The Choir of Trinity College, at Trinity College within the University of Melbourne, is a collegiate chapel choir modelled on the choirs at Cambridge and Oxford universities. The choir consists of 27 choral scholars (either residents or non-residents of the college). Under the supervision of the director of music, the choir and organ scholars provide music for regular services of Anglican worship in the college chapel as well as a schedule of public concert performances and recordings for ABC Classics.
In 1934, the chaplain of the college, T. M. Robinson, with advice from the then organist of St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, A. E. Floyd, reorganised the college's existing Glee Club as a chapel choir. [1] Among the choir's early conductors was the historian A. G. L. Shaw, later to be dean of the college. [2]
Students and staff continued to provide music for services in the chapel — with the number and quality varying along with the interest or skill of those directing them — until the 1970s when the college determined that a professional director of music was to be appointed to give continuity and coherence to the musical program and also to maintain high standards through a system of auditions and scholarships. The first holder of this position was Peter Dennison, Professor of Music at Melbourne University, who began a new and continuing choir in 1976 and inaugurated the annual Festival of Lessons and Carols. [3]
The choir have recorded for and given live broadcasts on BBC Radio 4, US Public Radio, ABC-FM and 3MBS-FM. They were invited to present a concert of Bach cantatas during the "Bach 2000" Melbourne International Arts Festival and also participated in the Melbourne Federation Festival in 2001. The choir have performed concerts for the Melbourne International Festival of Choirs and the Melbourne Autumn Music Festival as well as festivals in regional Australia (including the Port Fairy and Apollo Bay festivals) and overseas (including those in Ludlow, Lichfield and Cheltenham). At the Llangollen International Eisteddfod in 2001 the choir were placed fourth in the chamber choir division. They have also undertaken invited residencies at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and presented Daily Service on BBC Radio 4 on three separate occasions. [4] In 2009, the choir were invited to participate in the Melbourne season of concerts by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra at the Melbourne Recital Centre. [5]
During university term, the choir sings full Choral Evensong in the college chapel at 5:45 pm each Thursday evening and 5.00 pm each Sunday evening. The choir's service for All Saint's Day was broadcast nationally on ABC Television on 26 October 2008 in the series Hymns of Glory. [6]
Nine Lessons and Carols, also known as the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols and Service of Nine Lessons and Carols, is a service of Christian worship traditionally celebrated on or near Christmas Eve in England. The story of the fall of humanity, the promise of the Messiah, and the birth of Jesus is told in nine short Bible readings or lessons from Genesis, the prophetic books and the Gospels, interspersed with the singing of Christmas carols, hymns and choir anthems.
Anglican church music is music that is written for Christian worship in Anglican religious services, forming part of the liturgy. It mostly consists of pieces written to be sung by a church choir, which may sing a cappella or accompanied by an organ.
Sir Stephen John Cleobury was an English organist and music director. He worked with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, where he served as music director from 1982 to 2019, and with the BBC Singers.
Sir David Valentine Willcocks, was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, which he directed from 1957 to 1974, making frequent broadcasts and recordings. Several of the descants and carol arrangements he wrote for the annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols were published in the series of books Carols for Choirs which he edited along with Reginald Jacques and John Rutter. He was also director of the Royal College of Music in London.
Sir William Henry Harris was an English organist, choral trainer and composer.
Raffaele Marcellino is an Australian composer.
The Choir of King's College, Cambridge is an English Anglican choir. It was created by King Henry VI, who founded King's College, Cambridge, in 1441, to provide daily singing in his Chapel, which remains the main task of the choir to this day.
Robert Chilcott is a British choral composer, conductor, and singer, based in Oxfordshire, England. He was a member of the King's Singers from 1985 to 1997, singing tenor. He has been a composer since 1997.
The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge is a mixed choir whose primary function is to sing choral services in the Tudor chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge. In January 2011, Gramophone named the choir the fifth best choir in the world.
Tobias Martin Piers Trevor Cole is an Australian countertenor and leading artist with Opera Australia.
