St Albans Cathedral Ex‑Choristers Association
The Cathedral and Abbey Church of St. Alban
From the Chair of Once a Chorister
The annual, Once a Chorister Magazine has recently been published on our website and is free to download. Please distribute the link widely to your members, music departments, clergy, colleagues and anyone interested in choral music in worship. Please go to www.fcoca.org.uk and click on the link on the Home page.
We send season’s greetings and wish all choristers and former choristers everywhere a happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.
Nick Hodges
Chair
Date: Saturday 15 June 2024
Time: 5pm Evensong
Ex-choristers are invited to join us for a Special Evensong and reception to mark the retirement of Andrew Lucas as Master of the Music.
Members will have received an email invitation and please reply to assist us with planning.
Date: Saturday 27 April 2024
Time: 3.45pm arrival for 4pm rehearsal and 5pm Evensong
A unique opportunity to sing with our internationally-renowned Cathedral Girls Choir and Lay Clerks, under the direction of Assistant Master of the Music, Tom Winpenny.
Celebrate this Eastertide, and the important role girls play in church music, with a joyous Evensong in an awe-inspiring setting.
The Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis will be Wood in E flat (no. 2) and the anthem will be Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. (Other choir items will be sung by the Cathedral Girls Choir only.)
Please specify which part you will sing when booking. You’ll receive a free link to the sheet music so you can learn it ahead of time. Please bring copies with you.
Singers’ places are £10, to include light refreshments after the service. (No charge, nor need to book, to be in the congregation!)
All proceeds go towards the Cathedral Girls Choir’s tour to Germany this Spring.
The latest edition of the ECA newsletter, Alban Notes, is now available to download.
Alban Notes #55 – Autumn 2023
A full archive of ECA Newsletters going back to November 2007 is now available here – Newsletters
An invitation from Oliver Hancock, Director of Music, The Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick
It is my very great pleasure, on behalf of the Guild of Ex-Choristers of St Mary’s, to invite you to join us at The Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick for the Once a Chorister Annual Festival, 2023 taking place from 15th to 17th September.
A full weekend of events is programmed including choral evensong on both Friday 15th and Saturday 16th led by the choirs of the Collegiate Church of St Mary, an organ recital given by Luke Bond (St George’s Chapel, Windsor) and a Festival Banquet, at which the guest speakers will be Paul Trepte, formerly Ely Cathedral and his wife, Sally.
More information can be found here –
Festival Welcome and Information
Booking for the Festival is now open and may be done either on-line or by post.
Click here for on-line booking form
Click here to download the Booking form (PDF) to print and post.
Booking will close on 15th August, 2023.
Further details are available via the Federation newsletters and on the Federation and St Mary’s websites and Facebook pages.
It was with sadness that we learned of the passing of John Tournay.
John began as a chorister in 1943 until 1950 and was an alto lay clerk from 1958 to 1969.
He was an active supporter of the ECA and served on the committee for a number of years.