5th Anniversary Term: join us!

Posted on August 31, 2014 by voxholloway
Requiem in Blue Cover

Requiem in Blue Cover

Rehearsals start on Tuesday 9 September with sign-up from 7pm for a 7.30pm singing start. Don’t worry if you can’t make the first rehearsal – you’re welcome to join at any time.  Here is some info if you are considering joining us for the first time.

This term we will be singing Harvey Brough’s inspiring Requiem in Blue under the direction of the composer, with songs by Nigerian songwriter and philosopher, Ben Okafor directed by Justin Butcher. Our concert will take place on Sunday 30 November 2014.

Under the charismatic direction of Justin Butcher and the creative brilliance of composer and arranger Harvey Brough, VOX HOLLOWAY has been a phenomenal success story over the last 5 years.

We have tackled some normal choral repertoire – Vivaldi Gloria and the Fauré Requiem,  but have also sung new and unusual types of music with world class soloists and musicians – Latin American, Catalan and Spanish music, jazz, gospel and folk programmes, all specially arranged and composed for each occasion, playing to receptive and enthusiastic full houses.

We have raised over £60,000 for various charitable causes in our annual charity event.

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From Harmony: Concert Sunday 20 July

Posted on July 6, 2014 by voxholloway

From Harmony_Facebook Banner

Our gorgeous paean to music and reconciliation takes place from 7.30m at St. Luke’s on Sunday the 20th of July. Tickets are available from Eventbrite and on the door. The program includes:

  • George Frideric Handel, Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day
  • Ralph Vaughan Williams, Serenade to Music
  • Franz Joseph Haydn, Missa Sancti Nicolai (Mass of St. Nicholas)

2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, and up and down the country amateur orchestras and choirs are preparing commemorative concerts.  So too is local community choir Vox Holloway — not by singing a war requiem or a medley of popular wartime songs, but by celebrating harmony across the ages.  Drawing from the works of composers from Germany, Austria, and England, the 70-strong choir Vox Holloway will explore the concept of universal harmony that has formed the basis for making music for over two thousand years.

Justin Butcher, founder and Artistic Director of the choir, says, “We needed a way to commemorate World War I that also reflected the ethos of our choir, which is that music brings people together.  So what better way to unite these two ideas than to sing some of the most beautiful music from Germany, Austria, and England that specifically celebrates harmony and humanity?  As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, ‘music is the universal language of mankind’.  And so, as a way of remembering conflict, we are celebrating the unifying power of music.”

The choir will be joined by a 20-piece baroque orchestra and acclaimed guest tenor soloist Simon Walton.

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Join us this summer term from 6th May

Posted on April 11, 2014 by voxholloway

Fancy a summer of singing? Here are our joining details for this term, starting on Tuesday 6 May. The registration desk should be open from 7.10pm for a 7.30pm start. Subs will be £30 again this term and scores will be £15 (or what you can afford if unwaged).

Our summer concert will take place the evening of Sunday 20 July.

This term will be led by Justin Butcher and the music will include:

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams, Serenade to Music
  • George Freideric Handel, Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day
  • Joseph Haydn, Missa Sancti Nicolai (Nicolaimesse)

Join us any Tuesday in May, after which it might be a bit tricky to catch up. If you are new to Vox Holloway, your first rehearsal is a free one to see if you think it would suit. Enter the church by the side door on the left of the building and then, turning right, you’ll see/hear the choir assembling through a tall pair of double doors. There will be people at a desk in the main body of the church, come and make yourself known and collect some music.

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Concert 6th April: This World & The Next

Posted on March 18, 2014 by voxholloway

We hope to see you for our Spring Concert on Sunday 6th of April at St. Luke’s. Tickets are available via Eventbrite or can be bought on the door. Doors open at 7pm along with the bar and the performance starts at 7.30pm.

The concert is called This World & The Next, and the theme has been prompted by the impending anniversary of WW1 and by the sense that this world and the next can seem both real and strange. The choir will be singing a new work by Harvey Brough called Incantation of Eden, a kind of cradle-song to a new-born child which embodies the sense of loss and hope brought about by this seeming strangeness. We will also sing Fauré’s Requiem in D Minor which engages with the land of the departed and provides a wellspring of inspiration to the living. Britten’s cantata Rejoice in the Lamb sets Christopher Smart’s paen of praise by all things in existence in the world into a polyphony of astonishing ideas and sound. We return to Fauré at the end of the concert for his Cantique de Jean Racine which evokes the dawn of a new day with rich warmth.

This World

 

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Valentine’s night

Posted on February 9, 2014 by voxholloway

Soloists, a chamber choir, music, nibbles, bubbles, poetry, glamorous staging : it’s Valentine’s night at St Luke’s, as part of ‘The Grand Scheme’ an initiative at St Luke’s to raise money for church funds. Please join us on Friday 14th Feb at 7.30-8.30pm for a lovely early evening. Tickets £10/£5 on the door.

Love makes everything that is heavy light - Thomas a Kempis

Love makes everything that is heavy light – Thomas a Kempis

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