Choir of Royal Holloway sing at China-UK International Music Festival

China UK poster

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.

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New all-Ešenvalds album released by Choir of the West

There Will Come Soft Rains Esenvalds

There Will Come Soft Rains is the new all-Ešenvalds album by Pacific Lutheran University’s Choir of the West and Richard Nance, released on Signum and is available for purchase or streaming now.

See a short clip on the collaboration and recording process on PLU’s website and listen to Spring RainStars as well as the title track There Will Come Soft Rains.

The tracklist represents some of Eriks best-loved works:

There Will Come Soft Rains
New Moon
Long Road
Rivers of Light
Northern Lights
Only in Sleep
O, She Doth Teach The Torches To Burn Bright
A Soldier’s Mother’s Lullaby
Spring Rain
My Little Picture Frame
Evening
My Luve Is Like A Red, Red Rose
Stars
Amazing Grace

The Choir of the West is the premier choral ensemble of the Department of Music at Pacific Lutheran University, located in Tacoma, Washington. The choir was founded in 1926, and was the third Lutheran college choir to tour extensively throughout the United States. Choir of the West has toured to Europe, Scandinavia, Japan and China, and has been selected to appear at several regional and national conferences of the National Association for Music Education and the American Choral Directors Association. In November of 2015 the choir was a featured ensemble at the National Collegiate Choral Organization Conference, held in Portland, Oregon, performing with renowned conductor Simon Carrington. During the summer of 2011, Choir of the West competed among choirs from 47 nations at the prestigious Harmonie Festival in Lindenholzhausen, Germany, winning two gold certificates and one silver. In 2015 the choir competed in the Anton Bruckner Choir Competition, held in Linz, Austria.

There Will Come Soft Rains back

Justin Doyle conducts RIAS Kammerchor New Year’s Day concert: Messiah

Justin Doyle New Year RIAS 2020

On 1st January 2020 Justin Doyle conducts the RIAS Kammerchor, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and soloists Julia Doyle Soprano, Tim Mead Altus, Thomas Hobbs Tenor and Roderick Williams Bass in a celebratory performance of Handel’s Messiah. Always a wonderful occasion, the New Year’s Day concert takes place in Berlin’s Philharmonie to a packed audience.

Justin introduces the concert on YouTube here.

Find our more about the concert from the RIAS website here.

Justin Doyle RIAS New year Messiah

Anna Dennis sings Handel, and John Blow premiere in Moscow

Anna Dennis Moscow

Anna Dennis performed in two productions in Moscow recently. In November she sang in Handel’s The Triumph of Time and Disillusion with La Voce Strumentale, conducted by Dmitry Sinkovsky at the new Zaryadye Concert Hall. The other singers were Julia Lezhneva, Andrew Goodwin, and Dmitry Sinkovsky.

She returned to Moscow to sing the role of Venus in John Blow’s Venus and Adonis at the Pushkin Museum as part of the December Nights series of the UK-Russia Year of Music 2019. Remarkably, this was the Russian premiere performance of this baroque work, conducted by Robert Hollingworth and also featuring Jonathan Sells as Adonis.

See the performance via Facebook video here.

VOCES8 end of year round-up

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VOCES8 is heading into a well-deserved holiday after an intense touring period. Since the start of the season in September they have been in the UK, Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Italy, the USA, Canada, recorded for audio and video, and given workshops at practically every town or city they have appeared in. They have also enjoyed the release of 3 arrangements of music by Olafur Arnalds which has been a phenomenal success. See a video of one of the tracks, called Momentaryhere. The group has also released the first of 4 recordings making up its 15th Anniversary project called After Silence, which has a microsite here.

Their last video of the year is a beautiful recording of Jonathan Rathbone’s carol The Oxen, which you can see here.

At the start of 2020 the group can look forward to much more touring and teaching – all dates appear at www.voces8.com/tour.

“Night” album video, and strong pre-release single streaming numbers for Ola Gjeilo

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In advance of the album Night, released on January 24 2020, a number of singles have already been released. The first track, Still, is now approaching 3 million streams on Spotify.

A video of Ola recording another track, Sleepless, has been released by Decca Classics here.

Night, the album of brand-new original works for solo piano is an intimate and meditative collection of peaceful piano music, inspired by the twilight hours of New York City.

Album pre order with Apple Music here, and with Amazon here.

Rounding up the year, Ola is thrilled that Ellie Goulding has listened to so much of his music on Spotify that he is her “Artist of the Decade”. Ola played at her wedding in August.

See more about Ola here.

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Justin Doyle conducts RIAS Kammerchor in Haydn Mass album

RIAS Haydn

Justin Doyle conducts the RIAS Kammerchor and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin in a new album release on the Harmonia Mundi label of Haydn’s Missa Cellensis.

Described by Nicholas Kenyon, reviewing the album in the Guardian newspaper, as “a glorious new recording” you can buy the album here and listen on spotify here.

Sir Stephen Cleobury (1948–2019)

Stephen Cleobury

We are sad to share the news that Sir Stephen Cleobury died on 22 November – St Cecilia’s Day – after a lengthy period of illness. He will be best remembered for his 37-year tenure as Director of Music at King’s College, Cambridge, where amongst many other successes he instigated the annual commissioning of a new carol for the Christmas Eve service of Nine Lessons and Carols. Outside King’s he worked with many choirs and orchestras, gave organ recitals, and composed and arranged music which is performed around the world. He will be very much missed as a musician and a caring, respected leader.

King’s College has more here.

Daniel Grimwood new album: Alwyn and Carwithen Piano Works

Daniel Grimwood Alwyn CD

Doreen Carwithen and her husband William Alwyn were two of the most versatile composers working in Britain in the mid- to late-20th century. Between them they scored more than 100 films, as well as music for the concert hall, including the scores for Odd Man Out (Alwyn) and Boys in Brown (Carwithen). Daniel Grimwood’s recording is a wonderful introduction to the couple’s extensive catalogues of piano music, containing Carwithen’s taught, neoclassical Sonatina and Alwyn’s 12 Preludes and Grieg-inspired Fantasy Waltzes. This is warm, lyrical music which quietly pushes boundaries while always attractive and well-written for the instrument.

See more on YouTube here

Purchase the album from here

This is Daniel Grimwood’s third release for Edition Peters Sounds following highly-acclaimed recordings of piano music by Fauré and Henselt. The full catalogue is available here.

Find out more about Daniel here.

Canterbury Cathedral Girls’ Choir guest on Joe Stilgoe Christmas album

Joe Stilgoe Canterbury Cathedral

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.

Stilgoe album back cover