programmes in Arundel and Chelmsford Cathedrals respectively, in aid of local hospices.
An astonishing bit of Sutton-Courtenay-linked news is that Stephen Hope for the past five years has been Musical Director of Northwood's Trinity Music Society - and that this Northwood Society was founded 35 years ago by none other than our retiring Music Director Patrick Salisbury! The Northwood website says of Stephen Hope: '.. Stephen Hope has a special talent for getting the best out of our voices, and rehearsals are always exciting and fun!'.
The eminent choral conductor David Willcocks, with whom Stephen Hope shared the podium at an international festival in the Seychelles for which Stephen was Artistic Director, wrote in 2000: '.. He [Stephen Hope] commands the confidence and respect of both singers (soloists and chorus) and orchestral musicians, who admire his professionalism and his infectious enthusiasm for music in many genres'. He can be relied upon to bring the best out of those with whom he is working, whether they be experienced professionals or keen amateurs.
May we in All Saints Singers rise to the occasion, benefit from Stephen Hope's lively approach to teaching voice and musical skills, and enjoy the challenges he presents and the opportunities he offers!
New singers, returning singers and friends - welcome to the new season in September.
Watch this website over the next few weeks for details of September dates including the date of the first autumn season rehearsal, as well as news about the concert programme and other interesting developments being planned for the coming months. We will also bring you news from our AGM held on the 27th April.
Prospective new singers are always welcome to join us for the initial rehearsals without audition or obligation. We ask you to contact our Secretary Christiane Hutchins (01235 848997 or by email ), so she can provide you with up-to-date details and also be sure that we have music available for you when you come to your first rehearsal.
Returning singers, if you haven't done so already, please confirm to Christiane that you expect to be with us in September. This will help us with our planning.
Concluding With A Tribute To Our Retiring Music Director Patrick Salisbury
The All Saints Singers, Orchestra, and Guest Soloists were joined by an enthusiastic full house audience in a tribute to Patrick Salisbury following the end of the Passiontide Messiah Concert on Sunday the 9th March 2008 in Sutton Courtenay Parish Church.
The Concert itself featured not only the familiar glorious choral music by Handel, but also the special orchestral arrangements Mozart composed to enrich and enhance the orchestra's contribution. Much praise has been received by the Singers for the evening: Brilliant!, Never heard the choir sing so well!, and Wonderfully satisfying evening to sum up all the pleasure Pat has brought us! were typical comments from the warmly appreciative audience.
After the applause and bouquets for the soloists, champagne was handed around to all the audience, orchestra and singers for a toast to Pat, proposed by our Chairman Mrs Pamela Vivian, with a moving tribute to Patrick and all he has contributed over the past 25 years.
We in the Singers would like to express our own appreciation, not only to Pat, but also to Pamela Vivian herself. She is a founder member who from the beginning has chaired the Committee with a steady hand and great commitment to the life and potential of the Singers. Two other founder members, Faith Wilson and Mary Elise Domville, presented flowers on our behalf to thank Pat's wife Rosemary and April Cantelo, who have faithfully supported us in important ways down through the years. We also specially thank John and Pat Napper, founder members who have made many contributions to our life and are still singing with us in 2008.
Finally, after Pamela Vivian concluded her tribute in words, Faith Wilson presented a gift from the Singers to Patrick, and in a lighter vein we saluted him in artistic and musical modes. From behind the altar emerged a large Quaver Tree, hung with dozens of notes to Pat from individual Singers. Each message was hand-written on a hand-made black-and-white quaver-shaped cardboard notecard literally creating a tree of notes on notes!
The coda - or encore? - to the evening took the form of a humorous masterpiece, a musical tribute to Pat sung by the entire audience as well as the Singers and Orchestra, to the tune of All Things Bright and Beautiful. By popular request, we bring you the words of that song, words that express our appreciation and affection for Pat and all the joy he has given to the village over all these years.
The chorus; sung by everyone in the church:
For music great and beautiful,
In Sutton Courtenay,
We want to thank our Maestro,
Our own Pat Salsbur-ey.
Verse 1, sung by Angela Ayres:
From basses through to trebles,
He taught us with aplomb.
With patience and with humour,
He helped us sing along.
Verse 2, sung by Kyra Cornwall:
The youngsters thrived and loved him,
The rest of us did too.
His passion and commitment
Inspired us all anew.
Verse 3, sung by Mark Stanley:
The keyboard is no problem,
Be it piano or I. T.
But organ is his great love,
'Tis clear for all to see.
