A 3 Choirs Festival!
Plans are being put in place for the recruiting of the Festival’s 3 choirs – Festival Singers, Chamber Choir and Excelsior. Singers from all over Dorset and beyond come together to work with the choirs’ conductor, David Everett, putting together 8 events for the Festival weekend.
Festival Singers
The largest choir in the Festival sings at the 2 major concerts on Friday and Sunday. Rehearsals take place from towards the end of May and are designed to fit in with other choirs’ concerts. A series of 5 weekend Sing Days and 5 evening rehearsals take place in venues around Dorset. The first 2 Sing Days are open to members of the choir, those who want to ‘try before they buy’ and many who just want the fun of singing great music for a day.
This year’s music includes Mozart’s Requiem and opera choruses from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Mozart’s Idomeneo and Magic Flute, Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Wagner’s Tannhäuser and Lohengrin.
On Sunday night, accompanied by Wessex Chamber Orchestra, we are presenting a programme of Mozart, with the Festival Singers performing the ever-popular Requiem & Ave Verum. As with Friday’s concert the semi-professional octet, Excelsior, will provide the soloists.
Chamber Choir
This small group, recruited for the Festival Singers, provides the music at 4 services over the weekend. Its first service, Compline, takes place after Friday night’s concert. This candlelit act of worship comprises a wealth of plainsong and an introit by William Byrd – Christe, qui lux es et dies. Other services will comprise Sunday Eucharist, with Harold Darke’s Communion Setting in E, Monday morning candlelit Eucharist in St Catherine’s Chapel (Charles Wood’s Communion Setting in the Phrygian Mode and Monday afternoon Festal Evensong in the Abbey Church with music by Stanford.
Excelsior
Excelsior is recruited from talented local singers and soloists. In addition to singing in the 2 choral concerts, the group will be singing a Victorian Choral Evensong in St James Church, Milton Abbas, with music by Thomas Walmisley and Samuel Sebastian Wesley. and a candlelit Eucharist in St Catherine’s Chapel, when the setting will be Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices.
