Category: News

The 8th Annual General Meeting of the St Albans Cathedral Ex-Choristers Association will be held in The Crypt on Sunday 19th April 2015 at 12.15pm.

Please put this date in your diary and try to attend this meeting.

Click here to download the Agenda and Nomination papers..

Please note that the positions of Honorary Treasurer and Honorary Secretary are open for election and it is vital that these two positions are filled if we are to comply with our Constitution and continue to maintain the ECA in its present form.   If you are available and wish to put your name forward for election to one of these positions please advise the Chairman accordingly.

Nominations of Officers and Representatives should be returned no later than Saturday 12th April 2015 by email to malcolm.bury@stalbanseca.org or by post to:

The Chairman
23 Long Plough,
Aston Clinton, Aylesbury,
Bucks HP22 5HB

Please also let me know whether you wish to stay for drinks at the White Hart and/or lunch either in the Abbott’s Kitchen or at the White Hart.

On Saturday 21 March 2015 at 7.30pm, former St Albans Cathedral organ scholar and now renowned keyboard soloist, James McVinnie is giving a concert at St Peter’s Church, St Albans, in aid of the St Peter’s Choir tour to Edinburgh in August.  He will be performing three Bach Partitas on the piano.

The current Music Director at St Peter’s, Nick Robinson and organist, Alex Flood are both former organ scholars of the Cathedral.

Click here to download a poster

After nearly seven years research I have now completed a ‘prototype’ of my book on the ‘History of the St Albans Cathedral Choirs.’ The draft needs further work to ‘spruce it up’ and bring it to a state ready for printing and publication.

I am therefore seeking assistance from members with the following skills:

Ph 1 – A technical editor – who should have a good knowledge of the development of choral music from monastic times to the present day, both generally and specifically at St Albans Abbey/Cathedral with a focus on the last two decades.

Ph 2 – A ‘designer’ who can advise and help me produce the final design of the book – 15 chapters and 5 appendices – including the setting of photographs. It’s currently in Word.doc landscape format (97 pages)

Ph 3 – A copywriter/proof reader to check the final document at the end of the process. Must have a good command of the English language!

This is a ‘legacy’ project – it’s not been done before and whilst not intended to be a commercial venture – (net proceeds will be donated to the Cathedral Choirs) – I do have a limited personal budget to finalise the book and I’m happy to discuss remuneration. A number of inquiries external to the ECA are also being pursued but keeping it ‘in-house’ would be helpful logistically and hopefully more economical.  The aim is to have the final document ready for printing/publication/marketing by this coming summer, preferably before the end of the Cathedral Choirs’ summer term.

If you have the above skill requirements and are interested in contributing to this project, or can recommend someone with relevant experience, then please contact me at malcolm.bury@stalbanseca.org.

Thank you.

The Abbey Singers, who are our younger ECA members, sang the service of Choral Evensong on Tuesday, 23rd December 2014.

Under the direction of Assitant Master of the Music Tom Winpenny they sang the Magnificat quinti toni by Praetorius and Nunc dimittis tertii toni by Palestrina and the anthem Emmanuel by Philip Moore which was written “For Andrew Lucas and the Choir of St Alban’s Abbey for the installation of the Dean of St Alban’s”.

 

If you are available and wish to sing in the Abbey with Exquire at Music in Bloom from 11.00 till 12.00 noon on Saturday 27th September please contact the chairman at malcolm.bury@stalbanseca.org or via the website with the following information:

Name
Voice Part
and which choir (if any) you currently sing with

We need two more sopranos, one more alto, tenor and bass to make an effective quorum.

Many thanks

Dear Members,
As you will be aware, former Master of the Music, Barry Rose, is celebrating his 80th birthday at the Cathedral on Saturday 14th June.  There will be a Service of Choral Evensong at which Barry will conduct the canticles and anthem; this will be followed by a post-Evensong reception in the retro-choir and a dinner at Cafe Rouge.

I shall be closing the guest list at the end of this weekend (Wednesday) so if you have not already done so please return your ‘Invitation Reply Form’ to me, together with any appropriate payment, by next Wednesday 28th May.  Alternately you can return the for as an email attachment and make an online payment. The ECA’s account details are available on request.