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Welcome to the Newbury Chamber Choir

We are a small and friendly group of singers who particularly enjoy music from across a wide range of European classical music. We give three or four concerts a year, always with appropriate instrumental accompaniment and we’ve become known for reviving works from outside the mainstream choral repertory.

We recently changed our name from the Newbury Baroque Singers to reflect the wider range of music that we perform and to avoid confusion.

SPRING CONCERTS

Following successful performances over the last two years, Newbury Chamber Choir will once again be presenting two choral works jointly with local church choirs in preparation for Easter.

On Palm Sunday 28th March at 7.00pm in St Mary’s Church, Thatcham, there will be a performance, together with members of the choir of St Mary’s, of Fauré’s Requiem. Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) wrote the Requiem between 1887 and 1889 possibly in response to the death of his father.

On Good Friday, 2nd April at 7.00pm in St Nicolas Church, Newbury the Newbury Chamber Choir will be joined by members of both St Nicolas and St Mary’s Church choirs for a performance of Stainer’s Crucifixion. The soloists here will be Paul Robinson (Tenor) and Ian Caddy (Bass) who both sang in performances of this work last year in Thatcham and Highclere.

The Crucifixion is a Victorian piece first performed in London on Good Friday 1887, the year of Queen Victoria ’s Golden Jubilee. The text was written by The Reverend William J Sparrow Simpson whose father was a colleague of John Stainer at St Paul ’s Cathedral. The piece includes 5 hymns, the tunes of which will be familiar to many, while at the heart of the work is the expressive God so loved the world.

A retiring collection will be taken at each venue.

SUMMER CONCERTS

1 May 2010

12 June 2010

Burghclere Church

St John's Newbury

Final Programme to be announced

J S Bach and Telemann

Details to be announced soon

WINTER CONCERT - 28 November 2009 at St Nicolas' Church, Newbury

King Arthur - Henry Purcell

Siona Stockel

Jacqueline Pischorn (sopranos)

Stephen Harvey (counter-tenor)

Paul Robinson (tenor)

Ian Caddy (bass)

conducted by Edward Lambert

Devised by Dryden, its thread is a contest between the Christian Celts and the pagan Anglo-Saxon invaders; they’re not only fighting over territory - Arthur has clearly won that battle almost as soon as the play starts - but also he and his enemy Oswald share feelings for the blind Emmeline, the Duke of Cornwall’s daughter.

The two sorcerers, Merlin and Osmond, conjure up all manner of visions and devices to achieve their masters’ ends. Dangerous bogs, enchanted woods and (famously) frozen landscapes are among the backdrops that Purcell’s music illuminates.

When the action is over the finale celebrates our bounteous land, including an appearance by Venus to sing the greatly loved “Fairest Isle”.

It’s 350 years since the composer’s birth, and the resourceful Newbury Chamber Choir mounted a complete performance of this semi-opera with some of the action thrown in.