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The Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
The musical tradition of Gonville and
Caius College stems from the late The choir sings Chapel services during the University term and has a busy schedule of extra-mural activities including concerts, recordings, radio and television broadcasts and foreign tours. The choir gives many concerts in Cambridge and elsewhere in the UK, including a regular series of concerts of baroque music in conjunction with the Cambridge Baroque Camerata. Broadcasts of Choral Evensong on BBC Radio 3 have included music ranging from Purcell’s My heart is inditing to an anthem written specially for the choir by James Macmillan, On the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Other BBC work has included collaborations with Christopher Robinson and the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, performing Schubert’s Mass in A flat with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. The choir has toured extensively in Europe (including visits to Italy, Switzerland, Greece, France, Germany, Slovenia and Bulgaria) as well as in the USA, performing in a wide variety of venues. Performances with foreign instrumental ensembles have included a series of concerts of Handel’s Solomon with the Philharmonia Baroque Ensemble in San Francisco, directed by Nicholas McGegan. The choir has also appeared as an opera chorus, taking part in the first production in Ireland of Mozart’s Idomeneo with Opera Northern Ireland. The choir’s recordings have tended to specialise in the re-discovery of forgotten choral repertories, often including preciously unpublished music from within the English choral tradition and beyond. A series of releases on the ASV label has included music by the English composers Samuel Wesley (father of S. S. Wesley), William Child and Patrick Hadley, and by continental composers Joseph Rheinberger, Leos Janáček, Giacomo Puccini and Leonardo Leo. Two reconstructions have been recorded - the Latin Mass in E Flat by Janáček and the St. Mark Passion by J.S. Bach (using music by Bach and his contemporary Reinhard Keiser). Most recently, the choir has released two volumes of the music of Charles Wood, and a recording of the unpublished choral works of the English composer Rebecca Clarke. Previous releases on the Guild label include two recordings of unpublished music from the Zentalbibliothek Zürich; Zürich, Arise! (GMCD 7175) and Christ Ascended (GMCD 7177). The Choir of Gonville & Caius Cellege, Cambridge on Guild Music
Page revised 13.12.02 |
nineteenth century when Charles Wood became Organist. The choir in Wood’s day
contained boy trebles, and later became an exclusively undergraduate male choir
under Wood’s successor Patrick Hadley. Hadley was succeeded by Peter Tranchell,
under whose direction the choir became mixed when the College first admitted
women in 1979.