Live From London – Christmas festival 2020

Live From London returns with a Christmas festival running from December 1st – January 6th

The festival is split into two parts:
Live From London – Christmas: The first 11 concerts from 1st – 25th December and including the Gabrieli’s first Bach concert on Christmas Day

Bach for Christmas: All 6 concerts by the Gabrieli Consort & Players – Bach’s Christmas Oratorio BWV248 – starting on 25th December and ending on Epiphany, 6th January

A particular highlight on 15th December is the Choir of Westminster Abbey singing from Westminster Abbey itself. Viewers from around the world will this year have the rare opportunity to share in the magic of the annual Abbey Christmas concert.

The repertoire across the festival ranges from Bach, Praetorius, Eccard, Charpentier and Tallis to Howells, Britten, Pärt, Tavener, Michael McGlynn, Ola Gjeilo, and arrangements of best-loved Christmas pop, all filmed in ultra-high definition and featuring your favourite seasonal a cappella

Award-winning groups featuring include VOCES8, The Choir of Westminster Abbey, the Gabrieli Consort & Players, The Tallis Scholars, Take 6, I Fagiolini, London Adventist Chorale, ANÚNA, amarcord, The Aeolians, and Apollo5

With its first concert since lock-down, the Gabrieli Consort & Players perform Bach for Christmas, joined by a stunning lineup of soloists (including Carolyn Sampson, Anna Dennis, Tim Mead, Roderick Williams and Ashley Riches). Experience Bach’s Christmas Oratorio cantatas, each on the day for which they are liturgically written.

The festival supports the VOCES8 Foundation’s global message of ‘music education for all’ by gifting youth ensembles from across the world a stage for their singing in our Young Performer Spotlight (YPS). The lineup includes: Gabrieli Roar, VOCES8 Scholars, Canterbury Cathedral Girls’ Choir, VERSA, National Youth Chamber Choir of Great Britain, Voices of Singapore Children’s Choir and German Gents.

The festival includes six new VOCES8 commissions from Ken Burton, Melissa Dunphy, Jocelyn Hagen, Taylor Scott Davis, Paul Smith and Roderick Williams that will be published by Edition Peters in the VOCES8 Singles range, as well the premiere of a new violin part in Men and Angels written by Alec Roth especially for Rachel Podger.

More information and tickets sales can be found here.

Canterbury Cathedral Girls’ Choir guest on Joe Stilgoe Christmas album

The Canterbury Cathedral Girls Choir is delighted to be one of the guest artists on Joe Stilgoe’s Christmas Album. Joe is joined by a host of special guests for a feast of Christmas classics, including Grammy nominated saxophonist Amy Dickson on ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’, iconic Jazz musician and son of Roy- Ben Castle on ‘Little White Berry’ and legendary comedian and actor Rob Brydon on ‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas’.

Buy the album here, or listen on Spotify here.

Find out more about Joe at www.joestilgoe.com

Joe is performing at the VOCES8 Centre on January 30th 2020, tickets available here.

Canterbury Cathedral Girls Choir perform with Choir of Royal Holloway

Last weekend the Canterbury Cathedral Girls’ Choir travelled to Royal Holloway, University of London to perform with the The Choir of Royal Holloway. The two directors, Rupert Gough and David Newsholme put together an excellent visit. The Canterbury Girls’ visits to specially musical universities and colleges is a great way for them to get a clearer picture about where they might apply to be an undergraduate.

The Girls next concert will be in joining the Men of Canterbury Cathedral Choir, acclaimed period instrument orchestra The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen and internationally-renowned soloists to perform Haydn’s The Creation on 16 November. Tickets available here.

The Royal Holloway Choir’s next performance is on 17th October at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London where they join the Brandenburg Soloists for a candlelight performance of Mozart’s famous Requiem. Tickets available here.

Canterbury Cathedral Girls Choir record with Joe Stilgoe

Over the summer the Canterbury Cathedral Girls Choir were invited to sing as guests on a new recording with Joe Stilgoe that will be released for Christmas this year. The picture shows Joe with some of the girls at the studio.

Joe Stilgoe is an internationally acclaimed singer, pianist and songwriter, whose live shows are a mixture of virtuosic musicianship and breathtaking theatricality, combining on the spot improvisation and the quickest of wits. It runs in the family, as Joe’s father is Richard Stilgoe.