Music of Celebration & Jubilation

University Chamber Choir in concert

25th Anniversary Concert
Music of Celebration and Jubilation

Bath Abbey
Saturday, 11th May 7.30pm

The University Chamber Choir
with
Brassworks
Peter King, organ
Conductor: Michael Painting

Admission £7 (Concessions £5). Tickets available at the door.

The University Chamber Choir celebrates its Silver Jubilee with a concert in Bath Abbey on Saturday 11th May, featuring Abbey Organist Peter King and the ensemble Brassworks. The conductor is Michael Painting.

The programme is entitled Music of Celebration and Jubilation, and includes a number of pieces which mark particular events in both the University Chamber Choir's and the University's development. With the current sovereign visiting Bath as a part of her own golden jubilee celebrations, it is also includes much music that was sung at her Coronation - and some that was sung at the Coronation of Edward VII a century ago in 1902, including Handel's Zadok the priest, Parry's I was Glad, Vaughan Williams' arrangement of The Old Hundreth, and Stanford's Te Deum in Bb.

About the Choir
The University Chamber Choir was founded in the autumn of 1977. It gave its first public performance in the University Chaplaincy Centre in December of that year, in a concert that included Purcell's Bell Anthem, the Vivaldi Gloria, and music by Herbert Howells and Peter Wishart. The Choir originally numbered about 24 singers, but numbers grew over the first few years and have subsequently been held constant at around the 35 mark. The Choir was quickly established as a Students Union society, which it has remained ever since. It has always been a 'student' choir, though it has benefited from the presence of a number of staff and former students over the years. Two of the founder members are still directly involved with it: conductor Michael Painting, and tenor Peter Clucas, who will this evening be presenting an award to be given annually to the person who has made the greatest contribution to the life of the Choir during the preceding year.

Over the years the Choir has made a significant contribution to the corporate life of the University. There will be very few students, and not a few staff, for whom the beginning of Christmas has not been marked by the strain of a solo voice singing the first verse of Once in royal David's city at the University Carol service. The service was inaugurated at the time of the Choir's tenth birthday. From relatively small beginnings in 1987 at St Mary's Bathwick, the carol service has grown into a major University event, attracting a capacity congregation of some 1300 people. The Choir has also been able to take a major part in shaping the making of other important occasions in the University's life: the commemoration service which formed a part of the University's Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1991 for example, were one such occasion, and the choir has since sung at the Installation of two University Chancellors and at the Inauguration of the present Vice-Chancellor. It has also had an important role in taking the University into the broader community: the Choir has always performed off-campus to a much greater extent than on-campus, and thus it has made an advantage out of necessity. In Bath the Choir performed regularly for extended periods in St Stephen's, Lansdown, and in St Mary's, Bathwick as it now does in Bath Abbey, and there are a number of churches in the surrounding counties where it has made many return visits, bringing choral music to churches where it might not otherwise be heard, and often raising money for charity at the same time. It has also sung on a regular basis in the neighbouring cathedrals, while in recent years it has undertaken short tours at the end of the Spring term.

Michael Painting is a member of the University's administrative staff, and is also one of its graduates. He has conducted the University Chamber Choir since its formation. His musical career started as a treble; his choirmaster, the late Dudley Holroyd, later became organist at Bath Abbey, and he in turn became a member of the Abbey Choir as a student. With the Abbey Choir and with other groups he has made several broadcasts and recordings, both in Bath and in cathedrals and major churches throughout the country and in Europe.

Peter King studied organ with Allan Wicks and piano with Ronald Smith. He won the Maine Organ Exhibition at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he read law and music and studied organ with Gillian Weir. From 1975 to 1986 he was Assistant Organist at Lichfield Cathedral, founding the Lichfield Cathedral Chamber Choir. From 1980 to 1998, he was Accompanist and Assistant Chorus Director to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, with whom he regularly appears. He has made four recital tours to the USA, and has appeared in the Bath, St Albans, Cheltenham and Lichfield International festivals. His playing has also taken him to Belgium, France and Germany. In 1986 he became Organist and Master of the Choristers at Bath Abbey. He has recorded three CDs on the Abbey organ, the recent rebuilding of which he oversaw, and has directed two CDs featuring its Choirs.

Brassworks is an ensemble formed by Alison Harris, pharmacist, trombonist and former choir member, who graduated from the University in 1993, and who is now based in Oxford.