Verse 4, sung by Robin Martin-Oliver:
His presence on the podium
Is something to behold.
Singers and orchestra alike
Do exactly what they're told!
Verse 5, sung by all the All Saints Singers
The concerts were amazing,
The programmes quite tip-top.
We might have been nerve-wracking
BUT----- It never was a flop!
Ending with the chorus sung by everyone:
For music great and beautiful,
In Sutton Courtenay,
We want to thank our Maestro,
Our own Pat Salsbur-ey.
A SPECIAL MESSIAH AND REUNION OF MUSICIANS AND AUDIENCE FOR PATRICK SALISBURY'S FESTIVE RETIREMENT CONCERT SUNDAY 9TH MARCH 2008 7.30pm
The concert festivities will include not only Handel's marvellous much-loved music with the rarely-heard additional orchestral accompaniments by Mozart, but also will be the occasion for a reunion of many musicians, amateur and professional, who have worked with Patrick over his quarter century of great joyous music-making in Sutton Courtenay. We regret that we can mention here only a few people by name, but regular concert-goers will recognise many more familiar faces on the night - both those performing and those paying their tribute from within the audience.
Musicians from the first All Saints Singers concert with orchestra in 1983 - who will be with us 25 years on?
Five of the musicians who joined Patrick in his first All Saints Singers concert with orchestra (following performances the previous year with organ only) will be with us. Three singers, Pat and John Napper and our Chairman Pamela Vivian, have sung with us faithfully down through the years. 1983 violinists Nick Salisbury (Patrick's son) and his wife Judy are also coming back specially for our celebration evening. Though not part of this first orchestral concert, two other Salisburys who have played with us previously will be playing again on the night: Patrick's son and flautist Simon Salisbury and his wife Barbara on clarinet. And we will be paying a much-deserved tribute to Rosemary Salisbury, who has not only sung with us in the past but who has contributed so much behind the scenes by supporting Patrick and the Singers, not least as warm-hearted and faithful coffee-and-biscuits provider! Within the following year 1984, Pamela Vivian's daughter Sue was playing oboe with us. Watch for her on the 9th March under her married name Sue Hayward. Ian Smith and others have also sung with us regularly since 1984.
Guest soloists in 2008 are all veterans of previous all Saints Singers' Messiahs in 1989, 1993 and 2002.
Angela Ayers, our Mezzo-Soprano soloist this March, has been a Guest Soloist with us for more concerts than any other singer, and she was soloist in our first two Messiah concerts in 1989 and 1993. Mark Stanley was Messiah Tenor soloist in 1993 and 2002, and Robin Martin-Oliver was our Bass in 2002. Patrick Salisbury always encouraged young musicians, including Kyra Cornwall, who joined the church choir at the age of seven and went on to sing her first Messiah as a talented teenage schoolgirl with All Saints Singers in 2002. Now as a Choral Exhibitioner at Christ's College, Cambridge, she returns home to sing with us again, this time as our Soprano Guest Soloist for this special concert.
Amateurs and professionals together - you've heard them on the BBC!
One of the joys of singing with the All Saints Singers has been the opportunity to perform alongside fine professional musicians. BBC aficionados will recognise and doubly appreciate the contribution to our concerts over many years of April Cantelo, our Vocal Consultant, who helps us generously behind the scenes as well as at rehearsals; and we congratulate her as she celebrates her 80th birthday next month. Other regular performers with us you're likely to have heard on the BBC include Sue Lynn, our Leader and Violin Soloist, who plays solo violin for BBC dramatic productions as well as Radio 3 programmes; Angela Ayers, formerly of BBC Singers and our Mezzo Guest Soloist; and Alyn Shipton, who takes time to play Bass with us, when he's away from his busy life researching and presenting Jazz Library and other Radio 3 jazz and classical music series.
Our thanks and tribute to all the musicians and audiences who have supported us over this quarter century - especially Patrick Salisbury himself!
Don't miss out - order your advance tickets now! And also support us by becoming a Friend of All Saints Singers.
| Concert: | Handel's Messiah with Mozart's Accompaniments. Guest soloists Kyra Cornwall, Angela Ayers, Mark Stanley, Robin Martin-Oliver. |
| When: | Sunday 9th March 2008, 7.30pm. |
| Where: | All Saints Parish Church, situated alongside The Green, Sutton Courtenay. |
| Tickets: | Available from members or by phone from 01235 848205 or 848719. Remaining tickets sold at the door. Single £12 (concessions £10), family £20. |
A very unusual festive treat is in store for all local music-lovers who join us on Sunday the 9th March 2008 at 7.30pm when we honour Patrick Salisbury at his final concert with the All Saints Singers, by singing Messiah with the seldom-heard orchestral 'additional accompaniments' Mozart composed to complement Handel's great work.
