Past seasons: 2001-2002 Season

Saturday 10th November 2001 The Season began with our Autumn Concert which was a secular programme of, to quote our Music Director,'quintissentially English music': Vaughan Williams' work In Windsor Forest and Elgar's music, written after a visit to Germany, From the Bavarian Highlands. To complement this, soprano Hilary Musgrave also performed a selection of songs based on 16th, 17th and 18th century English love poems. Hilary also runs our "Singing For Starters" course. This programme of music was in lighter vein, before the choir begins work on the newly commissioned Exodus to be performed later in the season (see Spring Concert details below).

Saturday 15th December 2001 The seasonal, and now traditional, Christmas Concert returned once again to the Speech Room of Harrow School, a venue popular with both choir and audience. Our reader was the well-known actor Peter Barkworth and we were supported by Alban Brass. The sell-out concert included several of the pieces that appear on our new CD of Christmas Music entitled Cum Cantibus in Choro. Contact us for details.

Saturday 23rd March 2002 Last year's spring concert comprised two works, one being the Requiem by Duruflé which the choir performed so successfully last June and during our Summer Tour to France. Duruflé in fact wrote three arrangements for the accompaniment of his Requiem, one being for organ only, which was the way in which we performed the work last year. The other arrangements are for organ with small orchestra, and for full orchestra and we used the former for this concert, admirably supported by Trinity Orchestra and by our regular accompanist and organist Bernard Barker.

However, the highlight of the concert was the world premiere of a new work Exodus commissioned by, and written for, the choir by composer Jonathan Ayerst, with the libretto by Brian Levison, an established poet and choir member. This turned out to be one of the most challenging works ever undertaken by the choir, but was a highly satisfying and unifying experience for all concerned. It extended the choir quite considerably at a technical level, which was particularly beneficial in its own right and, on the night itself, both choir and audience enjoyed the premiere of this unusual and powerful work. We will undoubtedly perform it again in the future, once the choir and the audience have had sufficient opportunity to recover!

Saturday 29th June 2002 Our Summer Concert was performed at the Elliott Hall in the Harrow Arts Centre, Hatch End. The programme comprised the Mozart Requiem, one of the best known and most popular of the major choral works, and Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein.

Saturday 20th July: Away-Day in Bath. As is our custom, we had an "away-day" for the choir (and audience/supporters/etc.) which this year was to Bath. These very popular events provide an opportunity for the choir to relax, travel and spend time together in a different environment from that of our normal weekly rehearsals, and also provide the opportunity to perform in a different venue to a different audience.

The music chosen for these away-days usually comprises works with which the choir is already familiar, thereby reducing rehearsal time as well as pressure, and adding to the enjoyment of the day as a whole. This year was no exception, the chosen works being Elgar's From the Bavarian Highlands and Vaughan Williams' In Windsor Forest, both of which we performed in our Autumn Concert the previous November. In Bath, this secular programme was performed in the appropriately secular setting of the historic Guild Hall.

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