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The British (undergraduate singers) Are Coming!
In a visit that will remind many of a decade of past weeklong summer visits to St.
John’s by a Cathedral or University Chapel Choir from the UK, we’re in for a
special treat on Friday, July 15 at 7:00 p.m. The Choir of Christ’s College Chapel,
Cambridge will be performing and staying with local hosts following the concert. If
you are able to host two (or more) undergraduates from 9 pm July 15, and can
provide them breakfast on the 16th and return them to the church at 10:30 am, please
know how much your B&B prowess will be appreciated...it is what makes this concert
possible! If interested in hosting, please email Peter Berton at music@saintjohns-
newport.org.
Our own choir (adults and Choir School choristers and parents) will attend this
evening and help to host a combined-choir dinner before the concert. What a chance
to help people sing for their suppers, as well as make some new friends in the
international choir scene...a mini-trip to England with no fundraising! What's more,
the concert includes a major double-choir anthem, Blest Pair of Sirens, by Sir C. Hubert
H. Parry, which will be sung by both choirs together in a roof-raising moment. To get
an idea of the richness of this part of the feast, you might like to become familiar with
Milton's sublime words in the video here, and as sung in Westminster Abbey for the
2011 Royal Wedding here (many hats on display).
With a rich musical tradition stretching back to the founding of the college in the early
16th century, the Christ’s College Choir sings two Evensong services a week, performs
concerts in venues including the prestigious St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, and
regularly records CDs. The choir tours internationally every summer; recent tours
have included Singapore; New Zealand; Quebec & Ontario; Australia; and the West
Coast. The Choir is made up of 24 Singers and three Organists; all are auditioned and
of a high musical standard, resulting in Christ’s Choir being widely recognised as “one
of Cambridge’s finest mixed-voice ensembles.” Their 2022 summer tour to the East
Coast will take them from Washington, DC to Boston over the course of three weeks
with many stops along the way, including Philadelphia, New York and Rhode Island.
Concert programs will include a large range of English Choral masterpieces of the last
five centuries: from early composers such as Tallis and Purcell, through to classics of
the 19th and 20th centuries like Parry and Finzi, all the way to contemporary
commissions. This visit is made possible by local hosts, and the Bruce & Teddi Shaw
Memorial Fund for Choral Music, honoring their decade of bringing English choirs to
St. John’s.
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