LATEST NEWS
from Wells Cathedral Choir
The choristers entertain at the Reindeer Parade
On Sunday 4 December, the boy and girl choristers took time out of their busy schedule to sing for the crowds at the annual Wells Rotary Club Reindeer Parade. After Matins, the choristers grabbed a quick lunch before heading back to the Song School to don their antlers. They then walked in the bright wintry sunshine to the Market Place where they sang Christmas carols from the makeshift lorry stage for the many onlookers who were there to enjoy this much-loved annual event. Now in its 10th year, the Rotary Club's Reindeer Parade raises money for a local charity which this year was the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance. The choristers delighted the many people who had come to see the Reindeer as they led the singing of carols, before they had to head back to the cathedral for evensong (with antlers reluctantly removed!).
The Perfect Christmas Gift!
The Cathedral Choir make their Resonus Classics debut with a programme of carols typically performed during the Christmas season in Wells – 'A Wells Christmas'.
With an irresistible array of popular carols and more recent offerings this scintillating and varied programme is vividly realised by the combined boy and girl choristers and Vicars Choral that continue the 1100-year-old tradition of music in Wells Cathedral. Included in this compelling programme are works by David Willcocks, Andrew Carter, John Rutter, and Kenneth Leighton, Thomas Hewitt Jones. Also included are world premieres by Bob Chilcott, Jefferson McConnaughey & Matthew Owens.
There is something for everyone in this recording to make it a sure winner as the soundtrack to your Christmas season this year! Our only plea is that you please purchase your CD directly from the Cathedral as only CDs purchased in the Cathedral Shops support the Cathedral and Choir.
new music wells 76-16 - a week of premiere music-making
Wells Cathedral's innovative music festival is now in its eighth year. A retrospective of sacred choral and organ music of the previous forty years during all services, together with world premiere performances by Wells Cathedral Choir and organists of music by internationally renowned composers, local composers, and composition students from Wells Cathedral School, there are also concerts and a public masterclass with the featured composer of the year. The festival’s President is British composer, Judith Bingham, following on from the late Jonathan Harvey.
The 2016 new music wells festival took place from Sunday 16 – Thursday 20 October. This year’s distinguished featured composer was Judith Weir CBE, Master of the Queen’s Music. Her new choral work, Leaf from leaf christ knows was premiered by Wells Cathedral Choir on Thursday 20 October at the 5.15pm service of Choral Evensong (see the Choristers' Blog for their thoughts on the performance). Judith was also in conversation with fellow composers at 'An Evening with the Master of the Queen’s Music' on Wednesday 19 October, at the cathedral, and gave a public composition masterclass in Cedars Hall on the afternoon of Thursday 20 October. Admission to all of these events was free.
The festival also included world premiere performances of a new setting of Psalm 23 by established British composer, Brian Chapple; works by local composers Stuart Beer, William Drakett (a former choral scholar), and Matthew Owens; and a piece by Thomas Carling, who was a student at Wells Cathedral School up until July of this year.
Premiering six pieces of music in a week would be a daunting prospect for any choir! Needless to say, our choristers and the vicars choral stepped up to the mark and surpassed themselves once again.
In the closing reception, Matthew Owens quoted the late Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies, sometime President of Wells Cathedral's Cathedral Commissions initiative, who said: 'The Church must always be abreast of developments in the cultural life of the society she serves. Her spiritual involvement in all aspects of this – philosophical, scientific, and artistic – is essential to ensure that, while steadfastly maintaining the eternal values for which she stands, she renews herself at the deepest levels, to make her meaning and relevance clear to each successive generation.' A wonderful and important thing of which our choristers are an integral part.
Be a Chorister for a Day - Video Snippets
We're extremely grateful to one of our chorister parents for assisting in putting together this short video of snippets shot during last week's Be a Chorister for a Day event. It gives a lovely glimpse of what all the partaking children got up to that day. Please enjoy watching it in the player below.
Experiencing Chorister Life!
On Saturday 8 October, Wells Cathedral hosted its annual fabulous, free ‘behind the scenes’ day, where children were able to experience the life of a Cathedral chorister.
Forty five girls and boys, aged between seven and ten, came from schools across Somerset and beyond for the annual 'Be a Chorister for a Day' event where they met our Cathedral choristers and participated in singing workshops. The day culminated in singing Choral Evensong in the Quire of the Cathedral with the choir. The children performed the Anthem The Lord is my shepherd by Howard Goodall, helped the Choir lead the two hymns in the service, and learnt to process in and out!
There were also events for the children’s parents, including a tour of Wells Cathedral School and Tea in the historic Vicars’ Hall.
A selection of photographs from the day is shown below.
(If you are interested in the 2017 event, please contact the Cathedral Music Office via musicoffice@wellscathedral.uk.net. If you can’t wait that long, you may like to join Wells Junior Choir, which meets on Tuesday nights. Contact Tricia Rees-Jones via triciarj1@gmail.com for more details.)
A New Choir Year
The new choir year began on Saturday 10 September with a service of Choral Evensong sung by the Great Choir.
We welcomed four new probationer choristers: Harry Hellier, William Perring, George Thomas, and Elsa Melia. We were also delighted to welcome a new bass Vicar Choral, Craig Bissex, as well as three new Choral Scholars - Theo Golden, Oscar Golden-Lee, and William White - and a new Senior Organ Scholar, James Kealey.
Our four new probations
During the service the new Head and Deputy Head Choristers were invested. This year these important roles are taken by Hugh Latta and Orla Donoghue, who become Head Boy Chorister and Head Girl Chorister, respectively, and Henry Dukes and Bailey Roberts, and Harriet Perring, who will become Deputy Head Boy and Girl Choristers. We offer them our heartiest congratulations!
The new Head and Deputy Head Choristers with Matthew Owens
Congratulations are also due to the following choristers who received their surplices at the service having passed their probationary year: Raphael Davey, Daniel Fawden, Ross Lloyd, Monty Reeve-Gray, Madeline Davis, Cecilia Fawden, Eliza Hazlewood, Mimi Hughes, and Eliza Mead.
New website launched!
We are delighted to announce the launch of our new website. You obviously already know about it, as you're looking at it right now! Our new site is fully multi-platform functional: be you visiting us on your PC, laptop, tablet or phone, we hope that you find it easy to navigate your way through our site. If you happen to encounter a problem, then please get in touch! Our new site ties in with our long-overdue launch onto social media and you will find links to both our facebook page and our twitter feed.
We hope you enjoy browsing through our content. Do get in touch and tell us what you think. All criticism, positive or negative, is welcome!