March in St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick; RSCM Millenium Youth Choir goes west; Concert at Killaloe; Annual Conductors Course; Memorial Service for the Late Stuart Edward Gray; Armagh Vacancy
March in St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick
Wednesday March 6th – 6.30pm Bach Cantata Presentation for Leaving Certificate students
– for further details please contact Peter Barley peterandrewbarley@gmail.com. Admission is 8 euro per student (teachers go free with 6 students of more; 10 euro adult admission).
Wednesday March 13th – Lunchtime Concerts resume – Spring series – Peter Sebestyen (cello) accompanied by Adam Scheck (piano/guitar)
Wednesday March 20th – Students from Villiers School
Wednesday March 27th – Peter Barley (organ)
Wednesday April 10th – Students from Ard Scoil Mhuire
These concerts are at 1.15pm – free admission (retiring collection in aid of the Companions of St Mary’s Cathedral Music)
RSCM Millenium Youth Choir goes west
Members of the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) Millennium Youth Choir will soon be heading to the west of England for a busy Easter course, which includes a live broadcast of Choral Evensong on BBC Radio Three, and a concert to launch their latest CD The Heart’s Voice.
Both events will take place in the splendid setting of St Mary Redcliffe Church in Bristol. The course runs from Monday 1 to Friday 5 April 2013.
The RSCM Millennium Youth Choir (MYC) consists of auditioned singers aged between 16-23, drawn from church, cathedral and collegiate choirs all over the UK. As well as a live broadcast and a concert, the choir will also sing Choral Evensong in the city’s Anglican cathedral.
The live broadcast of Choral Evensong on BBC Radio Three on Wednesday 3 April at 3.30pm (and repeated on Sunday 7 April at 4.00pm) will include the first broadcast performance of Magnificat and Nunc dimittis by Roxanna Panufnik, and Philip Moore’s Easter anthem O filii et filiae. The service will also include Responses composed by the choir’s director, David Ogden, who is based in Bristol; these are also being broadcast for the first time.
The new CD entitled The Heart’s Voice, the third since the MYC was founded, will be launched at a special concert in St Mary Redcliffe on Thursday 4 April at 7.30pm. Tickets (£6 and concessions) will be available at the door, and in advance on the MYC’s website at www.rscmmyc.org.uk. The CD includes Let thine heart keep thy commandments by Owain Park, one of the choir’s current members. This piece was a runner-up in a recent composition competition organised by the RSCM and the King James Bible Trust. The winning work from the same competition The Mystery of Christ by Christopher Totney is also included.
Many of the other composers represented are contemporary; the main work is James Whitbourn’s Magnificat and Nunc dimittis Eboracum for organ, choir and viola, which was commissioned two years ago by the MYC. The choir has also recorded anthems by Thomas Hewitt Jones, Malcolm Archer, Philip Moore and John Rutter. “This CD is a reflection of one of the missions of the Millennium Youth Choir,” says director David Ogden. “A choir of young singers like this should be singing contemporary music, and our role is to be a leading exponent of some of the best modern church music writing that there is.”
Many of the singers taking part in the Easter course will have been present at the recording session which took place last autumn in the Chapel at Tonbridge School in Kent, but good singers with competent sight-reading skills are welcome to apply; auditions are arranged throughout the year.
For its summer course, the MYC will venture to Prague in the Czech Republic for its first visit to Eastern Europe, during which the choir will sing Mass in the city’s St Vitus Cathedral.
Concert at Killaloe
St. Flannan’s Cathedral will be hosting a fundraising concert for Passiontide. The event will feature:
The Blessington Millennium Choir
“DARKNESS AND LIGHT”
The Crucifixion by John Stainer
Musical Director: Yvonne O’Conor
Soloists:Irene Kavanagh, Soprano
Victor Coe, Baritone
Organist: Trevor Selby
and
The Aer Lingus Traditional Music Ensemble
Carolan and O’Riada
Saturday 23rd March 2013 at 6.30pm
St. Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe
Tickets €10, from Whelan’s Grocery Store, Opposite Cathedral or at the Door
Proceeds in aid of Cathedral Restoration Fund
Annual Conductors Course
Dun Laoghaire Choral Society is hosting its third annual Choral Conductors Course from April 4 to 7 at Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, Belgrave Square, Monkstown, Co. Dublin.
The society would like to inform church choirs of the course as they believe it will provide invaluable training for both experienced and aspiring church choir conductors alike.
The course will be led by the society’s Music Director and Principal Conductor of the RTE Concert Orchestra, David Brophy. Participants will have an opportunity to hone their skills under David’s direction and also to conduct a large amateur choir.
Choral conductors, teachers, musicians and students are invited to apply for the course. The fee is €250 or €200 for students or €80 for observers.
For more information see the DCLS website www.dlcs.ie. The closing date for application is Tuesday March 23
Memorial Service for the Late Stuart Edward Gray
Stuart Gray was Organist and Choirmaster at St Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick from 1979 to 2004, when he and his wife Moira (also a musician) retired to Stuart’s native Yorkshire. Sadly Stuart died very suddenly at home on 5 December 2012.
In view of the great legacy of Stuart’s musical ministry in the cathedral for 25 years, and his years of teaching music and religious education at Villiers School, we liaised with Moira to arrange a service to celebrate Stuart’s great contribution, including (with Moira) the founding of the Companions of St Mary’s Cathedral Music, which continues to foster education and music in a new generation of young singers.
The Choir, augmented by many former choristers, were sublime. The music included Stuart’s own composition of the Canticle Nunc Dimittis in F; Moira’s beautiful responsorial version of Psalm 23; the anthem Ave Verum Corpus by William Byrd; the Largo from Vivaldi’s Concerto in C Major (RV 443) performed by Maria O’Brien on the treble recorder; and Schubert’s Impromptu in A flat (D935) played on the piano by Cliodna Shanahan; and the tune to the first hymn (For the fruits of his creation) was East Acklam, after the village where Moira and Stuart lived.
The organ voluntaries, played by Peter Barley were both by JS Bach: Schmucke dich, O liebe Seele (BWV 654) and Prelude in E Flat (BWV 552). The Precentor of the Cathedral, the Rev’d Canon Stephen Neill, who had been curate when Stuart was organist, gave an excellent address acknowledging Stuart’s talents and gifts that he shared in both music and education.
Before the service began, the team of bell ringers paid their tribute to Stuart by a rarely heard half muffled peel, which was a treat to hear. Music makers, singers, musicians from all over Limerick came to share in the celebration and to support Moira, who was presented with a bouquet of flowers by Mrs Noreen Ellerker, on behalf of the cathedral congregation, at the end of the service. We congratulate the Mr Barley and all the choir for the excellence of the music.
Vacancy
Organist/Director of Music: St. Mark’s Parish Church, Armagh
The Rector and Select Vestry are keen to appoint an Organist/Director of Music to develop the worship in St. Mark’s using both traditional and contemporary music.
We have a small but supportive RSCM registered choir which is keen to be built up.
Services are from the Book of Common Prayer 2004 including Services of the Word.
Sunday services at 10.30am and 7.00pm
If interested, and for further details, please contact the Rector:
Canon John McKegney
St. Mark’s Rectory
14 Portadown Road
Armagh
BT61 9EE
Rectory:
028 37522970
Email:
Rector
www.stmarks.armagh.anglican.org
No official closing date has been specified for this position.