Patrick Salisbury has written the following introduction to this Mozart version of Handel's Messiah that he will conduct:
As already announced, our performance of Handel's Messiah on 9th March will be given with the Mozart 'additional accompaniments'. The origin of these is quite fascinating.
One of Mozart's most faithful patrons in Vienna was Baron Gottfried van Swieten, a diplomat who had at one time been Ambassador to Berlin. Whilst there, he had fallen in love with the music of Bach and Handel and acquired the scores of a number of their works which he was happy to share with his young protégé. As a keen amateur musician and a promoter of concerts supported by the nobility, van Swieten found that most of the otherwise suitable venues lacked an organ to provide the keyboard continuo¿which was an essential feature of baroque music.
Mozart being hard up (as usual!) was happy to accept van Swieten's commissions to score several works by Handel (including Messiah) for the symphony orchestra of his day, with parts for woodwind, brass and percussion in addition to strings.
Being a musical genius, Mozart transformed what might have been a tedious chore into an inspired act of musical homage. The resulting score incorporates the vocal parts exactly as Handel wrote them but, in the orchestral accompaniments, Mozart elaborates and formalises the improvisatory additions normally made by the continuo player in realising the figured bass in the original.
With more than forty singers, including previous members returning for this special concert, four guest soloists, an augmented orchestra, and an expected sell-out audience of regular concertgoers, space in the Church will be at a premium. We urge you to secure your place for this memorable evening by reserving your advance tickets now!
| Concert: | Handel's Messiah with Mozart's Accompaniments. Guest soloists Kyra Cornwall, Angela Ayers, Mark Stanley, Robin Martin-Oliver. |
| When: | Sunday 9th March 2008, 7.30pm. |
| Where: | All Saints Parish Church, situated alongside The Green, Sutton Courtenay. |
| Tickets: | Available from members or by phone from 01235 848205 or 848719. Remaining tickets sold at the door. Single £12 (concessions £10), family £20. |
Come to (or fondly recall) our 2nd December St Cecilia Concert.If you're reading this before 7.30pm on Sunday the 2nd December, we hope you are looking forward to joining us in our Welcome To All The Pleasures of Purcell and Elgar. (TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE ON THE DOOR at All Saints Parish Church on the Green, or from members or 01235 848205 or 848997.) And if the 2nd December has passed before you read this, we hope you enjoyed our bright and lively showcase of some of the finest works of these two great British composers. Programme information and further details about the St Cecilia Concert can be found in previous newsletters and elsewhere on the website.
Singers are invited to the 4th January first rehearsal for our very special Messiah Concert on the 9th March. We will be rehearsing Handel's great work with Mozart's fine orchestration - to celebrate Patrick Salisbury's 25 years as Founder and Director of All Saints Singers, and his retirement at the end of this concert. We expect that a number of former singers will be rejoining us for this special event, and that it will serve as something of a reunion, with a full chorus and orchestra. We therefore want to be sure you SIGN UP BEFORE THE FIRST REHEARSAL 4TH JANUARY, preferably in December, so we can reserve a singing place for you in case we have to limit numbers of choral singers because of our space limitations. You can SIGN UP by informing Pamela Vivian (01235 848205) or Christiane Hutchins (01235 848997) that you definitely want to sing at this concert and expect to attend all or almost all the ten rehearsals.
To all music lovers in our area- musicians, audience and well-wishers - come join the newly established Friends of the All Saints Singers! Times are changing, and we are working at securing a creative future for the All Saints Singers, building on the strong foundations and traditions of local choral music-making laid down by Patrick Salisbury and the society members over the past 25 years. Various plans are afoot to meet the opportunities and needs of the society, including not only the recruitment of a new Conductor but also the seeking of more opportunities for community involvement and the need for additional income to meet the rising costs we foresee. One of the first tasks has been to form the Friends of All Saints Singers. We know that we have many faithful supporters, who appreciate sharing the joy of beautiful music with the singers and the orchestra. We are inviting each one to become a Friend, contributing a minimum donation of £10 per year. To join, please fill out this form and return it to our Treasurer, Chris Billin, The Croft, High St, Sutton Courtenay OX14 4AW.
