In the new Decca Classics album built around two new multi-movement works titled The Road and Dreamweaver, Ola pays homage to his home country of Norway. The first single release from the album features the opening movement of Dreamweaver, with the full album released on 29th September.
The album features Ola on piano, the Choir of Royal Holloway and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Rupert Gough. Guest soprano soloist is Grace Davidson.
Click here to listen to the Prologue of Dreamweaver on your favourite platform.
“Can You Hear Me?” – Mental health at heart of new single from the Choir of Royal Holloway
Rupert Gough and The Choir of Royal Holloway have released CAN YOU HEAR ME? a new single with soprano Laura Wright, raising awareness of mental health and encouraging people to seek support and donate to mental health charities. The track, written by composer Thomas Hewitt Jones and lyricist Matt Harvey, speaks of the loneliness and despair felt by many around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. Released by Signum Records, proceeds from the single will be donated to a number of UK-based mental health charities.
With the aim to guide people to seek help, the accompanying music video provides links to staystrong.org.uk. The #StayStrong campaign provides invaluable links to numerous mental health charities around the UK.
Rupert Gough, Director of The Choir of Royal Holloway, says “All the musicians involved hope that the music will bring comfort and strength to many. They have enjoyed creating this single but they themselves face loneliness and despair as our singers are unlikely to be able to unite and sing together as a musical family for some time to come. Mental health was already an ever-increasing problem amongst university students and now, more than ever, we need to Stay Strong”.
Composer Thomas Hewitt Jones says “It was an absolute pleasure to be asked by Rupert Gough to compose and produce a lockdown single for him and the Royal Holloway choir together with eminent singer Laura Wright. For the lyrics I turned to my long-term collaborator Matt Harvey and we are so delighted to have written and recorded this to spread awareness of the fact that we all have mental health, and that there is no shame in anyone asking for help in difficult times.”
During the lockdown, Laura Wright has been working for a variety of organisations, charities and vulnerable individuals in her fight to address both the short and long term mental challenges of enforced isolation. Laura says, “I was so honoured to be invited to be part of this beautiful message. So many people are currently suffering in silence with loneliness and are showing signs of depression. The first step to healing is to open up and talk to someone about the thoughts in your head. We must look out for people around us asking “Can You Hear Me?” We mustn’t stop showing kindness. Kindness is key.”
Choir of Royal Holloway release “The Hours” – choral music by Ben Parry
The new recording from the Royal Holloway Choir and conducted by Rupert Gough celebrates the music of Ben Parry. Ben’s diverse compositions and arrangements include the popular Faber Carol Book and a burgeoning catalogue of choral music for Edition Peters and Oxford University Press. Many pieces on this recording set the words of poems by Garth Bardsley, who says about Ben’s work “all of my poems stand alone but given the Parry treatment, I know that they take flight.”
1. Sun Soul
2. Early one morning
3. First Day
4. My heart’s in the Highlands
5. Music: An Ode
6. Spring Sonnet I
7. Spring Sonnet II
8. Ye banks and braes o’ bonnie Doon
9. Snow
10. New Year Carol
11. My spirit sang all day (watch on YouTube here)
12. O nata lux de lumine
13. Ave verum corpus
14. God be in my head
15. The Lord’s Prayer
16. Sonnet XXVII
17. Ar hyd a nos
18. Nunc Dimittis
19. Golden slumbers
20. Eclipse
21. Lighten our darkness
Listen to the album from your preferred source from this link.
More info is available from Signum Records here.
Choir of Royal Holloway sing at China-UK International Music Festival
The Choir of Royal Holloway, conducted by Rupert Gough, has given a stunning recital at the China-UK International Music Festival, in the Octagon Building of Queen Mary University of London. CUIMF was founded in early 2018, and is co-hosted by the China-UK International Music Festival Organising Committee, the Music Department of Queen Mary University of London, the London Confucius Institute at SOAS, and the Chinese Classical Instruments Studio (CCIS). Cultural exchange is very much to the fore, with the choir’s programme containing a mix of music from both China and the UK. Many of the Chinese songs came from Half Moon Rising, published by Edition Peters.
