Acclaimed choir to bring music fit for royalty (From Wandsworth Guardian)
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Acclaimed choir to bring music fit for royalty to St Martin's Church, Epsom
12:00pm Sunday 17th March 2013 in Freetime By Hardeep Matharu
Epsom Chamber Choir performing at London's South Bank
An acclaimed choir is inviting lovers of England’s great composers, who wrote music fit for royalty, to its spring concert.
Byrd, Gibbons, Boyce, Purcell and Handel were composers of the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries who were all employed to compose music for the Chapel Royal, and now a selection of some of their finest church anthems will be brought to life by the Epsom Chamber Choir (ECC).
The choir, conducted by Piers Maxim, will be accompanied by a group of instrumentalists who specialise in early music, and aims to enchant the audience with the best in English choral church music.
The Chapel Royal had a centuries-long tradition of providing the music for services of worship for kings and queens.
Those who were appointed to this company were known as Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal, and many of these leading lights among English composers will be showcased during the evening.
ECC, which was formed in 1969, is regarded as one of the top choirs in the South East.
It sang for BBC Radio 4 live for its Sunday Worship Programme in the autumn and gave its second performance at London’s Royal Festival Hall last year as part of the centre's regular free lunchtime concert series.
The choir’s repertoire extends from the 16th Century right through to the 21st, taking in, en route, all styles from Fats Waller to Arvo Part, Brahms to Jerome Kern, and Monteverdi to Bob Chilcott.
The winner of three awards from the Performing Right Society for its innovative programming, ECC gives regular concerts in Epsom to raise money for good causes.
On the spring concert, Mr Maxim says: "These works are all of exceptional quality and inventiveness and we will journey through the development of the ‘verse’ anthem up to its full flowering in the hands of Purcell and Handel.
"The sections for solo voices in many of these anthems are a perfect opportunity to show off not just the choral but the individual talents of the singers in the choir."
Epsom Chamber Choir Spring Concert; St Martin’s Church, Church Street, Epsom; March 23; 8pm; £12; tickets available on door or by calling 0208 672 5492; visit www.epsomchamberchoir.org.uk