Saint Cecilia, traditional Patron Saint of musicians and music, has continued to inspire composers, performers, artists and poets for hundreds of years. As a local choral society and orchestra, we in the All Saints Singers have the privilege of playing our small part in continuing this great tradition, as we invoke its spirit for our special concert of lively, life-affirming music by Purcell and Elgar on Sunday 2nd December 2007 at 7.30pm in All Saints Church.
It is especially appropriate that we begin this concert with Purcell's Welcome to All the Pleasures. Tributes to St Cecilia in music and painting had been popular on the Continent for nearly a century when in 1683 a group of English gentlemen musicians and art lovers founded The Musical Society, and commissioned the 24-year-old Purcell to compose the ode Welcome to All the Pleasures for their inaugural St Cecilia's Day concert. Purcell subsequently received commissions for the 1692 and 1694 annual St Cecilia's events; we will sing also his Jubilate first performed at the 1694 concert.
Our concert will also include Purcell's Trumpet Overture and Elgar's Serenade for Strings, as well as Ave Verum and O Salutaris Hostia by Elgar, and the finale of his early oratorio The Light of Life. Patrick Salisbury discussed these fine works in last month's newsletter. Alert readers may have noted that even the Bank of England recognised that Elgar and St Cecilia should be linked, when the Bank featured the two together on the £20 banknote from 1999 to 2007!
Unusually, we will have three male guest soloists, so we can perform the Purcell works in their original 17th century scoring. We welcome back Philip Fine (tenor) and Timothy Salisbury (bass baritone) who have been well received by Sutton Courtenay audiences in recent years, and they will be joined by Jeremy Kenyon (counter tenor) who will come to us from London.
We hope you will join us for all the pleasures of Elgar, Purcell, and St Cecilia!
| Concert: | St Cecilia Concert, with music by Purcell and Elgar. |
| When: | Sunday 2nd December 2007, 7.30pm. |
| Where: | All Saints Parish Church, situated alongside The Green, Sutton Courtenay. |
| Tickets: | Available from members or by phone from 01235 848997. Remaining tickets sold at the door. Single £10 (concessions £8), family £20. |
Patrick Salisbury will hand on musical direction of All Saints Singers at the end of the 2007-2008 season.
On the 1st September at the All Saints Singers Garden Party, Pamela Vivian, Chair of the Singers, announced that at the end of the Jubilee Season celebrating 25 years of the All Saints Singers, our Founder, Musical Director and Conductor Patrick Salisbury will be handing on his leadership of the choral society. Throughout the season we will pay tribute to him for his initial conception and the strong, modest, highly creative professional leadership he has provided over the first two and a half decades of the Society. With his full cooperation, the Committee is already actively planning its search for a new leader and fresh organisational initiatives to prepare the society for many rewarding years ahead. We expect and trust there will be a successful transition, building on the gifts of joy in singing great music that Patrick has brought to us over the years. The Jubilee Season will focus on our two concerts, and we will have additional events and initiatives that will be publicised in future issues of this newsletter. The Saint Cecilia Concert, on Sunday the 2nd December at 7.30pm, will feature choral and orchestral works by Purcell and Elgar. The second and final concert of the Jubilee Year, on Sunday the 9th March 2008 at 7.30pm, will be a remarkable occasion, with Handel's Messiah performed using the orchestration Mozart composed in tribute to Handel's work.
More details later, but for this newsletter we thought you would like to hear from Patrick Salisbury himself about the reasons why he chose Purcell and Elgar to feature in this important concert in our Jubilee Year. Patrick writes: "With a membership of around 35 to 40 singers and restricted performing space, the All Saints Singers have normally chosen to perform medium scale sacred works entailing accompaniment by a chamber orchestra. This posed something of a quandary when selecting choral music appropriate to the year in which Elgar's 150th birthday was to be commemorated; how best could we pay appropriate tribute to a composer who, apart from a handful of liturgical anthems and secular part-songs, is best known for his monumental symphonic music and oratorios, prime amongst the latter being his masterpiece The Dream of Gerontius? The fact that our next concert is timed for just a week after St Cecilia's Day suggested a rather special form of celebration of the Patron Saint of Music. If Henry Purcell is acknowledged to be one of our greatest English composers, Edward Elgar must surely be accorded similar status. Hence, the idea of a programme devoted to these two greats whose birthdays (Purcell's 350th in 1659 and Elgar's 150th in 1857) fell almost exactly 200 years apart! Although the programme will be mainly choral, each composer will also be represented by a characteristic orchestral piece - the Trumpet Overture by Purcell and the Serenade for Strings by Elgar. Appropriately, there will be a St Cecilia Ode by Purcell together with his settings of the Jubilate and other well known biblical texts. Elgar's Ave verum and O salutaris will be included but we shall end the concert on a high with the magnificent final section of his early oratorio The Light of Life. Stretching our resources to the limit, we shall do our best to interpret this early manifestation of Elgar's distinctive personal style which subsequently reached its full flowering in Gerontius and beyond."
