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Wednesday 10 February 2021 3.30pm

Choral Evensong on BBC Radio 3

We’re thrilled to be broadcasting Choral Evensong on BBC Radio 3 this week, with a socially-distanced service recorded in November.

Graham Ross conducts us in Undine Smith Moore’s ‘We shall walk through the valley in peace’, Herbert Howells’s rarely-performed St Augustine’s Service, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s ‘By the waters of Babylon’, and his own hymn arrangement of ‘Abide with me’. Psalms 53 and 54 are sung to chants by Stanford and Barnby, and the service closes with Junior Organ Scholar Sam Jones playing Howells’ ‘Paean’. The service will be broadcast tomorrow (Wednesday) at 3.30pm UK time, repeated on Sunday at 3pm, and available for 30 days after on BBC Sounds.

It means a huge amount to all of us to have been able to record this together in the midst of all the current challenges. We hope you enjoy this wonderful music and our performances.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000s31k

From the Chapel of Clare College, Cambridge.

Introit: We shall walk through the valley in peace (Trad. spiritual, arr. Undine Smith Moore)

Responses: Rose

Psalms 53, 54 (Stanford, Barnby)

First Lesson: Isaiah 52 v.13 – 53 v.6

Canticles: St Augustine’s Service (Howells)

Second Lesson: Romans 15 vv.14-21

Anthem: By the waters of Babylon (Coleridge-Taylor)

Hymn: Abide with me (Eventide, arr. Graham Ross)

Voluntary: Paean (Howells)

Graham Ross (Director of Music)

George Gillow (Sir William McKie Senior Organ Scholar)

Samuel Jones (Junior Organ Scholar)

Recorded 26 November 2020.

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Tuesday 09 February 2021 12.00pm

Congratulations to Dr Peter Harrison

Huge congratulations to our former Organ Scholar Dr Peter Harrison (Clare College 2010) on his appointment as University of Cambridge Lecturer in Music and Science from September 2021!

Peter first came to the University of Cambridge as an organ scholar at Clare College, where he studied Mathematics and then Music. After postgraduate studies at Goldsmiths, University of London and Queen Mary, University of London, he took up a postdoctoral research position at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, Germany. His published work centres on computational approaches to music cognition, covering topics such as statistical learning, creativity, musical pleasure, consonance, voice leading, harmonic syntax, and individual differences in musical abilities.

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Thursday 04 February 2021 12.00pm

Choral Trials 2021-22

Deadline for Choral Trials 2021 is 15 February 2021. Download the application form here.

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Thursday 28 January 2021 1.45pm

Music in Lockdown

Choir of Clare College are delighted to continue bringing music to our followers during Lockdown!

Clare Music Mondays series: a weekly online offering for members of our College community and the wider public, featuring performances given by Clare musicians past and present - some of which are recorded specially during this lockdown from their homes.

Performances will be released every Monday throughout the Lent Term, published on the Choir of Clare College’s social media pages and YouTube channel.

ClareCasts: a weekly online series from the Chapel and Choir, featuring readings, reflections and prayers from Clare members, as well as beautiful choral pieces from the Choir's archives.

ClareCasts will be released every Friday at 5pm throughout the Lent Term, published on the Choir of Clare College’s social media pages and YouTube channel.

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Wednesday 09 December 2020 3.30pm

Christmas from Clare

Introducing our special online concert, CHRISTMAS FROM CLARE, premiering this Saturday 12 December from 5pm on our YouTube channel!

For the first time in recent history, we’re unable to give any live Christmas concerts in person this year, so sit back, pour a drink of something seasonal, and join us online for a beautiful 45-minute programme of motets by Praetorius, Roderick Williams and Sally Beamish to traditional carols and festive arrangements, especially recorded in the historic setting of Clare College’s Old Court.

Watch here: https://youtu.be/MsvwEUrEqyw

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Monday 23 November 2020 10.15am

PROMO VIDEO RELEASE

We're thrilled to introduce our promo video for our new album, A Ceremony of Carols!

