London Oriana Choir

Last updated

London Oriana Choir is a choral group comprising around 120 singers, based in London, England. It was formed in 1973 by Leon Lovett, who acted as conductor and musical director. David Drummond became the choir's musical director in 1996, and Dominic Ellis-Peckham began his term as musical director in September 2013. The choir has developed a following through performances at London venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Centre, Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall at Southbank, St Paul's Cathedral, St Martin-in-the-Fields and St James' Piccadilly. In 2016 the choir launched a five-year project 'five15' to promote the work of women composers with 15 new commissions from five composers, workshops and recordings. The five commissioned composers-in-residence were Cheryl Frances-Hoad (2016/17), Rebecca Dale (2017/18), Jessica Curry (2018/19), Anna Disley-Simpson (2019-2021), and Hannah Kendall (2021/22). Composer Cecilia McDowall accepted the role of Patron of the choir in 2021. The choir celebrated its 50th anniversary in the 2023/24 season, commissioning a new piece 'Here Hum The Bees' from Cecilia McDowall, which was premiered at a gala concert at St John's Smith Square in March 2024.

Contents

The choir tours regularly and since 2015 has performed in France, Portugal, Germany, Malta, Poland, and Italy.

Notable performances

Under Dominic Ellis-Peckham

Under David Drummond

Under Leon Lovett

Leon Lovett directed the choir from its inception until 1996. During this time, the choir regularly performed at the Royal Albert Hall, on BBC television and venues around London.

Recordings

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Cleobury</span> English organist and conductor (1948–2019)

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.

Brian Easdale was a British composer of operatic, orchestral, choral and film music, best known for his ballet film score The Red Shoes of 1948.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armstrong Gibbs</span> English composer (1889-1960)

Cecil Armstrong Gibbs was a prolific and versatile English composer. Though best known for his choral music and, in particular, songs, Gibbs also devoted much of his career to the amateur choral and festival movements in Britain. Although his music is rarely played today he attained a high level of popularity in his lifetime. His slow waltz "Dusk" for orchestra and piano earned him more royalties than any of his other works combined. It was requested by Princess Elizabeth to be performed on her 18th birthday.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crouch End Festival Chorus</span> Musical artist

Crouch End Festival Chorus (CEFC) is a symphonic choir based in north London which performs in a range of musical styles, including traditional choral repertoire, contemporary classical, rock, pop and film music.

Philip Lawson is a British choral conductor, composer and arranger. For 18 years he was a baritone with the King's Singers and the group's principal arranger for the last fifteen years of that period. In 2009 the group's album "Simple Gifts", on which Lawson arranged 10 out of 15 tracks, won the Grammy award for "Best Classical Crossover Album". In February 2012, he left the King's Singers to concentrate on his writing career.

Cecilia McDowall is a British composer, particularly known for her choral compositions.

The Vancouver Men's Chorus is a non-profit choir. Composed of gay men and their friends, the chorus is a member of the Vancouver Cultural Alliance, the British Columbia Choral Federation and of GALA Choruses, an association of over one hundred men's, women's, and mixed choruses from the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia.

The Bach Choir is a large independent musical organisation founded in London, England in 1876 to give the first performance of J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor in Britain.

Ronald Geoffrey Corp, is a composer, conductor and Anglican priest. He is founder and artistic director of the New London Orchestra (NLO) and the New London Children's Choir. Corp is musical director of the London Chorus, a position he took up in 1994, and is also musical director of the Highgate Choral Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merton College Chapel</span> Church in Oxford, England

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Kennedy Scott</span> English organist and choral conductor

Charles James Kennedy Osborne Scott was an English organist and choral conductor who played an important part in developing the performance of choral and polyphonic music in England, especially of early and modern English music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Joseph</span> English composer (1894–1929)

Jane Marian Joseph was an English composer, arranger and music teacher. She was a pupil and later associate of the composer Gustav Holst, and was instrumental in the organisation and management of various of the music festivals which Holst sponsored. Many of her works were composed for performance at these festivals and similar occasions. Her early death at age 35, which prevented the full realisation of her talents, was considered by her contemporaries as a considerable loss to English music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Burton</span> British musician

