Calling ALL composers, musicians, and enthusiasts! Complete this cadence for choir as you see fit. The twelve winning submissions will be recorded professionally and featured as part of an upcoming seasonal festival featuring The Gesualdo Six, Echo Vocal Ensemble and The Swan Consort, in partnership with Ryedale Festival.
Email your submission to choralchristmas@gmail.com or you can tweet with the hashtag #12dayschallenge.
We are thrilled that Fading has been awarded Vocal Recording of the Year by Limelight.
“These performances are superb: precision, warmth, power and delicacy united in an utterly beguiling whole, all the while maintaining perfect definition as each vocal tonality inhabits its own sphere,” wrote Lisa MacKinney, also admiring the recording from St George’s Church, Cambridge. “Its glorious acoustics are on show in spades, with a rich, thick presence and just the right amount of reverberation for these glorious voices to soar heavenwards.”
Since the fourth century, the service of Compline has marked the end of the day, ushering in the darkness of the night. Much of the music here is inspired by this ancient service. The first half of the album features a selection of atmospheric works that relate to the transition between light and darkness. Then there is a turning point; the light returns, birds sing, and flowers bloom once more.
Congratulations to three of the London Sound Gallery artists for being featured as part of BBC Radio 3’s YOUNG STARS: 31 UNDER 31 series.
Héloïse Werner and Matilda Lloyd were announced by Georgia Mann, and Owain Park by Petroc Trelawny on BBC Radio 3 Breakfast shows during October.
Catch their London Sound Gallery concerts on-demand before 1 January 2021. Find out more.
Our latest album, Fading has been nominated for Limelight’s Recording of the Year 2020.
Limelight’s critics have picked their 25 favourite recordings from the last 12 months.
Rarities include a Mass by Jan Ladislav Dussek (rediscovered by Richard Egarr) and William Alwyn’s operatic version of Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Finally, two discs that mix the old with the new: Owain Park’s masterfully programmed choral recital, Fading, and an intriguing juxtaposition of Rameau and Debussy on Víkingur Ólafsson’s latest disc. In other words, plenty of food for thought.
Limelight Magazine
A long list of 100 recordings has been whittled down to five discs in each of five categories: Orchestral, Chamber, Instrumental, Vocal & Choral, and Opera.
Read Limelight Magazine’s review of Fading here.
We are delighted to be co-commissioning a series of new works for our ‘O Radiant Dawn’ programme with trumpeter, Matilda Lloyd. The first piece is by Richard Barnard, who chose a text by Emily Berry for his piece, ‘Aura’.
We will be giving the world premiere of this piece on Friday 9 October at St John’s Smith Square. Find out more about the performances here.
If you would be interested in supporting these commissions then we would be delighted to hear from you. Please visit the contact page.
Tuesday 4 August 2020 at 8.00 PM
Join us online for our performance as part of St John’s Smith Square’s Digital Exchange project. Our programme explores the roots of fugue in musical canons from Italy, featuring works by Ockeghem, Josquin and Mouton. Broadcast details will be published via our social media channels.
We recorded this concert live last week to an audience of 25 people. This was a trial organised by DCMS and thankfully the findings were positive. Although the return to live performance with audiences has been delayed, our event was a useful stepping stone on the road to recovery.
Friday 7 August 2020 at 7.30 PM | Find out more
Exploring a relationship between old and new, playful and profound, The Gesualdo Six present an exhibition of some of the finest vocal consort works from renaissance and modern-day composers.
The ensemble have become renowned for their stagecraft, and the church of St Leonard’s in Hythe provides a unique canvas for this programme.
Friday 14 August 2020 at 7.30 PM | Find out more
A concert of music and readings for all affected by Covid-19. The Fauré Requiem with new readings by poet Grahame Davies commissioned for this event by JAM on the Marsh.
The Gesualdo Six
London Mozart Players
Simon Hogan, organ
Owain Park, conductor
Wednesday 19 August at 3.30 PM | Find out more
We have commissioned Kerensa Briggs to compose a psalm chant for our appearance on BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong on Wednesday 19 August at 3.30pm. Listen to her work alongside music by William Byrd and Piers Kennedy, plus the first performance of Night Prayer by Owain Park.
Saturday 29 August 2020 at 7.00 PM | Find out more
We are delighted to be taking part in a new online vocal festival, Live from London, which features some of the world’s finest vocal ensembles.
We are delighted to be returning to Bristol to give two concerts at All Saints Clifton on Saturday 19 September 2020 at 3pm and 7pm.
We have chosen some of our favourite pieces to perform, including well-loved works from our repertoire alongside new pieces discovered over the past few months.
Taking our cue from other organisations planning similar events and in line with current guidelines, both concerts are for a small and distanced audience. Ticket prices reflect this, although reduced rates are available.
Audience members will be required to wear masks apart from those who are exempt.
Tickets are available by request only. Please use this form to request your tickets.
The safety of all who attend—audience, artists and stewards—is our top priority.
The Hermes Experiment are inviting composers to submit graphic scores for premiere in collaboration with The Gesualdo Six this Autumn.
They are looking for pieces linked to reconnection and new beginnings.
Email hermesexperiment@gmail.com or tweet @TheHExperiment by 15 September at 5pm.
The winner will be announced on 17 September 2020.
#LondonSoundGallery
We sang a service of Choral Evensong live on BBC Radio 3 from St Martin-in-the-Fields on Wednesday 19 August at 3.30pm.
Many of us grew up singing Choral Evensong at churches around the UK and it was wonderful to bring these shared experiences together.
The psalms were specially adapted for this service, beginning with plainchant tones that were arranged by Owain Park. We commissioned Kerensa Briggs to compose a new anglican chant for Psalm 101.
We are grateful to the BBC for inviting us to be part of this series – some of the first live broadcasts since March 2020.
Introit: Night Prayer (Owain Park) – first performance
Responses: Piers Kennedy
Psalms 98, 99, 100, 101 (Plainchant arr. Owain Park, Kerensa Briggs)
First Lesson: Isaiah 45 vv.1-7
Canticles: Fauxbourdon Setting (William Byrd)
Second Lesson: Ephesians 4 vv.1-16
Anthem: Quemadmodum (John Taverner)
Prayer anthem: O Lord, support us (Henrietta Moran)
Voluntary: Benedictus sit Deus Pater (Thomas Preston)
Owain Park (Director)
Ben Giddens (Organist)
Listen again until 16 September 2020
Hear works by Byrd and Taverner on our debut album, English Motets
For the next month-or-so you can catch-up with our performance of the Fauré Requiem with a slightly-expanded team and the wonderful London Mozart Players, filmed as-live from JAM on the Marsh in St. Leonard’s Church in Hythe. It was a wonderful experience for us to be able to gather together to perform this justly-famous work interspersed with beautiful new poems read by Welsh poet Grahame Davies.
