In December 2018 we returned to Pembrokeshire to sing services in St Davids Cathedral and to give a special New Year’s Eve concert in our beloved Trefin Chapel. It was a truly magical time and we are hugely grateful to everyone who packed out both the cathedral and the concert.
We made our biennial trip to St Davids in Pembrokeshire in August 2017, where once again we sang services and concerts in the Cathedral and surrounding area. With a programme entitled ‘Music on Themes of Love and Devotion,’ we performed pieces by 20th- and 21st-century composers including Gjeilo, Walton, Poulenc, and MacMillan. We were very pleased to be able to contribute once more to the restoration of Trefin Chapel, with a service of Compline and a Family Concert (including audience participation, animal noises, and a conductor clad in a chicken hat). We also enjoyed time on various beaches, and singing services in St Davids Cathedral.
Vox Cantab’s 2015 summer tour began with a much-anticipated return to the lovely Trefin Chapel, near St Davids in Pembrokeshire, where the Choir were extremely warmly-received in 2013. We also gave a performance in St Mary’s, Haverfordwest, and in St Davids Cathedral, as part of their summer recital series. The week finished with Evensong at the Cathedr
al, and we were delighted to have Dr Rowan Williams in the congregation.
We were pleased to welcome back prize-winning organist Tim Parsons to play and conduct for us once more, along with our director Louisa Denby. The Choir also undertook visits to local hospices and nursing homes as part of our Summer Outreach Project.
St Davids 2015 Tour Schedule
Sunday 16th August, 7.30pm
Trefin Chapel, Trefin, Pembrokeshire
Family Concert
The programme included a range of music both sacred and secular, from 16th-century polyphony through to our own arrangements of Welsh Folk Songs. The audience joined in enthusiastically when the opportunity arose!
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Monday 17th August, 7.30pm
St Mary’s Church, Haverfordwest
Wednesday 19th August, 7.30pm
St Davids Cathedral, St Davids
Like as the Hart | A Concert of Psalm Settings
The programme included works by Renaissance composers Byrd, Lassus, and Palestrina, and moving through the centuries Purcell, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Vaughan Williams, and others, finishing with a new work, ‘The Lord is King’, but our very own Timothy Parsons, and Parry’s iconic ‘I was Glad’.
Tuesday 18th August, 9.30pm
Trefin Chapel, Trefin, Pembrokeshire
Choral Compline
Introit Jesu, the very thought – Bairstow
Anthem My soul, there is a country – Parry
Antiphon Salve Regina – Poulenc
Thursday 20th August, 6pm
St Davids Cathedral, Pembrokeshire
Evensong
Responses Reading
Canticles Tomkins Second
Anthem Locus iste – Bruckner
Services at Portsmouth Cathedral
Director Louisa Denby; Organ Ian Tindale
Eucharist
Victoria – Jesu, dulcis memoria
Haydn – Little Organ Mass (solo Catherine White)
Lassus – Ave verum corpus
Evensong
Walford Davies – Blessed are the pure in heart
Clucas Responses
Brewer – Magnificat & Nunc dimittis in D
Bairstow – Lord, I call upon thee
Peter Leonard, Residentiary Canon at Portsmouth Cathedral
@JMWilliams62 @VoxCantab @IanTindale and it was lovely to have you with us @PortsmouthCath we hope you come again!
— Peter Leonard (@peterpleonard) August 11, 2014
Wonderful @VoxCantab at @PortsmouthCath this evening. Superb.
— Lindsay Northover (@LPNorthover) August 10, 2014
@PortsmouthCath “Missa Brevis Loannis” beautifully performed by the visiting Vox Cantab Choir
— Motofe (@Motofe) August 10, 2014
Great to sing with @VoxCantab and @IanTindale at Portsmouth Cathedral for Sunday sung Eucharist with @peterpleonard pic.twitter.com/TPDRETqUan
— Jonathan Williams (@JMWilliams62) August 11, 2014
Outreach Activities at The Rowans’ Hospice & Steep House Nursing Home, Hampshire,
plus a private home visit
A small number of us visited the Rowans’ Hospice, Waterlooville, and Steep House Nursing Home, in order to entertain the residents with a varied selection of music.
We also visited our 94-year-old friend in his home, where we were treated to a sumptuous tea and a glimpse of a ‘Great Bible,’ dating from the 16th Century.
Repertoire included:
Tallis – If ye love me
Vautor – Sweet Suffolk Owl
Holst – Swansea Town
Trad. Botswanan, arr. L’Estrange – Jesu ukukhanya
Handel, arr. Gritton – Three-minute Messiah
Carter/Hudson, arr. Sund – Goodnight sweetheart
The first day of our 2014 Summer Tour saw five members of the Choir give a concert of ‘Essentially English’ music at St Michael & All Angels, Chalton, Hampshire.
Soprano Catherine White, Louisa Dawes; Alto Louisa Denby;
Tenor Dean Parker; Bass Frank Lee
Programme
Tye – Give almes of thy goods
Tallis – If ye love me
Morley – Sing we, and chant it
Cornysh – Ah, Robyn
Stanford – When Mary thro’ the garden went
Elgar – As torrents in summer
Wood – Full fathom five
Wood – Oculi omnium
Holst – Swansea Town
Sullivan – The long day closes
English Trad., arr. Gritton – Country Gardens
Trad. Botswanan, arr. L’Estrange – Jesu ukukhanya
Lloyd-Webber – Close every door
Handel, arr. Gritton – Three-minute Messiah