Choir Report

I was ably supported throughout the year by the College’s two Organ Scholars, Ashley Chow and George Gillow. Regular chapel services were invigorated with recent commissions from Sigurður Sævarsson, Nico Muhly, Joshua Pacey and Toby Hession, alongside special services for International Women’s Day, Remembrance Sunday, the ever-popular Advent Carol Services, and plenty more. 2019 marked the 250th anniversary of the completion of the current Clare Chapel, with much of the music programmed in Michaelmas Term celebrating the great legacy of Clare music.

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 former Choir Administrator, Sophie Alabaster, who both assisted the work of the Dean and Director of Music tirelessly, alongside our ongoing representation from record label Harmonia Mundi and artist agents Ikon Arts Management, and from the ongoing support of benefactors, Friends of Clare Music, and individual donors.

In December 2019, following a performance of Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and star soloists in Cambridge, the Choir embarked on their Christmas programme, performing in Stowe, Hay-on-Wye, at London’s St John’s, Smith Square, and across the Netherlands with concerts in Vlissingen, Amstelveen, Haarlem and Nijmegen, all to capacity audiences.

The Clare Choir Alumni Association enjoyed another London drinks event in October 2019 in conjunction with the Clare Development Office. As Clare College’s Old Court building project sprung into action the antechapel became buried under a mass of scaffolding, but Chapel Services continued regardless!

In January 2020, the Choir joined forces with other Cambridge choirs and orchestras for a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in King’s College Chapel.

Little did we know that that would be the last live concert given by the Choir for some time. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, everything –services, tours, concerts – was cancelled, almost overnight.

The Easter Term and summer vacation became an entirely-online affair. Our online Music Monday series, featuring performances by current undergraduates and some of Clare’s distinguished musical alumni, proved a great success, and our weekly Clarecast, featuring readings, reflections and selections from the Choir’s discography, enabled our College community to remain connected, albeit virtually.

Virtual Choirs sprung up around the world with great enthusiasm during lockdown, and at Clare we created two of our own: firstly, a virtual performance of the final movement of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, a work that we were due to perform on Palm Sunday in the Netherlands, and then (after some 400 hours of editing…) a special virtual performance of John Rutter’s A Clare Benediction, released on what would have been the College’s Graduation Day, featuring a massed choir and orchestra made up of some 200 individual contributions from Clare’s musical alumni. That video has since received more than 150,000 views from around the world.

During lockdown, a newly released second edition of For Her Good Estate: The Life of Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady of Clare was published, and is now available for sale in a new edition edited by Clare alumna Claire Barnes (1976). Thanks to Claire, all proceeds from sales will go to support Friends of Clare Music. The book is a fascinating and scholarly account of Elizabeth’s life by the deceased American academic, Frances A. Underhill. Copies can be ordered online here.

In late summer, thanks to the generosity of some of our Friends of Clare Music benefactors, Matthew Dilley and his About Sound team discreetly installed cameras in the College Chapel, enabling us going forwards to livestream all our services to our friends, alumni, congregations and audiences around the world. And thus – even in the midst of a global pandemic – a major new chapter for Clare music begins.