Ken Burton is a British choral and orchestral conductor, composer, performer, producer, presenter, arranger and judge, widely known for his work and appearances on UK television programmes, particularly BBC1 Songs Of Praise, on which he appears regularly as a conductor, musical director, arranger, singer, judge, music producer, and music consultant. He has conducted and directed choirs for major films, including the multi Oscar winning and Grammy winning Marvel film Black Panther,Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever, Candy Cane Lane (Amazon) Holiday Road (Hallmark), is one of the credited choral conductors on the film Jingle Jangle and has also contributed as a conductor, contractor, and singer to a number of other films including Amazing Grace, and Ugly Dolls.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Crusis Women's Choir</span>

The Anna Crusis Feminist Choir is the longest-running feminist choir in the United States, founded in 1975 by Dr. Catherine Roma, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ANNA Crusis is known for its dedication to social justice, focusing on a wide range of repertoire including feminist and LGBTQ+ themes, celebrating the strength, resilience, and solidarity of marginalized communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William G. Whittaker</span> English composer, 1876-1944

William Gillies Whittaker was an English composer, pedagogue, conductor, musicologist, Bach scholar, publisher and writer. He spent his life promoting music. The University of Durham, where he once studied and taught, called him one of "Britain's most influential musicians during the first half of the twentieth century". An autodidact, he was a prodigious creator of Gebrauchsmusik.

Joseph Phibbs is an English composer of orchestral, choral and chamber music. He has also composed for theatre, both in the UK and Japan. Since 1998 he has written regularly to commissions for Festivals, for private sponsors, and for the BBC, which has broadcast premieres of his orchestral and chamber works from the Proms and elsewhere. His works have been given premieres in Europe, the United States and the Far East, and he has received prestigious awards, including most recently a British Composer Award, and a Library of Congress Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation Award. Many of his works have been premiered by leading international musicians, including Dame Evelyn Glennie, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Sakari Oramo, Vasily Petrenko, Gianandrea Noseda, and the Belcea Quartet.

St Albans Bach Choir is an amateur choir based in the English cathedral city of St Albans. Since its founding in 1924 it has performed a wide range of choral music including but by no means limited to the great Bach masterpieces. It strives for the highest possible standards of music making, employing soloists of the highest calibre and professional orchestras. Performances are normally held in St Albans Cathedral. Currently, the Musical Director is Andrew Lucas, Master of the Music at the Cathedral.

Janet Wheeler is a British composer and choral conductor, based in Saffron Walden, Essex.

Jocelyn Hagen is an American composer. She composes primarily for voice: solo, chamber and choral, but also has composed for chamber, wind, and orchestral ensembles. She has explored large-scale multimedia works, electro-acoustic music, dance, and opera.

References

  1. Ferrer, Darah (2022-07-14). "A Choral Concert Night And Realisations About Women In Music". The Telling. Retrieved 2022-08-01.
  2. Halperin, Malina Saval,Shirley; Saval, Malina; Halperin, Shirley (2019-05-18). "Madonna at Eurovision in Tel Aviv: 'Never Underestimate the Power of Music'". Variety. Retrieved 2020-01-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. Unknown. "All women line-up for London Oriana Choir's Greenwich Concert" . Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  4. Michaels, Sean (2 December 2014). "Pete Townshend announces symphonic reimagining of Quadrophenia". The Guardian (UK). London. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  5. Partington, Angela (11 March 2003). "One enchanted evening". The Guardian (UK). London. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  6. "Gorbachev Gala Draws Starry Crowd". Women's Wear Daily. 7 June 2010. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
  7. "Robert Plant Headlines Electric Proms". Classic Rock magazine. September 14, 2010. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  8. Maddocks, Fiona (13 March 2011). "Women composers: Notes from the musical margins". Observer (UK). London. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
  9. "Armstrong Gibbs Odysseus". Cecil Armstrong Gibbs "Odysseus" & George Dyson "Four Songs for Sailors", BBC Concert Orchestra and London Oriana Choir. Dutton Vocalion. Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  10. Greenfield, Edward (10 December 2004). "Walford Davies: Everyman, Ferrari/ Johnston/ Staples/ Putnins/ London Oriana Choir/ Kensington SO/ Drummond". Guardian (UK). Retrieved 4 June 2013.