Choir Report

During the Michaelmas and Easter Terms, the Choir’s regular liturgical Chapel services continued uninterrupted, significantly aided by the installation of the Chapel’s new livestreaming equipment, which enabled us to share our music and liturgy with not only the College community but also alumni, friends and supporters around the world. The Choir continues to provide an enriching, educational experience for its Choral Scholars and Volunteers, with thrice-weekly services during the academic terms and in its external schedule during vacations. 2020–21 has been another successful and fulfilling year for music at Clare, despite the huge challenges we faced with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Director of Music has been supported by the College’s two Organ Scholars, George Gillow (Sir William McKie Senior Organ Scholar) and Samuel Jones (Junior Organ Scholar). Regular Chapel services this year have been invigorated with many new commissions and premières, including a new collaboration with Choir & Organ throughout 2020, during which the Choir and organists premièred six new commissions. The Director of Music continues to programme lesser-performed works by female composers and composers of colour, and this year the Choir has performed repertoire by Janet Wheeler, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Judith Weir, Joanna Marsh, Victoria Longstaff, Anna Semple, Cecilia McDowall, Adolphus Hailstork, Anna Lapwood, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Undine Smith Moore, Ken Burton, Jeanne Demessieux, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a host of living Icelandic choral composers, and many others.

In the autumn of 2020 the Choir released their latest album on the Harmonia Mundi label, A Ceremony of Carols, featuring music by Benjamin Britten complemented with works by Frank Bridge, John Ireland and Gustav Holst. The Choir was joined by harpist Tanya Houghton, and once again the album was produced, engineered and edited by former Director of Music and Honorary Fellow John Rutter, to whom the Choir are much indebted.

In December 2020 the Choir’s series of Christmas concerts at All Saint’s Church Leamington Spa, West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge and St John’s Smith Square, London – themselves already being rescheduled concerts following the Choir’s cancelled USA tour – once again fell victim to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the obvious disappointment, the Choir remained positive and produced Christmas from Clare, a virtual Christmas concert fundraising for the Clare College Emergency Fund and receiving over 10,000 views. We look forward to returning to national and international touring during the 2021 summer vacation.

In January 2021, as a result of the UK’s third national lockdown, the Choir had to abandon their schedule again. Following the success of Clare Choir’s online presence during Michaelmas Term, the Choir continued to deliver music-making to their followers from their homes. For more on the Choir’s forays into virtual music-making during the challenges of the pandemic, see Playing On, from Clare News Issue 39.

The Choir were delighted to return to their regular weekly schedule during the Easter Term of 2021, performing according to social distancing guidelines. It was a pleasure to gradually welcome back members of College into the Chapel for the first time in 2021. The Choir delivered their first live performance of 2021 as a full choir to the College community with an outdoor Ascension Day performance of Orlando Gibbons’ O clap your hands together, which has been viewed by 38,000 people via social media. One Evensong during the Easter Term was dedicated to Clare alumna and former Choral Scholar Rachael Ward, who died in April 2021, aged 28. At that service the Choir sang an anthem composed by her husband, Matthew, who attended the service with Rachael’s family.

During Easter Term, the Choir explored a range of Icelandic music by composers including Jón Leifs, Þorkell Sigurbjörnsson, Anna Þorvaldsdóttir, Sigurður Sævarsson, Tryggvi M. Baldvinsson, Hjálmar H. Ragnarsson and Snorri Sigfris Birgisson, amongst others, in preparation for their recording sessions and tour during the summer vacation.

In June 2021 the Choir carried out their first national live concerts in over 500 days, with performances in Leamington Spa, Hay on Wye, Crediton and Powderham Castle. In the 2021 summer vacation the Choir recorded their latest album of Icelandic choral music on the Harmonia Mundi label. In September 2021 the Choir joined forces with Britten Sinfonia for a recording of previously unrecorded music by Vaughan Williams for Albion Records, ahead of a much-anticipated short tour to Iceland. The first of our rescheduled pandemic cancellations, this tour included performances in the magnificent Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik.

None of the achievements of the musical community at Clare would be possible without the extraordinary hard work of both the Head of the Chapel Office, Nicola Robertson, and the Choir Administrator, Hannah Ambrose, who assist the work of the Dean and Director of Music tirelessly – especially so during the last academic year as they have continued to plan around the endlessly changing landscape. The Choir is fortunate to receive ongoing representation from record label Harmonia Mundi and artist agents Ikon Arts Management, and the ongoing support of benefactors, Friends of Clare Music and individual donors, whose donations enable the students at Clare to experience some of the very best musical opportunities available.

We continue to strive for the very highest levels of musicianship in all that we do, and we provide the members of the Choir with a world-class education matched with unparalleled opportunities. I hope that, despite everything the world has thrown at us in the last year, the Choir has – above anything else – provided some solace during such a challenging time.