40th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

Elgar: The Music Makers 

Brian Inglis: Highbury Fields (libretto by Charles Hart)

– commissioned by Islington Choral Society, first performance

Parry: Blest Pair of Sirens

Wagner: Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Sunday 30 June 2013

at Cadogan Hall. Please note the concert start time – 6.30 pm.

Our 40th anniversary concert at Cadogan Hall, Sloane Square on Sunday 30 June 2013 –  featuring a specially commissioned work by Brian Inglis.

The main work in this programme is Elgar’s The Music Makers, his highly personal response to the poem by Arthur O’Shaughnessy. Elgar saw music as having a very special place in society, inspiring the individual and embodying the spirit of the age. Weaving many themes from his greatest works with original material Elgar gives us one of his most magnificent scores.

To celebrate this special occasion the society has commissioned London composer Brian Inglis to compose a work evoking the area in which it rehearses, Highbury Fields, to a specially-written text by lyricist Charles Hart (whose writing credits include texts for ‘Story of Music’ presenter Howard Goodall and, notably, lyrics for Lloyd-Webber’s Phantom of the Opera). With echoes of both Carmina Burana and The Waste Land, the new piece paints a picture of a dazzling summer Sunday, vividly depicting a variety of park characters from pumped-up joggers to worn-out mothers; from call-girls and nurses to playful dogs and boys. With moods ranging from natural tranquility to romantic passion, Highbury Fields is a new choral showpiece for the 21st century.

Also included is Parry’s Blest Pair of Sirens, a setting of Milton’s At a Solemn Musick in which the importance of voice and verse are illustrated in the work that first brought the composer to public attention in 1887. The choir’s regular partners, Camden Chamber Orchestra, will open the concert with the prelude to Wagner’s The Mastersingers, another piece dealing with the importance of music in the communal life of a town.

Posters and Flyers

• To download a copy of the poster (PDF file) <Click here>
• To download a flyer (PDF file) (poster image on one side, full details of concert, tickets, venue etc on reverse side) <Click here>

Tickets on sale now

Tickets from choir members or from Cadogan Hall – full details including seating plan and online booking via Cadogan Hall website

(For choir members, please note that the originally planned rehearsal on Saturday 29 June will NOT now take place; the final rehearsal will be on Tuesday 25 June.)

CoMA Summer School opportunities for singers

CoMA are running a residential singing course in Yorkshire over the summer. Worth a look. Details are at: http://www.coma.org/summermusic.

 

Rehearsal tracks for ‘Highbury Fields’

You can now download (or play) mp3 rehearsal tracks for your voice part for Highbury Fields. Many thanks to Michael Derrick for his very hard work getting these tracks recorded, and to Brian Inglis for supplying the software files needed to enable Michael to produce the tracks.

If you have any problems downloading or playing, please post here or email John Leslie.

It may be possible to produce a limited number of CDs with these mp3 tracks on if you are completely unable to download or play them on the web, but as the CDs involve a lot of extra time and resource, please don’t request them unless there is no other way! Please read all the notes on the rehearsal tracks web page first.

MP3 rehearsal tracks for Highbury Fields

Future Repertoire

For details of the repertoire which we plan to perform over the next two years, please click here (Word document,  270Kb) Repertoire 2013-2015

Arsenal Alert!

Please be aware that there will be an Arsenal home match next Tuesday (16 April) starting at 7.45 as normal (Premier League v Everton)

PLEASE however, don’t be tempted to skip the rehearsal – we have a lot of work to get through this term!

Public Transport

This will inevitably mean crowding and delays on public transport, so please allow extra time to get to the rehearsal. Please note that Holloway Road Underground station is exit-only before the match and closed for an hour after the match.

Driving and Parking

If you normally drive, please be aware that ‘Match Day’ parking controls will be in force in both Islington and Hackney, meaning parking is restricted up to 8.30 pm – this is usually rigorously enforced! There will also be some road closures (notably lower Hornsey Road, Benwell Road and part of Drayton Park)

Membership currently closed

Unprecedented levels of interest mean that we have had to close our membership for the time being. We are not able to accept new members until next September. Please keep coming back here over the next few months for more news.

ICS Committee and Trustees

Thanks to everyone who attended the Annual General Meeting on 5 March, and for the many helpful comments and questions.

The minutes will be produced shortly; in the meantime you might find it useful to know the names of the members of  the committee for 2013-2014:

Liz Barton	Patricia Biddiscombe	Paul Dornan
Andy Gardiner	Tricia George	John Leslie
Sarah Matthias	Liv Raphael	Christopher Pick
Christine Rose	Godfrey Stadlen	Cherry Taylor
Louise Tucker

The choir has three Trustees, two of whom must be committee members and one of whom must be a member of the choir not serving on the committee. Andy Gardiner, the former Member Trustee, has now joined the committee, and the AGM therefore appointed Bryan Stevens as the new Member Trustee. The Trustees from the Committee are John Leslie and Godfrey Stadlen.

Many thanks to Bryan for volunteering as Trustee, to Andy, Louise and Christopher for agreeing to join the committee, and to all the continuing committee members for agreeing to serve for another year. Thanks also to Sarah Castle and Richard Ayers as former committee members for their valuable work.

The Choir’s officers are elected by the committee from its members at the first committee meeting after the AGM. In the interim the officers remain as before:-

Godfrey Stadlen, Secretary gstad@blueyonder.co.uk  020 7272 3168

John Leslie, Chairman   john.leslie@philotus.co.uk   020 7359 6461

Liz Barton, Treasurer   keithandliz@hotmail.com   020 8882 0487

Please feel free to contact us with any questions.