Main highlights
♦ 2014 Royal Festival Hall gala concert to launch the newly refurbished organ
♦ Jubilee Spectacular Lakeside Prom (including fireworks) at Kenwood House with the BBC Concert Orchestra
♦ Widely acclaimed James MacMillan CD
♦ Thirtieth anniversary “Psalmfest” concert series. Download the brochure
♦ HRH The Prince of Wales’ fiftieth birthday concert at Windsor Castle with the English Chamber Orchestra
♦ Winning the UK adult choir heat of Let the Peoples Sing
Read about the Let the Peoples Sing heat
Let the Peoples Sing 2003
Let the Peoples Sing is a biennial international choral competition promoted by the European Broadcasting Union (“EBU”). National broadcasting organisations select choirs to represent their countries in each of three categories: Adult, Youth and Children’s. In the past, Radio 3 had relied to a greater or lesser extent on the results of the prior year’s Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year competition in choosing the choirs to represent the UK. This year, however, it decided to hold a separate competition, and invited a number of the UK’s leading choirs to the Blackheath Halls, London on January 25th to participate. Highlights of the recorded event were broadcast in an extended edition of “Choirworks” in May 2003. The heat attracted what was arguably the strongest field of adult UK choirs ever to appear together, as well as three of the country’s leading junior choirs:
ADULT CHOIRS:
♦ Bath Camerata (Sainsbury’s Adult Choir of the Year 2002)
♦ Chantage (Sainsbury’s finalists 2002)
♦ Choros Amici (Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year 2000)
♦ The Elysian Singers (Sainsbury’s finalists 2000)
♦ The Joyful Company of Singers (Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year, 1989, Choir of the World at Llangollen in the 1994 International Eisteddfod )
♦ Moscaglia
♦ Schola Cantorum of Oxford (Winners of the 18th Takarazuka International Chamber Chorus Competition)
♦ The Vasari Singers (Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year 1988)
♦ Warwick University Chamber Choir (Sainsbury’s semi-finalists 2000)
CHILDREN’S CHOIR:
♦ Berkshire Girls Choir (Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year 2002)
YOUTH CHOIRS:
♦ Farnham Youth Choir (Sainsbury’s Youth Choir of the Year 1992 and 1998)
♦ Methodist College Girls Choir, Belfast (Sainsbury’s Choir of the year 1998 and Sainsbury’s Youth Choir of the year 2002)
Choir after choir turned in performances of exceptional quality, presenting the two adjudicators, who judged “blind” (i.e. on the basis of the recordings alone), with some difficult decision making. Their verdict, after lengthy deliberation, was as follows:
ADULT CHOIR: Winners: Elysian Singers Highly commended: Choros Amici, Joyful Company of Singers
CHILDREN’S CHOIR: Berkshire Girls Choir
YOUTH CHOIR: Methodist College Girls Choir, Belfast