Pictured below are members of the choir with Chinese musicians.
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.
Ola Gjeilo and Choir of Royal Holloway perform at Ellie Goulding’s wedding
Ellie Goulding has married Caspar Jopling at York Minster, at which her favourite classical artist Ola Gjeilo performed along with The Choir of Royal Holloway and the Twelve Ensemble. An article from the Daily Mail on the day is here.
The music performed came from the Decca Classics album Winter Songs and Ola Gjeilo.
Choir of Royal Holloway – latest Midweek Concert performance
Weekly Wednesday lunchtime concerts
The Choir of Royal Holloway give weekly concerts during their term-time in their beautiful college chapel (pictured). The 30-minute performances are free of charge and informal, allowing people to come and go as their schedule allows. The latest performance is available to watch online here. It features music by Finzi, Holst and Ben Parry, with whom the choir is making a new album. This video includes Parry’s Early One Morning,All through the Night, and My Heart’s in the Highlands.
The series of Midweek Concerts can be seen here.
Ben Parry publishes music with Edition Peters. See his catalogue here.
New album for Choir of Royal Holloway
Premiere recordings of James Francis Brown
The Choir of Royal Holloway is the choir on “The Heavens and the Heart”, the new album from Resonus Classics featuring the music of contemporary British composer James Francis Brown.
Under conductor George Vass, Catriona Scott and the choir vividly bring to life Brown’s Clarinet Concerto (Lost Lanes – Shallow Groves) and his inspired trio of psalm settings The Heavens and the Heart.
James Francis Brown studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He has made significant contributions to chamber music, and has arranged several well-known pieces for the Royal Opera House and the City of London Festival. He has held multiple fellowships and composer-in-residence titles, including at the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove, and Ulverston Festival.
You can buy the album direct from Resonus Classics here.
Or stream on Spotify here
Choir of Royal Holloway tour Canada and USA
Following the successful 2016 tour the Choir of Royal Holloway is once again touring Canada and the USA. The repertoire ranges from Europe, the Baltic States and the USA with composers such as William Byrd, Ola Gjeilo, Eriks Esenvalds, René Clausen and Daniel Knaggs.
8th April Winspear Centre, University of Alberta, EDMONTON – 3:00pm
10th April Christ Church Cathedral, VICTORIA – 7:30pm
11th April St James’ Anglican Church, VANCOUVER – 7:30pm
13th April St Mark’s Episcopal Church, SAN ANTONIO – 7:00pm
15th April Church of the Incarnation, DALLAS – Concert – 4:00pm
17th April St. Martha’s Church, Porter, HOUSTON – 7:30pm
Follow everything the choir posts at its Facebook page.
Choir of Royal Holloway perform at Holy Week Festival
Monday 26th March at 6pm Saint John’s Smith Square, London
Monday 26th March at 6pm
St John’s Smith Square, London
As part of the Holy Week Festival curated by the choir Tenebrae, the Choir of Royal Holloway under the direction of Rupert Gough will give an hour’s recital at London’s St John’s Smith Square in March 26th. Called “Into the Night”, the programme is an exotic mix of sacred and secular music features composers from the USA, Lithuania and Latvia. The opening works by Ēriks Ešenvalds and René Clausen set evocative American poetry by Sara Teasdale and Walt Whitman. Appropriately for Holy Week the images of night and death are intertwined as the programme moves from Morton Lauridsen’s three Nocturnes to a setting of the Tenebrae responsory by Lithuanian Vytautas Miškinis and concludes with settings of contemporary Latvian poetry.
Ēriks Ešenvalds Evening
René Clausen A clear midnight
Morton Lauridsen Nocturnes
Vytautas Miškinis Dum medium silentium
Vytautas Miškinis Tenebrae
Arturs Maskats Lugums naktij ‘Prayer to the night’
Ēriks Ešenvalds Long Road
See more about the concert and book tickets here.
The choir’s website is www.chapelchoir.co.uk
