Author: Louisa Denby

2023 October | The Tree of Life

We are delighted to have been asked to give a recital at the Painted Church in Cambridge.

On Sunday 15 October at 1.15pm all are welcome to ‘The Tree of Life’ – a sequence of music and readings exploring the role of Trees in the Bible.

We are very pleased to be working with poet and write Debbie Pullinger for this event and hugely looking forward to our first outing at All Saints’, Jesus Lane.

www.thepaintedchurch.co.uk

2023 September | Gems of the Renaissance

It was very special to be back in Petersfield on Sunday 10 September, to sing for the Parish Mass at St Laurence Church, followed by a short concert of glorious music from the Italian Renaissance. We are grateful to Fr Peter Hollins and the congregation of St Laurence for making us feel so welcome

2023 September | Onward into Autumn

We were delighted to be back in Chalton on Saturday 9 September, after an eight-year hiatus, to sing a family concert. The programme was based loosely around the idea of moving from Summer into Autumn, and touched on the weather, the natural world, religious festivals, and the human condition. Music from a variety of genres was sung, including works by G. P. da Palestrina and William Byrd, and the Beach Boys and Con Conrad.

 

2022 August | Tour to St Davids

Originally planned for August 2020 as our tenth-anniversary tour, we had a really wonderful time on our long-awaited return to our favourite singing location. We were especially pleased to welcome back esteemed organist Marnus Greyling, from Johannesburg, who shared the directing and accompanying duties with our Artistic Director.

We performed a concert at St Davids Cathedral on Wednesday 24th August, as part of their Summer Concert Series, as well as singing services over the weekend of 27th & 28th August. We also ran a community singing event in Trefin Methodist Chapel at 6pm on Friday 26th August.

Pictures and a fuller report to follow soon!

2021 September | Langrish Celebrations

We were delighted to be invited back to St John the Evangelist in Langrish, near Petersfield in Hampshire, to assist with their 150th anniversary celebrations this year. We sang a ‘Mixed Bag’ of a concert on the Saturday (featuring our director hurling a banana at a priest who happened to be in the audience), and a celebratory Eucharist on the Sunday. It was a joyous, moving, and profoundly happy weekend, and we are grateful to all who fed and hosted us, and facilitated the logistical arrangements.

2020 February | Of Love & Celebration

Project #2020 began on February 15th with the first of two identical concerts in Dry Drayton, the second taking place two weeks later in Comberton, near Cambridge. We hugely enjoyed singing a variety of classics both sacred and secular, serious and light, from (mostly) English composers through the ages, and would like to give special thanks to the large audience at Comberton, at whom our director made her banana-throwing début…

St Peter & St Paul, Dry Drayton
St Mary’s, Comberton

2019 September | Ave Maria

Fresh from our Belgium tour we sang two concerts in and around Cambridge in September, entitled ‘Ave Maria’, with similar programmes to those sung in Ghent.

Our thanks to all those who came along to hear the concerts, and generously donated to the churches’ charitable causes. We are also grateful to Rev Alan Partridge and Fr Stephen Anderson for their help in facilitating the events.

2019 August | Tour to Belgium

In August 2019 we ventured abroad once more for a short tour of Belgium. Our programme consisted of works by 16th-century European composers, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

After an incredibly smooth and hitch-free journey on the Eurostar, we arrived in Ghent, only to encounter our first problem: where was Tenor 2? After several failed attempts at locating the coffee shop where he had apparently been hiding out since arriving from Munich earlier in the day, we eventually (literally) bumped into each other in the middle of a road and continued our journey to the hostel where we were to spend the next three nights.

The hostel kindly allowed us the use of their conference room for a short rehearsal; once we’d got used to the unnerving presence of the is-it-a-fish-or-is-it-a-giant-worm model we had a productive time and retired feeling positive about the next day’s performances.

Friday saw us sing in two very different venues: St Michael’s Church in the afternoon (see post-concert photo below) and St Paul’s Church in the evening. The latter’s acoustic was simply stunning, and we hugely appreciated the reception laid on by the not insignificant audience, who in turn appreciated our director’s attempts at speaking Dutch, and even laughed at a joke or two. A late-night trip out for a quick meal saw Tenor 2 experience the delights of McDonald’s for the first time (he eventually triumphed over the electronic ordering system [despite its attempts to eat him], although not without some lasting trauma), and Tenor 1 let loose in Ghent as he didn’t fancy the tram.

On Saturday we enjoyed a boat-trip in the morning (complete with collapsing umbrellas), and visited St Bavo’s Cathedral for our third and final performance, before enjoying the rest of the afternoon and evening at leisure. There was great excitement at the prospect of a visit to a ‘cat café’, but we opted for waffles and sight-seeing instead before regrouping for a final meal prior to our departure the next morning.

Thanks must go to Rayburn Tours for organising such a hassle-free trip, and to our director Louisa Denby (who in turn would like to thank all those who sang).

 

2019 April | T. S. Eliot & Victoria Requiem

Sunday 7th April, 8pm
St Mark’s Church, Barton Road, Cambridge

We were delighted to have the opportunity once again to work with the fabulous Sarah Tenant-Flowers for this performance of the Victoria Requiem, interspersed with readings from T S Eliot, narrated by Andrew Watts, who has read for us on previous occasions. It was an intense weekend, with rehearsals all day on the Saturday, and then again on Sunday afternoon (with a brief pause to watch the Boat Race, of course), followed by the concert. Our thanks to everyone who came to hear it.

Vox Cantab & Sarah Tenant-Flowers
Enjoying Saturday lunch.
Our fabulous chefs – Elaine & Charlotte.
In rehearsal.