Saint Peter's Singers (SPS) is a chamber choir associated with Leeds Minster, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England that celebrated during the Season 2017/2018 the fortieth anniversary of the choir's formation by Harry Fearnley in 1977. An anniversary concert took place at Leeds Minster on Sunday 25 June 2017 with the National Festival Orchestra and soloists Kristina James, Joanna Gamble, Paul Dutton and Quentin Brown. Further anniversary year events included Bach Cantatas and Music for Christmas at Fulneck Church in August and December respectively, Handel Coronation Anthems at Holy Trinity, Boar Lane as part of the Leeds Handel Festival in September and a tour of East Anglia in October. In November at Leeds Town Hall, the Singers participated in Herbert Howells's masterpiece Hymnus Paradisi with Leeds Philharmonic Chorus and Leeds College of Music Chorale under the direction of Dr David Hill with the Orchestra of Opera North. 2018 began with a concert of Sacred Choral Masterworks at Leeds Town Hall in February and Bach's Mass in B minor at Leeds Minster on Good Friday 2018 in memory of long-serving member Jan Holdstock. The final concert of the current season takes place at Leeds Minster on Sunday 24 June at Leeds Minster at 5.30. At this event will be presented the first performance of a new work from composer Philip Moore commissioned for the Singers' 40th anniversary – the motet Tu es Petrus – along with music by E W Naylor, Arvo Part, Sir Hubert Parry, Judith Bingham and Maurice Durufle.
Douglas Weiland is an English modern-classical composer. His works range from the three Sir Neville Marriner commissions: Divertimento for Strings (1992), Clarinet Concerto (2002), Triple Concerto (2006), and two Piano Trios commissioned for Altenberg Trio Wien, to several commissioned choral works and the series of chamber works produced for the Norfolk & Norwich Music Club as their Composer-in-Residence.
Charles Harford Lloyd was an English composer who became a well-known organist in his time.
The Fairhaven Singers is a chamber choir based in Cambridge, UK, directed by Ralph Woodward. The choir is a mixed ensemble of about 48 amateur singers singing choral repertoire from the 15th century to the present. Among the major works it has performed are Bach's St John Passion and St Matthew Passion, Mozart's Requiem, Brahms' Requiem, and James MacMillan's Seven Last Words from the Cross. It has commissioned and premiered new works from composers that have included Jonathan Dove, Will Todd, Bob Chilcott, Carl Rütti and Cecilia MacDowall.
Andrew Morris is a British conductor, organist, adjudicator and teacher based in Cambridge.
Charles Christopher Steel was a British composer of classical music.
Evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. It is loosely based on the canonical hours of vespers and compline. Old English speakers translated the Latin word vesperas as æfensang, which became 'evensong' in modern English. Typically used in reference to the Anglican daily office's evening liturgy, it can also refer to the pre-Reformation form of vespers or services of evening prayer from other denominations, particularly within the Anglican Use of the Catholic Church.
Christopher Watson is a British tenor specialising in Early music, Baroque, and Contemporary repertoire.
The Choir of Somerville College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, is mixed voice and is led by a Director of Chapel Music, currently William Dawes, incumbent since 2017. In conjunction with the organ scholars, the choir is central to the musical life of the college and, in its present form, was founded by Francis Knights and Sam Bayliss in 2001. Previous Directors of Chapel Music include David Crown, who directed the choir between 2007 and 2015. The choir sings in Somerville College Chapel every Sunday during term and performs regularly in concerts organised by Somerville Music Society. The organ of the college chapel is a traditionally voiced instrument by Harrison & Harrison. Somerville offers up to five Choral Exhibitions each year to applicants reading any subject.
Anna Ruth Ella Lapwood is a British organist, choir director and television and radio presenter. In 2016 she was appointed Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge, one of the youngest people ever to have directed an Oxford or Cambridge university college choir, and in 2018 she established a girls' choir at the College. As an associate artist at the Royal Albert Hall in London since 2022, her recordings have reached a wide audience on social media.
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