We hope you will join Patrick Salisbury and the Singers and Orchestra for Purcell, Elgar, Handel and Mozart in our Jubilee Year concerts. Advance tickets for the December Saint Cecilia Concert will be on sale from mid-October.
| Concert: | St Cecilia Concert, with music by Purcell and Elgar. |
| When: | Sunday 2nd December 2007, 7.30pm. |
| Where: | All Saints Parish Church, situated alongside The Green, Sutton Courtenay. |
| Tickets: | Available mid October, from members or by phone from 01235 848997. |
Purcell's joyous Ode for St Cecilia's Day, "Welcome to All the Pleasures", will set the scene at the beginning of our Saint Cecilia Concert on Sunday the 2nd December. We would like to welcome both returning and prospective new singers to join us in preparing for this event at our first rehearsal on Friday the 21st September, as we start the 2007-2008 season.
The Saint Cecilia Concert will feature works, both sacred and secular, by two of Britain's greatest composers, Henry Purcell and Edward Elgar. Both these men brought passion and innovative spirit to their music, which received popular recognition and acclaim within the composers¿ own lifetimes, and continues to do so today. We will perform a selection of their works especially appropriate for Saint Cecilia's Day. More details about the programme and its background will be available in forthcoming editions of this newsletter.
Though most people have heard, and many have sung, Handel's Messiah, fewer are aware that Mozart was so impressed by Handel's masterpiece that he composed his own orchestration of the work. It is this version that we will perform for our second concert on Sunday the 9th March 2008, bringing to the familiar choral setting of the Messiah the additional depth and richness of Mozart's reworking of the orchestral possibilities of the music.
News from the Society, and a Welcome to Returning and New Members
As for the past 25 years, we continue to offer music-loving amateurs the opportunity to learn and sing great music locally under friendly professional leadership and direction, culminating in performances with professional and semi-professional orchestras and soloists.
Following on from discussions at our recent AGM and other helpful comments from various present and previous members, we are working out ways of developing and strengthening the Society's work for the coming year and for the longer-term future. More specific news about this will be available after the summer break, and at our first rehearsal.
Meanwhile, when we come together for the first rehearsal on Friday 21st September, we hope to welcome both returning singers and others who may be considering joining us. No auditions are required, but instead we encourage newcomers to come along without obligation to the first two or three rehearsals of the new season, to sing along with us and decide whether to join as members. Prospective members are invited to make prior contact with our Hon Secretary (Christiane Hutchins on 01235 848997) so that we can prepare a place and have copies of the music ready for you.
We look forward to all the pleasures and challenges of another year of All Saints Singers music-making.
Regular readers of our newsletters already know that our Spring Concert on Sunday 25 March will feature choral and orchestral works by popular classical 19th, 20th and 21st century composers, including: John Rutter's Requiem, Gabriel Faure's Cantique de Jean Racine, Caesar Franck's Panis Angelicus, and Patrick Salisbury's two motets composed especially for the All Saints' Singers, Reflections on an Avian Logo and O God the Protector of all that Trust in Thee.
In addition to these works, which we previewed last month, we will have the special privilege of hearing Vaughan Williams' enthralling The Lark Ascending, performed by the well-known professional violinist Sue Lynn and the orchestra. We are most fortunate in having Sue Lynn as our soloist, and also as Leader of our orchestra. Sue is a freelance professional musician who has performed extensively with major orchestras and as a soloist in this country and abroad. She trained at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal Academy, and has had an illustrious musical career, working, for example, as Concertmaster with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' Fires of London, and appearing as a soloist with the English Chamber Orchestra and on tour with Iona Brown at concerts in Spain, Germany and Finland. She has recently performed as soloist at Kings College Chapel Cambridge and at Douai Abbey, and will be appearing at the Sheldonian this month. Very few local choral societies have the privilege of the support and leadership of such an experienced professional, who is also a warm and accessible musician with whom to work. For our Sutton Courtenay concerts, where the orchestra comes together for only the afternoon dress rehearsals on the day of the concert itself, expert Leadership and conducting are essential for the high level of performance we aim for and achieve. We are honoured to have Sue as our Leader, and look forward to The Lark Ascending on the 25th March.
