“O, that the Learned Poets”

Sunday 2 June 2013, 3pm [note start time]

Burgh House, New End Square, Hampstead NW3 1LT

A celebration of great poetry in settings by great composers.  NOTE: intimate venue, seating capacity limited, book early!

GIBBONS O, that the learned poets - Gibbons

SHAKESPEARE Full fathom five &c - Vaughan Williams

MOLINET Nymphes des bois (déploration sur la mort d’Ockeghem) - Josquin des prez

PLOMER Choral dances from “Gloriana” – Britten

LORCA With a lily in your hand &c – Whitacre

TENNYSON Now sleeps the crimson petal &c – Mealor

MAIKOV Death on the hills – Elgar

ELUARD Simple pictures of tomorrow – Chilcott

HARDY Proud songsters – McCabe

WATTS Death may dissolve - Mäntyjärvi

DOWLAND Now, O now, I needs must part – Dowland

Tickets £12 (£9 Friends of Exmoor Singers; £6 students)  Available on the door or in advance from choir members or from: tickets@exmoorsingers.org; 07729 807122; 52 Church Lane, Merton Park, London SW19 3HQ (cheques to ‘Exmoor Singers’; please send SAE)  Further information: info@exmoorsingers.org

St Andrew Holborn, Sunday 10 Feb 2013, 7.30pm

Holborn Viaduct, London EC4A 3AB (nearest tube: Chancery Lane)

Tallis Festival Choir 2013

James Jarvis  music director

Edward Batting organ/piano

RACHMANINOV  All-night vigil (“Vespers”)

JENKINS  For the fallen

GOODALL  In memoriam Anne Frank

TALLIS  Spem in alium (“40-part motet”)

Tickets £5 (unreserved)

Available on the door; in advance from Tallis Festival Choir members or from: tickets@exmoorsingers.org; 07729 807122; Exmoor Singers, 52 Church Lane, Merton Park, London SW19 3HQ (cheques payable to ‘Exmoor Singers’, please send SAE)

Click here to download flyer

Click here for more information about Tallis Festival 2013; for more concert information email: alison.benbow@exmoorsingers.org

Benjamin Britten A Boy was Born

Jonathan Dove The Three Kings

Palestrina Hodie Christus natus est

and

Darke In the bleak mid-winter

Leighton Lully, lulla, thou little tiny child

Vaughan Williams The blessed son of God (from “Hodie”)

Tallis Salvator mundi

Rutter Nativity Carol

INCLUDING traditional carols for choir and audience

PLUS traditional Christmas refreshments

Exmoor Singers of London

conducted by James Jarvis 

Edward Batting organ/piano

Click here to download the flyer

Sunday 9 December 2012  7.30pm  

St Stephen’s, Gloucester Road (map)

London SW7 4RL  Nearest tube Gloucester Road: Circle, District & Piccadilly Lines

Tickets £12  (£9 Friends of Exmoor Singers, £6 students)  Available on the door, in advance from choir members, or from: tickets@exmoorsingers.org; 07729 807122; Exmoor Singers, 52 Church Lane, Merton Park, London SW19 3HQ (cheques to ‘Exmoor Singers’; please send SAE)  www.exmoorsingers.org

It is not Bird – it has no nest –
Nor “Band” – in brass and scarlet – drest –
Nor Tamborin – nor Man –
It is not Hymn from pulpit read –
The “Morning Stars” the Treble led
On Time’s first Afternoon!

Some – say – it is “the Spheres” – at play!
Some say that bright Majority
Of vanished Dames – and Men!
Some – think it service in the place
Where we – with late – celestial face –
Please God – shall ascertain!            (Emily Dickinson)

LISTEN: Elliott Carter (1908-2012) – “Musicians wrestle everywhere”

from our CD “Curtain”

Exmoor Singers of London invites singers of all ages to take part in

TALLIS FESTIVAL 2013

8-10 February 2013

RACHMANINOV – All-night vigil (“VESPERS”)
JENKINS – For the fallen
GOODALL – In memoriam Anne Frank
TALLIS – Spem in alium nunquam habui (“40-PART MOTET”)

Exmoor Singers is pleased to announce that the next Tallis Festival, conducted by James Jarvis, will take place in London from Friday 8 February to Sunday 10 February 2013.  The Tallis Festival Choir 2013 will form on the Friday evening, rehearse intensively over the weekend and give a high-standard public concert in the City of London on the Sunday evening.

As usual we shall base ourselves at Imperial College, South Kensington, London SW7 but, in a departure from the format of recent Tallis Festivals, we shall be performing in a splendid Wren church: St Andrew’s, Holborn Circus.  (Old lags will recall that, way back in the 1900s, this beautiful space was the venue for Tallis I!)

Moreover, we have secured St Andrew’s for the whole of the Sunday so there will be no lunchtime relocation.  The optional Friday evening session, the whole of Saturday and the evening party catered for by Exmoor Singers will all be at Imperial.

