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The London Festival of Contemporary Church Music is an annual music festival held in London.
The London Festival of Contemporary Church Music was founded in 2002 by Christopher Batchelor at St Pancras New Church. [1] Batchelor remains (2022) the artistic director. [2] It takes place around the feast day of St Pancras on 12 May, being the patron saint of the parish and church. [3]
The festival now lasts nine days, and features new works by both established and new composers. [4] It includes a choral evensong broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and liturgical services and concerts all over London. [5] In addition to St Pancras New Church, the festival takes place at churches including Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, the Temple Church, Southwark Cathedral, St Paul's Cathedral, St Paul's, Covent Garden and St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. [6]
Established composers who have written works for the festival include Michael Berkeley, Michael Finnissy, Gabriel Jackson and Cecilia McDowall. [7] Some years have a particular focus: in 2013 there was a series of works produced as a tribute to Philip Moore, the former organist of York Minster, [8] and in 2021 a gala concert as a tribute to Cecilia McDowall. [9]
The principal aim of the festival is to showcase performances of recent and contemporary liturgical music and organ music. [10]
Sir John Kenneth Tavener was an English composer, known for his extensive output of choral religious works. Among his best known works are The Lamb (1982) The Protecting Veil, (1988) and Song for Athene (1993).
Westminster Cathedral is the mother church of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. It is the largest Catholic church in the UK and the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster.
Saint Cecilia was a Roman virgin martyr and is venerated in Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and some Lutheran churches, such as the Church of Sweden. She became the patroness of music and musicians, it being written that, as the musicians played at her wedding, Cecilia "sang in her heart to the Lord". Musical compositions are dedicated to her, and her feast, on 22 November, is the occasion of concerts and musical festivals.
St Pancras Church is a Greek Revival church in St Pancras, London, built in 1819–22 to the designs of William and Henry William Inwood.
Saint Thomas Choir School is a church-affiliated boarding choir school in Manhattan, New York, founded in 1919. The school is supported by the nearby Saint Thomas Church, an Episcopal church, continuing the Anglican tradition of all-male choral ensembles. Saint Thomas is one of three choir schools that exclusively educate boy trebles of the choir, and where all boys are required to board at the school.
Andrew Carwood is the Director of Music at St Paul's Cathedral in London and director of his own group, The Cardinall's Musick.
The English Music Festival is an annual four-day event held over the second May bank holiday, dedicated to the performance of British composers from the mediaeval to the present day with a strong focus on the early to mid twentieth century. Founded and organised by Em Marshall in 2006, the Festival takes place in Dorchester on Thames, Oxfordshire and the surrounding area. Now in its seventh year, the festival is rapidly expanding to become one of Britain's major classical music festivals, performing many neglected and previously unperformed works by composers as diverse as Britten and Holst to Joseph Holbrooke and Edwin York Bowen. The festival also presents world premiers by contemporary composers such as Matthew Curtis, Cecilia McDowall, Paul Carr and Tom Rose. EMF's concerts are regularly broadcast by BBC Radio 3, and the festival has established relationships with such orchestras as the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Orchestra of St Paul's and City of London Choir, and artists such as David Owen Norris, James Gilchrist and Janice Watson.
Christopher Herrick is an English concert organist best known for his interpretation of J.S. Bach’s organ music and for his many recordings on the finest pipe organs from around the world.
Pietro Alessandro Yon was an Italian-born organist and composer who made his career in the United States.
Cecilia McDowall is a British composer, particularly known for her choral compositions.
Merton College Chapel is the church of Merton College, Oxford, England. Dedicated to St Mary and St John the Baptist, the chapel was largely completed in its present form by the end of the 13th century. The building retains a number of original stained glass windows, and is noted for its acoustics. A choral foundation was established in 2008 by Peter Phillips.
The Arcadian Singers of Oxford is an independent, student-run chamber choir based in Oxford, England, originally formed in 1976 as a madrigal choir. It is a leading choir in the city and performs a wide range of music. Jamie Powe is the current musical director of The Arcadian Singers. Previous conductors have included Christopher Ward and Alexander Campkin.
Bath Bach Choir, formerly The City of Bath Bach Choir (CBBC), is based in Bath, Somerset, England, and is a registered charity. Founded in 1946 by Cuthbert Bates, who also became a founding father of the Bath Bach Festival in 1950, the choir's original aim was to promote the music of Johann Sebastian Bach via periodic music festivals. Bates – an amateur musician with a great love and understanding of this composer's works – was also the CBBC's principal conductor and continued in this role until his sudden death, in April 1980. This untimely exit pre-empted his planned retirement concert performance of J. S Bach's Mass in B minor, scheduled for July of the same year, and effectively ended the first period of the choir's history.
Shirley Thompson is an English composer, conductor, and violinist of Jamaican descent. Her output as a composer encompasses symphonies, ballets, operas, concertos, and other works for ensembles, as well as music for TV, film, and theatre. Her New Nation Rising, A 21st Century Symphony was composed in 2002 and debuted in 2004. Also an academic, she is currently Professor of Music at the University of Westminster. In the 2019 New Year Honours she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Music.
The Santa Cecilia Choir is a polyphonic male choir composed of seminarians of the Rachol Seminary of the Catholic Archdiocese of Goa and Daman in Goa, India.
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.
Graham Ross is a British conductor and composer.
The Deutscher Chor London (DCL), also known as the German Choir of London, is a London-based amateur mixed-voice choir with a core repertoire of German classical choral pieces and a special interest in contemporary works. The choir was founded in 2009 by its current musical director Barbara Höfling.