| Spring Concert: | Sunday 25th March 2007, 7.30pm. |
| Where: | All Saints Parish Church, situated alongside The Green, Sutton Courtenay. |
| Tickets: | Available from members or by phone from 01235 848205 or 848997. Remaining tickets sold at the door. Single £10 (concessions £8), family £20. |
Following on from our well-received St John Passion and All-Mozart concerts over the past year, our next performance on Sunday 25th March 2007 at 7.30pm will continue to present both well-known and less familiar choral and orchestral works, this time by several popular composers from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
The programme will feature John Rutter's moving 1985 Requiem, which reflects on the Passiontide themes of life, death, redemption and rest in eternal peace. The work is musically sophisticated and yet accessible. It is simple, melodic and profound in expression, rooted in the traditional form of the Requiem Mass, and interspersed with passages from the Book of Common Prayer and the Psalms. Especially memorable are the rendition of Psalm 130 Out of the Deep Have I cried Unto Thee, the ethereal Pie Jesu, the vibrant Sanctus and the gently flowing affirmation of faith in The Lord is My Shepherd.
Complementing the Requiem will be two shorter choral works from great late 19th century composers: Faure's beautiful Cantique de Jean Racine, and the familiar Panis Angelicus by Caesar Franck.
Linking the 21st and 16th centuries, we will enjoy singing again the fine motet Reflections on an Avian Logo, which is a meditation on a theme by the Elizabethan composer William Byrd (the theme is featured on our logo!). We will also have the privilege of presenting the premiere of a brand new motet O God the Protector of All that Trust in Thee, set to the words of a Prayer Book Collect. Our Conductor and Music Director Patrick Salisbury composed both these works especially for the All Saints Singers and Orchestra.
A further feature of this springtime concert will be the performance of Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending. We are most fortunate that Sue Lynn, who is a well-known professional violinist, will be our Soloist, as well as once again being Leader of our orchestra.
We warmly welcome your sharing in our musical life as part of our audience, and hope you will enjoy joining us for the concert.
Following on from our December special Mozart evening, our next concert on Sunday 25th March 2007 will continue to present well-known and less familiar lyrical choral and orchestral works, this time by more recent composers.
The programme will include not only sacred choral works like John Rutter's Requiem, Faure's beautiful Cantique de Jean Racine, and the ever-popular Panis Angelicus by Caesar Franck. We will also be singing again the fine 21st century motet Reflections on an Avian Logo written for the All Saints Singers and Orchestra 20th Birthday Concert in 2002 by our Conductor and Music Director Patrick Salisbury.
A further feature of the concert will be the performance of Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending. We are most fortunate that Sue Lynn, who is a well-known professional violinist, will be our Soloist, as well as being Leader of our orchestra.
New singers from Sutton Courtenay and the surrounding area are always made welcome without audition, to attend the early rehearsals and try themselves out with us, to discover whether we are the right choral society for them before making a commitment. If you're interested please phone our Secretary Christiane Hutchins on 01235 848997, so we can expect you and have music ready for you at the first rehearsal. We warmly invite your participation in our musical life over this coming year, whether as members of the audience for our concerts or by joining us as singers for music and fellowship throughout the season.
| Spring Concert: | Sunday 25th March 2007, 7.30pm. |
| First Rehearsal: | Friday 12 January 2007 at 7.45 (coffee) for 8-9.30pm. |
| Where: | All Saints Parish Church, situated alongside The Green, Sutton Courtenay. |
| Parking: | Public car park at southeast corner of The Green, near the Swan pub. |
To bring a festive end to this Mozart 250th Birthday year, the All Saints Singers and Orchestra will perform a varied and exciting all-Mozart concert on Sunday the 3rd December at 7.30pm, in the historic Sutton Courtenay Parish Church (ticket and other details below).
Mozart composed much of his finest music for particular soloists, choruses, and strings or small orchestras. We will be singing several of his best-loved works including his Ave verum corpus and Alleluia from Exsultate, jubilate, as well as the Beatus vir and Laudate dominum from his Vesperae solennes de confessore. But in addition to these well-known favourites we are preparing some less familiar items, like his early beautiful Loretian litany in Honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, his Church sonata for organ and strings and his Serenata notturna for two string orchestras. After the interval we will perform his glorious Missa brevis in D for four soloists, chorus and orchestra.
