News & Events

On Wednesday 27th April 2016, the Friends of Cathedral Music (FCM) are hosting “An Evening with the Cathedral Choristers of Britain” at St Paul’s Cathedral in London – a unique concert in support of the Diamond Fund for Choristers, a £10m fund to ensure that the nation’s world-renowned cathedral music is preserved for the future.

Supported by Classic FM and presented by Aled Jones, the concert will be directed by the Director of Music at St Paul’s Cathedral, Andrew Carwood. In the 60th year of it’s founding, the FCM is anxious to resist the financial pressures faced by many cathedral choirs and maintain the 1,400 year tradition for future generations.

I would urge you most strongly to support this cause if you can.

More details can be found here: FCM press release

Malcolm Bury
Chairman

Brittany Music Workshops are offering several choral scholarships to singers aged 18 – 25 at Malcolm Archer’s Langlais Festival Choral Week in La Fontenelle, Brittany, France from 16 – 22 July. Please see www.brittanymusicworkshops.eu for full details.

The official launch of my book “The Choirs and Musicians of St Albans Cathedral” which will take place in the North Transept of the Cathedral from 7.00 pm on Thursday, 21st January 2016.

All ECA members and their spouses/partners, and parents (in the case of Abbey Singers and our younger ECA members still in secondary education) are invited to this book launch reception where there will also be a small exhibition of photographs of the Cathedral Choir, the Abbey Girls Choirs and the Abbey Singers.

Numbers may have to be limited so I should be grateful if you would please RSVP, as soon as possible, either to myself (malcolm.bury@stalbanseca.org) or to Laura Luckhurst (laura.luckhurst@stalbanscathedral.org)

Best wishes,
Malcolm Bury
Chairman

Book Synopsis:
The first chapter of the book covers the period from around 780 AD when King Offa made land available for the establishment of a Benedictine Monastery, it’s consecration in 1136, through the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, and the establishment of the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban in April 1877. Subsequent chapters document the activities and achievements of the successive Masters of the Music and the Choirs from John Stocks Booth (1855 to 1879) to Andrew Lucas (1998 to the present day). The book is not a scholastic document but rather a simple documented history of the various eras of the choirs and their directors.

Saturday 5th December 2015 at 7.30pm
High Street Methodist Church ∙ Harpenden ∙ AL5 2RU

Please support this concert by the Amici Singers and the Amici Baroque Players in this individual performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.  Eight singers of this remarkable young chamber choir join with 20 of the UK’s finest period instrumentalists to recreate a ‘one-per-part’ performance of Bach’s festive masterpiece as it might have been heard in his day.

Download the poster

A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY …
As previously advertised, the ECA is holding a ‘Gaudy’ on Saturday 21st November and I’m please to be able to advise that we have secured a brief visit to the Muniment Room where all the historic records of the Abbey are preserved by Cathedral Archivist, Dr David Kelsall and his team, including some very old original photographs of the choir.

This is quite a unique opportunity for the ECA so we are now extending the invitation to ALL choristers and lay clerks who sang in the Cathedral Choir up to and including 1985 (and their spouses/partners). There is no charge for the day except lunch which is at members’ own cost.

The programme for the Gaudy will now be as follows:

• 11.30 Coffee/Tea on arrival in the Chapter Room, The Deanery
• 12.00 An exhibition and a short talk on the development of the Cathedral Choir Archive and a chance to listen to some early choir recordings
• 13.00 Lunch
• 14.00 Visit to the Muniment Room – in groups of 10 MAX (optional – please be aware, the Triforium is a high narrow passage so is not recommended for anyone who suffers from vertigo. There are also 45 stone steps in a circular staircase, each one slightly higher than a domestic stair tread.)
• 15.00 Cathedral Choir Rehearsal (optional)
• 16.00 Choral Evensong in the Quire
• 17.00 Nostalgic Visit to the Lay Clerk’s Hostelry, The White Hart (optional)

There is also an IOFS Organ Recital by the Danish organist, Bine Bryndorf.

If you would like attend the ‘Gaudy Day’ please email me at malcolm.bury@stalbanseca.org or telephone me on 01296 630169 by no later Monday 9th November. Please indicate if you would like to come with your spouse or partner and give their name.

Thank you.

Malcolm Bury
Chairman

You will be aware that other than the Annual General Meeting in April, there have been no STAECA activities this year. It has been proposed that, following the enjoyable and successful STAECA camp at Luccombe in 2013, we revisit the village during the weekend of 4th / 5th/ 6th September (Friday to Sunday).

Availability of key personnel and finding a suitable weekend in June/July for the usual ‘field camp’has not proved possible this year however there is still an opportunity for us to visit Luccombe, staying local B&B’s/hotels as many of us did previously, (or staying at the local camp site near Horner), and using the village as the meeting place/base for our walks (Dunkery/Selworthy/Barle Valley) and evening gatherings and also singing Evensong on the Sunday afternoon.

The detailed weekend programme and the necessary endorsement from The Dean still need to be worked through but in order to ascertain whether the trip is feasible we need to know the likely ‘take-up’ from the members; clearly a critical mass and a quorum of voices is a must if the weekend is to be a success.

I should be grateful if you would let me know (to malcolm.bury@stalbanseca.org) by no later than Sunday 21st June whether you (and spouse/partner) are interested and would like to participate in this weekend trip.

 

Many thanks