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Stile Antico – Tuesday 30 January

 Stile Antico

Dante: A Divine Hope

 

Dante Alighieri’s Comedia (Divine Comedy) is considered one of the greatest works of literature ever written. Its enduring imagery has shaped our western culture’s views and understanding of the afterlife for more than 700 years. With this programme, Stile Antico descends with Il Divino into Hell, journeys together through Purgatory, and finally arrives at the gates of Heaven. Renaissance madrigals and sacred music by composers such as Victoria, Palestrina, and Morales illustrate the way, and texts by Dante himself, set to music by Lazzaschi and Merulo, also narrate the story. At the pinnacle of Heaven we meet the Virgin Mary in Giovanni Gabrieli’s glorious 12-part Magnificat.

£29 | £19 | £14
(£1 children / students)

Ex Cathedra – Tuesday 10 October

Ex Cathedra

Jeffrey Skidmore director | Martha McLorinan mezzo-soprano | James Robinson tenor

Rachmaninoff   All Night Vigil (‘Vespers’)

 

Audience favourites Ex Cathedra and Jeffrey Skidmore return to St Marys with Rachmaninoff’s most-loved choral work to round off a season celebrating the composer’s 150th year. Powerful, passionate, hypnotic – in a time of turmoil and amid the shock of war, Rachmaninoff turned to the choral heritage he held dear, and created one of the most awe-inspiring vocal masterpieces. With its luminous choral tapestry, mesmeric melodies and some of the lowest notes you’ll ever hear sung, there is little wonder it is beloved by audiences and singers alike.

Concert generously supported by Helen & Stan Ireland

£29 | £19 | £14
(£1 children / students)

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir – Tuesday 13 June

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir

Julian Wilkins & Jeffrey Skidmore conductors

Summer Concert

The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir comes to St Mary’s to take part in the second Warwick Choral Festival, conducted by Julian Wilkins (CBSO Choruses) and Jeffrey Skidmore (Ex Cathedra).

This beautiful and uplifting programme brings together works by Arbeau, Britten, Debussy, Fauré, Finzi, Howells, Le Jeune, Lalande, de Lassus, Machaut, Messiaen, Monteverdi, Saint-Saëns and Whitacre for a true June evening’s delight.

Tickets: £20 and £15 unreserved (students/children £1)

Ex Cathedra

Ex Cathedra

directed by Jeffrey Skidmore

with Andrew Skidmore cello

Baroque Passion

 

Music by Bach, Purcell, Lotti, Domenico Scarlatti, Kuhnau, Monteverdi, Carissimi, and Charpentier.

Ex Cathedra returns with a programme of sublime music telling of the sacrifice, heartbreak and healing of the Easter story – heartrending as Mary weeps at the foot of the cross to Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater but concludes with optimism in Bach’s glorious motet Komm, Jesu, komm.

“…a heady mix of gloriously rich polyphony” – BBC Music Magazine

£26 | £18 | £12
(£1 children / students)

The Marian Consort

The Marian Consort

directed by Rory McCleery

Why do I use my paper, ink and pen?

 

Treasures from the manuscripts of Elizabethan England with music by Byrd, Clemens non Papa, Giles, Parsley, Parsons, Tallis and Van Wilder.

The Marian Consort – the young, dynamic group that made its BBC Proms debut last year and whose most recent CD release was chosen as one of Presto Music’s 2021 Recordings of the Year – comes to Warwick for the first time, bringing a programme that explores sacred vocal polyphony found in the beautiful handwritten manuscripts that were the preserve of Elizabethan music collectors.

“The singers perform with a yearning intensity which is just exquisite” – Gramophone

Concert generously supported by Warwick Town Council

£26 | £18 | £12
(£1 children / students)

Change of venue — Armonico Consort

Armonico Consort 

Christopher Monks director

Toby Spence Evangelist | Sir Willard White Christus

 

Bach   St Matthew Passion

Whatever your own spiritual beliefs, everyone should hear St Matthew Passion at least once. A work of genius, combining the most perfectly formed recitative with Bach’s most beautiful arias, St Matthew Passion vividly, passionately and dramatically brings to life the intense emotions and humanity of the Passion of Christ.

 

Tickets: £39.50 | £27.50 | £19.50 | £14.50 | £11

 

Visit www.armonico.org.uk for details and booking

Concert will have an interval

POSTPONED — Da Capo Chamber Choir

Da Capo Chamber Choir

John Adams director

 

Songs for Summer

 

Feel the joy and celebrate the return of live music with Da Capo Chamber Choir. Discover old and new favourites in an a cappella selection of music for summer from the 16th century to the present day.

Sadly, the continued restrictions mean that this concert cannot now go ahead as planned, but it is hoped to rearrange it for a future date.

Visit www.dacapochoir.org.uk for new details

SOLD OUT! — Ex Cathedra

Ex Cathedra
Jeffrey Skidmore director

Our First Love – the English Renaissance

We all remember our first love! For Jeffrey and the founding members of Ex Cathedra it was the English Renaissance, a golden age in which composers created a treasury of truly inspiring choral repertoire. So it feels fitting that for a return to live concerts, Ex Cathedra return to their first love with this programme of powerfully emotional music from Tallis, Sheppard, Byrd, Tomkins, Gibbons, and more.

Concert generously supported by The Grimmitt Trust

This concert is now sold out as, working to the current social distancing guidelines, our numbers were strictly limited.

Concert will run straight through with no interval

Postponed — The Choirs of the Collegiate Church of St Mary

The Choirs of the Collegiate Church of St Mary

Beauchamp Sinfonietta | Mark Swinton and Lucy Morrell organ
Oliver Hancock conductor

 

Parry   I was glad and Blest pair of sirens

Howells  Hymn for Saint Cecilia | Bainton   And I saw a new heaven

Mendelssohn   Hear my prayer | Jonathan Dove   Vast ocean of light

Bairstow   Save us, O Lord | Willan   O praise the Lord

Brahms   Geistliches Lied

 

Tickets: £12 (children free)

Concert generously supported by the Warwick Choral Trust and the William A. Cadbury Charitable Trust

 

Sadly, the continued restrictions mean that this concert cannot now go ahead as planned, but it is hoped to rearrange it for a future date.

Please visit www.stmaryswarwick.org.uk for new details.

Concert will run straight through with no interval

EXTRA TICKETS ADDED! — Choir of Clare College, Cambridge

Choir of Clare College, Cambridge
Graham Ross director | George Gillow and Samuel Jones organ

A place where angels sing

Marking their first live concerts since the start of the pandemic, the Choir returns to Leamington to present a sumptuous choral programme that unlocks the silence and celebrates the human voice in song.

Interwoven amongst masterpieces by Byrd and MacMillan are a fascinating selection of recent Icelandic choral works, American spirituals, folksongs, and Ross’s own arrangement of Abide with me.

Concert generously supported by Michael & Halldóra Blair

Concert will run straight through with no interval