Bishopwearmouth Choral Society are pleased to be part of this year’s St.Mary’s Concerts series and will be performing a selection of David Murray arrangements in St.Mary the Virgin Church, Claremont Gardens, Whitley Bay, NE26 3SF on Saturday June 30th 2018 – details to be confirmed.
A Saturday evening concert in Sunderland Minster starting at 7.30 p.m., conducted by David Murray.
The concert will feature David Murray’s own arrangements, for choir, piano and string quintet, of some of the great songs to have come out of America in the twentieth century. These will include a Gershwin selection, a Jerome Kern Medley, and a Carpenters Sequence.
Tickets £14.00 for Nave (£8 concessions for full-time students and on income related benefits) or £8.00 (Gallery – limited view). Accompanied under 16s free. Tickets are available from members of the Society, at the door, or on-line from http://www.wegottickets.com/BCS – who also have a direct link on the home page of this website. Doors open from 6.45 p.m.
A Saturday morning event in Fulwell Methodist Church from 10.00 a.m. till 12.00 midday.
Why not join the Society in a social event which comes with a raffle and stalls, while enjoying the tea/coffee, scones and a chat
A Saturday evening concert by Bishopwearmouth Young Singers, supported by members of Bishopwearmouth Choral Society, at 7.30 p.m. in Ewesley Road Methodist Church.
A performance of ‘A Christmas Carol’ – words by Tony Runham and music by David Murray.
No tickets necessary but a donation of £5.00 would be most welcome – accompanied under 16s free admission.
A Saturday evening concert with Bishopwearmouth Young Singers in Sunderland Minster starting at 7.30 p.m., conducted by David Murray.
A cornucopia of Christmas music featuring ‘Ceremony of Carols’ by Britten, ‘On Christmas Night’ by Chilcott, and ‘What Sweeter Music’ by Rutter – with other items, including a soloist and with Bishopwearmouth Young Singers.
On Christmas Night, by Bob Chilcott, is a musical celebration of the Christmas Story, presented as a sequence of eight original carols. Chilcott calls upon several familiar carol melodies within his own settings, resulting in an array of styles and moods – from comforting and reflective to jubilant, swinging and folksy.
A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28, is a choral piece by Benjamin Britten, scored for chorus, solo voices, and harp. Written for Christmas, it consists of eleven movements, with text from The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems, edited by Gerald Bullett; it is in Middle English. The piece was written in 1942 while Britten was at sea, going from the USA to England.
What sweeter music can we bring than a carol, for to sing, by John Rutter, goes right to the essence of the season.
Tickets £14.00 for Nave (£8 concessions for full-time students and on income related benefits) or £8.00 (Gallery – limited view). Accompanied under 16s free. Tickets are available from members of the Society, at the door, or on-line from http://www.wegottickets.com/BCS – who also have a direct link on the home page of this website. Doors open from 6.45 p.m.
A Saturday evening concert in Sunderland Minster starting at 7.30 p.m., conducted by David Murray.
Tickets £14.00 for Nave (£8 concessions for full-time students and on income related benefits) or £8.00 (Gallery – limited view). Accompanied under 16s free. Tickets are available from members of the Society, at the door, or on-line from http://www.wegottickets.com/BCS – who also have a direct link on the home page of this website.
Soloists : Hannah Thomson – soprano, Isobel Cheeseman – alto, & Richard Gooding – baritone.
The SATB choir and organ version of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, Op. 9 was published in 1948. It had been commissioned six years earlier under the collaborationist Vichy regime, but Duruflé was still working on it in 1944 when the regime collapsed and in fact did not complete it until the year of publication. The work is for SATB choir with brief mezzo-soprano and baritone solos. At the time of commission, Duruflé was working on an organ suite using themes from Gregorian chants. He incorporated his sketches for that work into the Requiem, which uses numerous themes from the Gregorian “Mass for the Dead. Nearly all the thematic material in the work comes from chant. Like many requiems, Duruflé’s omits the Gradual and the Tract. The Dies irae text, perhaps the most famous portion of the Requiem Mass, is not set. Duruflé’s omission of this text and inclusion of others (Pie Jesu, Libera me, In Paradisum, from the burial service, mirroring Fauré, makes the composition calmer and more meditative than some other settings.
Duruflé was born in Louviers, Eure in 1902. He became a chorister at the Rouen Cathedral Choir School from 1912 to 1918, where he studied piano and organ. The choral plainsong tradition at Rouen became a strong and lasting influence.At age 17, upon moving to Paris, he took private organ lessons with Charles Tournemire, whom he assisted at Basilique Ste-Clotilde, Paris until 1927. In 1920 Duruflé entered the Conservatoire de Paris, eventually graduating with first prizes in organ (1922), harmony (1924), fugue (1924), piano accompaniment (1926) and composition (1928).
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (7 January 1899 – 30 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include mélodies, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Poulenc’s
wealthy parents intended him for a business career in Poulenc Frères, their family pharmaceutical company, and did not allow him to enrol at a music college. Largely self-educated musically, he studied with the pianist Ricardo Viñes, who became his mentor after the composer’s parents died. Poulenc soon came under the influence of Erik Satie, under whose tutelage he became one of a group of young composers known collectively as Les Six. In his early works Poulenc became known for his high spirits and irreverence. During the 1930s a much more serious side to his nature emerged, particularly in the religious music he composed from 1936 onwards, which he alternated with his more light-hearted works.
His Gloria scored for soprano solo, large orchestra, and chorus, is a setting of the Gloria text from the mass ordinary. One of Poulenc’s most celebrated works, it was commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation in honor of Sergei Koussevitzky and his wife Natalia, the namesakes of the foundation. Gloria was premiered on 21 January 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Chorus Pro Musica under conductor Charles Münch with Adele Addison as soloist. The first recording (also in 1961), for EMI, was conducted by Georges Prêtre, under the supervision of the composer, with Rosanna Carteri as the soloist. Among later recordings of the music, the RCA Victor recording by the Robert Shaw Chorale in 1965 won a Grammy Award for the “Best Choral Performance.”
As part of the publicity for our latest concert, some photographs of the choir rehearsing were kindly taken for us by Mick Lynch.
Below are a selection taken from that session. Apologies that not everyone is included in a photo.
Please find below a link to the minutes of the last AGM held in September 2015 as either a WORD document or a PDF file.
The Agenda for this year’s AGM, to be held on Wednesday 7th September 2016 at 7.30 p.m. in Sunderland Minster, is also included at the start of the minutes. As you will see from the Agenda, it has been agreed that verbal reports will only be heard at the meeting from the Chairman, the Treasurer and the Musical Director. Links to the other usual reports will be published here as soon as they are available so that members can check their contents and raise questions at the AGM if applicable.
PATRONS’ OFFICER’S REPORT 2015 – 16
It is also intended that the distribution of scores for the new works will take place on that evening and possibly a short rehearsal session as well.