Once again, our Musical Director and Conductor Patrick Salisbury and Voice Coach April Cantelo have obtained guest soloists whose voices and personal backgrounds are particularly appropriate for the Mozart music they will be singing. Mozart is well known for having composed much of his greatest music for certain vocal and instrumental performers he knew, respected and often loved. This is especially true for his superb solo soprano numbers, both operatic and sacred, which make the most of the fine high soprano voices of his wife and her sister who first performed the works. We will have singing these passionate and demanding soprano roles Claire Barratt, who is remembered locally for singing the soaring Allegri Miserere when she was a Sutton Courtenay resident and regular member of All Saints Singers in the years 1995-1999. She studied with April Cantelo, and in 2001 was our guest soloist when we sang the St Matthew Passion and also a different Missa Brevis (in F major) by the 18-year-old Mozart. She now sings regularly as guest soloist for several Oxfordshire operatic and choral societies, as well as performing with the group Charity Opera that she has formed with her husband Stephen Barratt.
Mezzo-soprano soloist Angela Ayers, who was early in her career a soprano singing with the BBC Singers and Monteverdi Choir, brings to our Mozart concert a wealth of solo and choral experience. She has been guest soloist often with the All Saints Singers, singing both the St Matthew and St John Passions with us.
Mozart, as Jane Glover points out in her recent biography Mozart's Women, was the first and perhaps the greatest composer who portrayed subtle, sophisticated psychological understanding in his musical works. Tenor soloist Philip Fine has a personal and professional interest in this area; he researches and teaches Music Psychology at Oxford. He was soloist a year ago in our concert of Music from the Baroque Era, and appears in solo recitals, oratorio, opera, musicals and the classic repertoire widely throughout Oxfordshire and nationally.
Michael Storrs' bass-baritone voice reflects the vitality and energy of Mozart's youthful compositions that we will perform. Michael started singing and taking lead roles as a European School student, and he has subsequently while a London University student studied voice with a Guildhall professor. Last year he studied with a top singing teacher at the Utrecht Conservatorium during the year he spent in Holland.
We are privileged to have the opportunity to sing such superb music, with guest soloists, orchestra and professional leadership, and we hope that you will join us on the 3rd December to participate as audience in this fine 250th Birthday Celebration event.
| Concert: | Mozart 250th Birthday Concert, Sunday 3rd December 2006, 7.30pm. |
| Where: | All Saints Parish Church, situated alongside The Green, Sutton Courtenay |
| Parking: | Public car park at southeast corner of The Green, near the Swan pub. |
| Tickets: | Available from members or by phone from mid-October. Remaining tickets sold at the door. Single £10 (concessions £8), family £20. |
| Contact: | Hon Secretary Christiane Hutchins, on 01235 848997. |
On the 3rd December 2006 in the Sutton Courtenay Parish Church, the All Saints Singers will present an All-Mozart Concert (details below). For this issue of our newsletter, our Music Director and Conductor Patrick Salisbury introduces the concert programme and explains how this particular varied selection was made from Mozart's very large repertoire of superb choral and orchestral music. He writes:
Anybody with an interest in music is only too well aware that Mozart was born 250 years ago on 27th January 1756. Anticipating a great spate of performances of all his major works around and beyond this anniversary, we in the All Saints Singers decided to keep our powder dry until towards the end of the calendar year. In view of the fact that we specialise in the performance of medium scale choral works with a semi-professional chamber orchestra, we considered that it would be sensible for us to plan a programme of acclaimed music best suited to our particular resources and featuring one or two less familiar items.
So, although we shall include in our programme the Alleluia for solo soprano from Exsultate, jubilate and the ever popular Ave verum corpus for chorus and orchestra, we shall also feature a less well known but quite delightful Loretian litany in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In a lighter vein, our instrumentalists will perform the Serenata notturna for double string orchestra - a charming piece of night music which deserves to be as well known as Eine kleine Nachtmusik!
There are also two settings of psalms taken from Mozart's Solemn vespers including the well known Laudate dominum for solo soprano and chorus. In a complete contrast, we shall include one of Mozart's Church Sonatas - a kind of mini organ concerto, using our baroque-style church organ for the solo part. The concert will conclude with the glorious Miss brevis in D (K194) for four soloists, chorus and orchestra.