COST

Participants’ fees:

Standard fee: £60
Friends of Exmoor Singers: £45
Students: £20

Music:

REMEMBRANCE DAY discount:

All who took part in the Rachmaninov Workshop Day on 11 November 2012 can deduct £5 from their Tallis Festival participant’s fee

OUTLINE TIMETABLE

• Fri 8 Feb (optional, 6.00-9.30pm): 6.00pm registration, collection of music; 6.30-9.30pm rehearsal with break
• Sat 9 Feb (9.00am-7.00pm+): 9.00am registration, collection of music; 10.00am-1.00pm & 2.30-7.00pm rehearsals with breaks; plus PARTY 7.30-10.30pm
• Sun 10 Feb (9.30am-9.30pm): 9.30am arrival at St Andrew Holborn; 10.00am-1.00pm & 2.30-5.30pm rehearsals with breaks; CONCERT 7.30-9.30pm

HOW TO APPLY

Just complete this form (DISCLAIMER: external site, click links for security and privacy policy) and we’ll do the rest!

FURTHER INFORMATION

Email: Alison Benbow alison.benbow@exmoorsingers.org

Come and sing Rachmaninov’s Vespers with Exmoor Singers in a one-day workshop.  Full repertoire for the day:

• Sergei Rachmaninov – All-night vigil (“VESPERS”) – sung in Church Slavonic
• Karl Jenkins – For the fallen
• Eric Whitacre – Her sacred spirit soars

Venues

Imperial College, South Kensington, London SW7 – Read Theatre, Level 5, Sherfield Building.  Map HERE – location 22 (entrance at NW corner of the Queen’s Lawn is easiest to find; location 27 is a HUGE tower that is rather difficult to miss)

St Stephen’s, Gloucester Road, London SW7

Cost

£10 (FoES £5) + music (see below)

Music

Rachmaninov HIRE – £4.00

(Rachmaninov BUY – £26.00)

Jenkins (BUY ONLY) – £2.50

Whitacre (BUY ONLY) – £3.50

(NB: all music – apart from hire copies of the Rachmaninov – can also be obtained via www.musicroom.com)

Start time

10.30 (for 11.00) at Imperial

Finish time

c. 20.45 at St Stephen’s, followed by optional curry night

Format

10.30 Imperial – registration, distribution of music, tea/coffee

11.00 Imperial – greeting and SING

13.00 LUNCH – local hostelries or bring a picnic

14.15 St Stephen’s – SING (with coffee break)

18.15 St Stephen’s – HIGH TEA (catered for by ExS)

19.30 St Stephen’s – PERFORM FOR OURSELVES (without audience; you may invite friends)

c. 20.45 Envoi and optional CURRY NIGHT

Notes on the music – James Jarvis (music director)

For many, the Rachmaninov Vespers will require no introduction; for those to whom an introduction is required, no introduction is possible… other than coming to try them! – hence this workshop.  We shall be using the language in which they were written (“Church Slavonic”) but the phonetic transliteration in the Musica Russica edition we shall be using is the simplest I have seen and, in any case, Semyonovo was not built in a day so perfection will not be expected on this occasion.  The point is to experience this great music.

For variety of language and style I have included two short works by living British composers.  Appropriately on Remembrance Sunday, Karl Jenkins’ For the Fallen sets Laurence Binyon’s poem containing the famous text “They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old… ”.  The organ will be played by Edward Batting.  Her sacred spirit soars, a sonically-stunning and musically-approachable work for double choir by Eric Whitacre, sets an acrostic on “HAIL FAIR ORIANA” so might be thought of as a final acknowledgement of the second Elizabeth’s Jubilee Year as it draws to a close.

Discount opportunity

If the workshop whets your appetite for the TALLIS FESTIVAL 2013, 8-10 February 2013, you can claim a £5 discount off your Festival participant’s fee ON TOP OF ALL OTHER DISCOUNTS.  In addition you will be able to reuse your score of the Jenkins and (if you have opted to purchase it) the Rachmaninov.

Further information

Email: info@exmoorsingers.org

How to apply

Please reply to this email (to: info@exmoorsingers.org) stating:

• your name
• your voice part (S2, B1 etc)
• your music requirements
• your preferred method of payment

Payment

Payment for the workshop fee + music can be made by cheque or online:

BY CHEQUE:

Cheques payable to ‘Exmoor Singers’ please sent to Exmoor Singers, 52 Church Lane, Merton Park, London SW19 3HQ  (Please enclose SAE if you require a receipt.)

ONLINE BANKING:

Exmoor Singers

Sort code: 090151

Acc no: 13977301

Ref: Rach Workshop

(Please confirm payment by sending an email to info@exmoorsingers.org – thank you.)

• RACHMANINOV – All-night vigil (“VESPERS”)
• JENKINS – For the fallen
• GOODALL – In memoriam Anne Frank
• TALLIS – Spem in alium nunquam habui (“40-part motet”)

In response to the many enquiries, after a short administrative pause Exmoor Singers is pleased to announce that the next Tallis Festival, conducted by James Jarvis, will take place on 8-10 February 2013.  The Tallis Festival Choir 2013 will form on the Friday evening, rehearse intensively over the weekend and give a high-standard public concert on the Sunday evening.

As usual we shall base ourselves at Imperial College, South Kensington, London SW7 but, in a departure from the format of recent Tallis Festivals, we shall be performing in a splendid Wren church: St Andrew’s, Holborn Circus.  (Old lags will recall that, way back in the 1900s, this beautiful space was the venue for Tallis I!)

Moreover, we have secured St Andrew’s for the whole of the Sunday so there will be no lunchtime relocation.  The optional Friday evening session, the whole of Saturday and the evening party catered for by Exmoor Singers will all be at Imperial.

PLEASE PUT THESE DATES INTO YOUR 2013 DIARY NOW!  Price and discount details will follow shortly and applications will open on 1 November 2012.  Watch this space.