The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, conducted by Graham Ross and featuring Tanya Houghton, harpist, perform Britten's festive masterpiece 'A Ceremony of Carols' alongside other traditional carols offered by twentieth-century British composers

Watch the full video at: https://youtu.be/GtAxzWQZ-r0

Purchase/listen at https://lnk.to/britten-aceremonyofcarolsWE

Stay tuned on our social media channels to hear more about each of the tracks!

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Friday 06 November 2020 12.00pm

NEW CD RELEASE Benjamin Britten: A Ceremony of Carols

The Choir are delighted to announce the release of their new CD, Benjamin Britten: A Ceremony of Carols.

Arranged around his famous Ceremony of Carols is a selection of wonderful choral settings with and without organ, each of which in its own way testifies to the meticulous care Britten brought to these musical gems, most of them deriving from English folk tradition and heard alongside pieces by three older masters whose music had left its mark on the composer of Peter Grimes: John Ireland, Frank Bridge and Gustav Holst.

Our first promotional video has been launched via our Social Media and Website, stay tuned for more information on each of the tracks, and for a sneak peak into the Choir's Recording Sessions!

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Thursday 05 November 2020 9.00am

Service for Remembrance Sunday

The Choir look forward to their annual Service of Remembrance, for all those who have lost their lives in war and conflict.

The service will be livestreamed from the Chapel at 10.45 a.m., Sunday 8 November 2020 and will include the laying of the College's wreath, as well as readings, hymns and choral pieces, featuring Guests' For the fallen, Eleanor Daley's Upon your heart and Kontakion of the dead (Kiev melody), conducted by Graham Ross.

Watch the service online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x4_2Uuxs3A

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Monday 02 November 2020 9.00pm

Duruflé Requiem for All Souls' Day

The Choir are hugely excited for their performance of the Duruflé Requiem during a special choral service for All Souls' Day, live-streamed from Chapel at 9.p.m on Monday 2 November 2020, as we remember, and name before God, those we love who have died over the past year. The Requiem will feature George Gillow on the organ and the Choir look forward to welcoming back three Clare Alumni as our soloists, Kate Symonds-Joy, mezzo-soprano, Dominic Sedgwick, baritone and Leo Popplewell, cello. Alongside Duruflé's Requiem, the Choir will perform Anna Thorvaldsdottir's Heyr Þú oss himnum á and Graham Ross' Abide with me.

Watch the performance online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-EPeL15_4s

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Friday 02 October 2020 12.00pm

Clare College Song Competition 2021

CLARE COLLEGE SONG COMPETITION 2021

Clare College hosts its biannual Song Competition in 2021 for solo singers and piano accompanists studying at Cambridge University in the performance of Art Song. The competition will be adjudicated across three rounds by Graham Ross, Nicola-Jane Kemp, Robert Rice, Ben Parry, Richard Edgar Wilson, and as a Head Judge at the final by Mark le Brocq, who will give a public masterclass for invited performers from the Semi-Final and Final rounds.

1st prize: The Clare College Singer’s Prize, £400

A London lunchtime recital in summer 2021 (tbc)

2nd prize: £200

The Clare College Accompanist's Prize:£150

(not necessarily from the winning singer’s duo)

Any singers and their pianists from the Semi-final/Final may be invited to take part in a public masterclass with Mark le Brocq on the afternoon of the Final.

HOW TO APPLY:

Application Form:: Clare College Song Competition 2021 Application Form

Rules: Clare College Song Competition 2021 Rules

By 5pm on Wednesday 25 November 2020, competitors must:

a) complete the online application form

b) Pay the entrance fee of £20 per duo. Payment can be made via PayPal - please visit paypal.me/ChoirofClareCollege

c) upload their unedited and recent (less than 3 months) audio recordings to a YouTube channel, Dropbox or WeTransfer and share the links with BOTH n.kemp@etoncollege.org.uk and gr267@cam.ac.uk (please test the links before forwarding). Recordings should be of two ‘Art’ songs – one English and one foreign language (NB: ‘Art’ songs do NOT include works from opera, oratorio, operetta or musicals).

Successful applicants for the Semi-Final will be informed as soon as possible after submission of their application.

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