News
Keeping you updated with the latest news
 

2023

28 June 2023
A Rousing end to the 2022/23 Season with Viva Italia!
9 June 2023
Cathedral Visits - Summer 2023
12 May 2023
Simon Toyne appointed as our new Musical Director
20 March 2023
Dame Ethel Smyth Mass in D - A resounding success!
13 February 2023
The Ethel Smyth full score has arrived

2022

13 December 2022
Christmas 2022 Concert & Fundraising
1 October 2022
New Accompanist Announced
1 September 2022
2022/23 Season Launched
31 August 2022
2022/23 Season : Our Conductors
1 August 2022
2021/22 Season - Done!
30 July 2022
Another (!) Special Evensong
13 June 2022
Jubilee Proms - Staggering Success
30 May 2022
MD steps down after 15 years
29 May 2022
A Special Evensong
2 April 2022
Carmina in Style
1 March 2022
Song for Ukraine
21 February 2022
#22for22 Update
7 February 2022
The Armed Man

2021

16 December 2021
#22for22 is launched
4 December 2021
Christmas is Back! with a brassy bang!
6 November 2021
714 Days... Back in Concert
27 October 2021
660 Days... We're Back
4 October 2021
Annual General Meeting
1 August 2021
2021/22 Season Launched
7 June 2021
Expanding the Canon
18 May 2021
Live Singing started ... stopped
17 May 2021
Fridays and the Future
14 April 2021
Virtual Video
12 April 2021
Summer in the Alps
26 March 2021
Fridays at Four - Spring Done
9 March 2021
International Women's Day
22 February 2021
Cooking up a Feast
12 February 2021
Centenary Classics
11 January 2021
Classical Classics

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

 

Long Lines in Lichfield

4 February 2017

Earlier today nearly seventy members of the choir boarded cars, coaches, and bicycles, to take us up to Lichfield to sing Choral Evensong. We began a programme of singing "In Sacred Spaces" back in 2011 when we planned to sing Choral Evensong at St Paul's Cathedral (though we instead sang at Gloucester Cathedral, when St Paul's was unexpectedly closed with only 24 hours' notice!). Since then we have sung at St Paul's Cathedral twice, as well as at Coventry Cathedral, and in 2017 our visits take us to Lichfield and, on 4 November, Ely Cathedral. With a choir of this size, it was impossible to rehearse in any of the Cathedral's usual choir rehearsal rooms, so we were delighted to be able to use the Cathedral itself throughout the afternoon. This gave us plenty of time for sightseeing in advance of our rehearsal, and to visit one of the many fine places for luncheon, many going al fresco with the glorious weather.

Ivan at the Organ Console
 
Half the Choir from the Organ Loft

On the musical menu was Louis Le Vuyand's Responses, Psalm 23 set to a superb chant by Sir Henry Walford Davies, an Office Hymn set to the old Irish melody known as Slane, Henry Smart's tub-thumping setting of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in B flat major, and the joyous sounds of Samuel Wesley's little-known anthem, Exultate Deo, a setting of verses from Psalm 81. Our organist, Ivan Linford, concluded proceedings with Dubois' Fiat Lux ("Let there be light"), perfectly chosen for a service following so closely after Candlemas. Our major difficulties on this visit were having the singers stretched out right down the stalls, filling up four full rows in the Quire, as well as the very sharp pitch of the organ. Ivan very cleverly transposed the Canticles and anthem down a semitone, and we had printed the Responses and Psalm down a semitone already, so we were well prepared!

Outside the West Front

We received a most warm welcome from Assistant Organist and Bass Lay Vicar Nigel Argust, as well as the Canon for Pastoral Development and Mission and Canon Treasurer, Pat Hawkins and Andrew Stead, who lead the service.