On Monday 11th March, the Chapel Choir were invited to lead Choral Evensong at Lichfield Cathedral.
Over the course of the last year, the choir has built and developed repertoire to include some of the most impressive choral works of the English tradition. Indeed, the anthem chosen for Evensong was that of John Ireland’s Greater Love Hath no Man’. Despite the heavy traffic and the late arrival, Lichfield kindly extended a warm welcome and encouraged the Choir to perform evensong slightly later than the scheduled time. As the congregation gathered, the choir began to robe and come together to prepare for the performance in a beautiful and historic atmosphere.
The Choir opened with the Preces and Responses before singing the Psalm of the day. However, it was the powerful opening of Magnificat and Gloria that captured the congregation and ignited a wonderful evening of music.
“Everyone stepped up to the mark and contributed magnificently towards the event, developing a lovely tone that was reflected and magnified in the acoustics of the Cathedral. The final act was that of the anthem. This juxtaposes the calm and reflective nature of the words at the beginning, with that of the power on the word ‘love’. The word painting continues throughout the anthem, stretching the soprano line to the extreme of the vocal range. The choir were able to produce a fantastic performance that left everyone with a great feeling of satisfaction.’
“Overall, the experience was unbelievable and the performance was the well-deserved climax of the hours of practice everyone had put in.”
– Mr Ramm, Music Teacher
The Chapel Choir will be performing alongside some more of Bloxham’s finest musicians at our annual Gala Concert, taking place on 20th March, 7.30pm at St Mary’s Church, Bloxham. Tickets are ’10, include a glass of wine and are available on the door. Email [email protected] for more information.