Saturday, 24th March 2012 at 7.30 pm
Auditorium of the new Anniversary Halls
The Association Choir will be joined by the Year 7 and Senior Chamber Choirs and the Camerata String Orchestra. Haydn’s Organ Concerto in F will be played by Caragh Bennet, the Jennifer Bate Organ Scholar.
The Concert will take place in the brand new Auditorium, which offers an amazing performance space with superb acoustics for singers and musicians.
There will be a collection after the concert and all proceeds will go to The Education Kenya International Fund (Registered Charity Number 1065457 UK) - a charity founded by an Old Girl of St Catherine’s that supports Kenyan children through secondary education.
Programme of music
- Haydn: Kleine Orgelmesse (Little Organ Mass Hob. Xxii:7) with Camerata and solo organ part
- Mozart: Missa Brevis in C K259 (Orgelsolo-Messe) with Camerata and solo organ part
- Horovitz: Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo (SATB version). This was composed by Joseph Horovitz in 1970 with libretto by Michael Flanders from the story in Genesis
- Additional items will include songs from the U3 choir and a Haydn Organ Concerto (soloist Caragh Bennet, Jennifer Bate organ scholar).
- For the encore: King’s Singers/Geoff Field arrangement of the Queen song ‘Seaside Rendezvous’. It is in five parts and sung unaccompanied with Swingle-singer type instrumental noises and kazoos! Do watch it on YouTube!
Carl Orff's Carmina Burana - 26th March 2011
Our Concert on Saturday 26th March 2011 at Holy Trinity Church, Guildford was distinguished by a number of 'firsts' - not least of which was a standing ovation for the Choir at the end of a superb performance of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.
Another first was the presence of the Prep School Major Choir who opened the programme under the baton of their conductor, Alexandra White. This group is a non-auditioned choir from Upper II and Lower III in the Prep School and had been selected by WWF to be their 'Earth Hour' choir. They were to have performed at the Royal Albert Hall during the countdown to 'Earth Hour' at 8.30pm on Saturday 26th March. However, due to a large planned demonstration in Hyde Park, it was felt unsafe for the Prep School girls to attend, and therefore their participation in the event had to be cancelled. They were offered the opportunity to sing at the Association Choir Concert instead and gave a joyful performance of One Sun One World - a musical commissioned by WWF to celebrate its 50th anniversary year.
The next item on the programme was Aaron Copland's fiendishly difficult Concerto for Clarinet & String Orchestra. The soloist was the wonderfully accomplished Mary Tyler, an U6 Music Scholar at St Catherine's who hopes to go on to read Music at Oxford. Mary studies at the Junior Guildhall and has recently gained the ABRSM Diploma for Clarinet.
Geoffrey Field, Director of Music then took the conductor's podium for a fabulous performance of the much loved Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens. The Camerata were again superb and the piano duo were Hannah Winder, an U6 Music Scholar who has gained her ABRSM Diploma on the piano and hopes to study Medicine at University - and Emily Hooker, Hannah's piano teacher. Emily is a former scholar of the Royal College of Music and recently won the RCM Concerto Competition.
The main event of the evening was Carmina Burana. We were priviliged to have established piano duo, Simon Phillips and Stephen Ridge, to accompany the Choir together with a fantastic percussion ensemble under the direction of Ian Young.
The soloists were Fleur Bray (soprano), Peretta Anggerek (tenor) and David McKee (baritone). Fleur is well known to Association Choir audiences and is an Old Girl of St Catherine's (2002 Leaver) who graduated with a Distinction from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2009 and completed a 3 year Post Graduate Diploma in Performance under the tutorage of Sandra Dugdale.
A Fiesta of South American Music 2009
The Association Concert is an annual event for various groups, including the Association Choir. This year we were joined by Camerata (the ensemble of the best string players), the Guitar Ensemble, a battery of percussionists and the soprano Fleur Bray (a St Catherine’s Old Girl). The St Catherine’s Association also uses this concert to raise money for chosen charities. This year it was the Educational Kenya International Fund, which was founded by another Old Girl, Rakhee Dodhia, and exists to sponsor Kenyan children through secondary school.
The centrepiece of the evening, the Association Choir, is composed of staff, parents, Old Girls, friends of the school and current pupils (members of Senior Chamber Choir), directed by Mr Field. Having previously sung many well-known works by composers such as Vivaldi and Rutter, this time the choir performed two more unusual works: Ariel Ramírez’s Misa Criolla and Nuestra Navidad. Both have a very distinctive South American feel and certainly tested the choir’s rhythmic abilities, whilst also allowing for an incredibly diverse percussion section.
Camerata also entertained everyone with two pieces from the not-so-well-known composer Villa-Lobos’ Suite for Strings. These pieces are very rarely performed; so rarely in fact that the score was very hard to come by, but nevertheless they were enjoyable to listen to and certainly in keeping with the South American feel of the evening.
Fleur Bray also returned for her second performance with the Association Choir, singing Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras V for cello octet and soprano, as well as four Spanish Carols accompanied by the Guitar Ensemble. We were all very pleased to hear her sing again, and reading about (her recent musical achievements was very inspiring, particularly for those of us who want to enter the musical world.
In short, the whole evening was very enjoyable for both the performers and audience alike, and it was a good opportunity to be able to support such a worthwhile organisation as the EnKI Fund. We look forward to next year!
Report by Peggy Fooks (U6) Music Prefect