| Concert: | All-Mozart Concert, Sunday 3rd December 2006, 7.30pm. |
| Where: | All Saints Parish Church, situated alongside The Green, Sutton Courtenay |
| Parking: | Public car park at southeast corner of The Green, near the Swan pub. |
| Tickets: | Available from members or by phone from mid-October. Remaining tickets sold at the door. Single £10 (concessions £8), family £20. |
| Contact: | Hon Secretary Christiane Hutchins, on 01235 848997. |
First Rehearsal Friday 22nd September for our 3rd December Mozart Concert
Regular readers of the Sutton Courtenay News, or viewers of our website, know that we always welcome new as well as returning singers to join our local choral society. However, newcomers may not realise that we will be happy for them to 'try us out' for the first two or three rehearsals of the season. No auditions are required, but we provide the opportunity for interested singers to meet us and experience singing with us before they decide whether to make a commitment. Prospective members are invited to make prior contact with our Hon Secretary (see below) so that we can prepare a place and have copies of the music ready for you on your first evening. We trust that with our excellent professional leadership and various forms of support and help available, new amateur singers will overcome any doubts they may have and find musical satisfaction and pleasure in joining our friendly society.
From the first rehearsal on the 22nd September (see details below) we will be working toward a special Mozart Commemorative Concert on Sunday the 3rd December at 7.30 in the historic Sutton Courtenay Parish Church, with chamber orchestra and professional and semi-professional soloists.
Mozart composed much of his finest music for chorus, soloists and strings or small orchestra. We will be singing several of his best-loved works including his Ave verum corpus as well as the Beatus vir and Laudate dominum from his Vesperae solennes de confessore. After the interval we will perform his Missa brevis in D, and two orchestral items will be included in the programme: his Church sonata for organ and strings and his Serenata notturna for two string orchestras.
We hope you will join us, either as a prospective singer on the 22nd September or as a member of the audience for the 3rd December concert. Details are:
| Rehearsals: | Friday evenings at 7.45 (coffee) for 8.00-9.30pm. |
| Beginning: | First rehearsal Friday 22nd September. |
| Concert: | All-Mozart Concert, Sunday 3rd December 2006, 7.30pm. |
| Where: | All Saints Parish Church, situated alongside The Green, Sutton Courtenay |
| Contact: | Hon Secretary Christiane Hutchins, on 01235 848997. |
| Parking: | Public car park at southeast corner of The Green, near the Swan pub. |
Once more, as we plan our new season of rehearsals leading to major concerts in December 2006 and April 2007, we want to alert local music lovers to our concert dates and programmes. We also particularly want to invite new residents in our area to consider joining us as singers.
As most musical Sutton Courtenay residents know, the All Saints Singers Choral Society specialises in performing medium scale choral works, bringing together enthusiastic local amateur singers with professional leadership and soloists and a semi-professional chamber orchestra.
The first concert of the season, on Sunday evening the 3rd December at 7.30pm in the historic Parish Church, will be devoted to works by Mozart. The performance will include interesting less well-known Mozart compositions as well as familiar much-loved works like his Missa Brevis K194 and two movements from his Vesperae solemnes de confessore.
A fortnight before Easter, on Sunday 25th March 2007, a varied programme from more recent composers will feature John Rutter's Requiem and Faure's lovely Cantique de Jean Racine, as well as the popular Panis Angelicus by Caesar Franck and other works. Watch for further more detailed information about our programme and performers in forthcoming newsletters.
Looking forward to the autumn, we also want to invite you to consider joining us as a singer – giving yourself as a music loving amateur the opportunity to sing great music with others like you under friendly, professional direction.
The eleven Friday evening rehearsals beginning at 7.45 for 8.00 on the 22nd September will culminate in a dress rehearsal and concert performance with orchestra on Sunday the 3rd of December. (Further particulars are summarised below.) A similar winter cycle of rehearsals will prepare for the second concert on Sunday the 25th March 2007.
No auditions are required, but instead we encourage newcomers to come along without obligation to the first two or three rehearsals of the new season, to sing along with us and decide whether to join as members. There are likely to be a few vacancies for singers in all parts (especially this particular season for new sopranos). Prospective members are invited to make prior contact with our Hon Secretary (see below) so that we can prepare a place and have copies of the music ready for you.
We warmly invite your participation in our musical life over this coming year, whether as members of the audience for our concerts or by joining us as singers for music and fellowship throughout the season.
| Rehearsals: | Friday evenings at 7.45 (coffee) for 8.00-9.30pm. |
| Beginning? | First rehearsal Friday 22nd September. |
| Where: | All Saints Parish Church, situated alongside The Green, Sutton Courtenay |
| Contact? | Hon Secretary Christiane Hutchins, on 01235 848997. |
| Parking? | Public car park at southeast corner of The Green, near the Swan pub. |