News Archive - 2004

The Choir's first concert of the year was at Eton College as part of their subscription series. The programme included performances of Allegri's Miserere and Janacek's Otczenas (The Lord's Prayer). One local reviewer described it as an "immaculate evening" (the full article is included in the Review Section of this website). A week later, in Christ Church Cathedral, the Choir presented a concert of renaissance masterpieces as part of the Music in Oxford concert series. A visit to Uppingham School to sing in their subscription series on 19 March completed the Hilary Term's concert activities.

This year's Holy Week performance was of Haydn's Stabat Mater, another happy collaboration with London Musici who recorded the work with the Choir on a Griffin CD.

Soon after the start of Trinity Term, the Choir was involved in a recording session with Roisin O'Reilly produced by Giles Martin, part of a large-scale recording project combining the Choir with this brilliant Irish singer. The Choir's first-ever collaboration with the University's resident orchestra, Oxford Philomusica, took place in a packed Sheldonian Theatre on Wednesday 28 April with a performance of Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and Mozart's Requiem. Two weeks later the Choir was filmed for a BBC 1 programme about C S Lewis. The annual appearance on BBC Radio 3 for the live broadcast of Choral Evensong was on the eve of Ascension Day. The programme included first broadcast performances of Jonathan Pitkin's Esto Mih i and Howard Goodall's We are God's Labourers , both commissioned during the past year. There were two prestigious concerts to complete the summer term: first, the opening concert of the English Haydn Festival in Bridgnorth, a period performance of Haydn's Stabat Mater and Mozart's Requiem. Then, in June , the Choir performed Britten and Vaughan Williams at Aldeburgh Parish Church as part of the famous Aldeburgh Festival.

June saw recording sessions for two more CDs, television appearances on the documentary, Britten's Children (5 June) and the transmission of the Songs of Praise programme about C S Lewis (4 July).

Details of the Choir's concerts for the rest of the year and the Choir's tour of the United States next Easter can be found in Up and Coming Events .