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.

Live From London – livestream concert series launched from VOCES8 Centre

‘Live From London‘ is a new, paid-for online festival from the VOCES8 Foundation, featuring some of the world’s finest award-winning vocal ensembles: VOCES8, I Fagiolini, Stile Antico, The Swingles, The Sixteen (from Kings Place), The Gesualdo Six, Apollo5, Chanticleer (from San Francisco) and a special guest appearance by The Academy of Ancient Music.  The ensembles will be performing their favourite works, and pieces for which they’ve become renowned, singing repertoire from the Renaissance to contemporary A Cappella.

The promotional trailer for ‘Live From London’ is here.

The festival is a heart-warming display of vocal ensembles helping each other in a time of crisis. These concerts will be some of the first performances by the ensembles since the start of the lock-down restrictions at the beginning of the year.

The festival will be broadcast in HD every Saturday for ten weeks from the 1st August 2020 at VOCES8’s beautiful Centre (St Anne and St Agnes Church), in the heart of the City of London.

Taking the lead from current sporting events, the concerts will be broadcast from a closed venue. Singers and crew will be following the strict government guidelines about safety and distancing in the workplace.

Viewers will be able to pay for exclusive access to the entire season or individual concert tickets. Season passes are £80 (only £8 per concert, per household). Single concert tickets will be available for £12.50. Concessions have been crafted for students and choirs across the world, as well as special deals for promoters and venues. It has been designed to raise money for artists, venues and promoters to cover their COVID-19 losses, and to reunite the world’s many singers, and audiences with much needed live concerts.

A portion of all ticket sales will be put towards funding for grassroots music education, and to addressing topics of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in choral music. Artists will share income from season ticket sales, as well as individual concert income.

This approach goes beyond free streaming on social media, allowing a revenue channel for promoters, venues and artists (most of whom are freelance).

More information, and tickets for ‘Live From London’ can be found at: voces8.foundation/livefromlondon