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Horsham Chamber Choir presents The Strange and the Exotic

Join Horsham Chamber Choir on Saturday 20th June for a musical mystery tour through centuries of choral music that celebrates The Strange and The Exotic, from distant mythical lands to tanks of piranha fish under your train seat!

The choir’s Musical Director, Penelope Jane Homer, says: “Composers have always enjoyed the weird and wonderful, and here we travel from Renaissance cosmography to modern urban surrealism. Well-known names sit alongside new favourites to be discovered and invoke a sense of awe and wonder at the strange new worlds music allows us to explore”

The programme opens with its earliest composition - Thomas Weelkes’s stunning madrigal Thule, the Period of Cosmography and The Andalusian Merchant. This is a Renaissance masterpiece drawing on real and mythical locations to express the wonders of exploration and our own emotional responses to the new and unfamiliar, a theme that unfolds over the course of the evening.

The title of the concert is taken from Thea Musgrave’s striking On the Underground Set 2, which transforms the familiar setting of the London Tube into a realm of surreal encounters (not least with piranhas!), dreamlike visions and unexpected humour. Vaughan Williams’s much-loved Three Shakespeare Songs offer a different kind of enchantment, using The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream to conjure up images of transformations, airy spirits and the supernatural world of fairies.

Complementing these pieces are additional works by Brahms, de Lassus and Elgar chosen for their imaginative style and evocative power.

Horsham Chamber Choir will present this thought-provoking programme in the beautiful surroundings of St Mary’s Church in the Causeway. Early bird tickets can be obtained from the Horsham Chamber Choir website at www.horsham-chamberchoir.org.uk and full price tickets will also be available at the door. The concert will begin at 7.30pm.

Horsham Chamber Choir Provide Easter Inspiration

Horsham Chamber Choir present their next concert on Saturday 28th March, Entitled Ruin and Resurrection, the audience will be treated to an evening of uplifting choral music that takes it from both earthly and spiritual crumbling ruins to sacred cities, inspired by the Easter season where heartbreak turns to joy and reconciliation.

The programme highlights Horsham Chamber Choir’s versatility and commitment to choral music from across the ages. Beginning with enchanting plainsong from polymath Hildegard of Bingen, pieces will include Brahms’ Geistliches Lied, Lotti’s Crucifixus and Lux Aeterna, a heart-rending arrangement of Elgar’s Nimrod from the Enigma variations. Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary at the end of the first half is contrasted with the triumphant Coronation Anthem Zadok the Priest by Handel to round off the evening. Other compositions by Alec Roth, John Stainer, Cecilia McDowell and Frank Ticheli will complement the concert, and the choir is delighted to be premiering a delightful piece by one of its own members, Et Incarnatus Est by Mark Browse.

Horsham Chamber Choir’s Director of Music, Penelope Jane Homer, says: “This is a deeply emotional programme, capturing both the agonies of loss and the joy of love. Regardless of your religious persuasion, this music reaches for the heart and cannot fail to move you. It is wonderful to share these pieces with both the choir and audience alike, and I am very excited to be presenting this concert,”

Horsham Chamber Choir is known for its high-quality performances as well as its dedication to bringing lesser known music to wider audiences, alongside much-loved choral favourites. Ruin and Resurrection promises to be an inspirational evening of reflection and musical excellence.

Early bird tickets can be obtained from the Horsham Chamber Choir website at www.horsham-chamberchoir.org.uk and will also be available at the door at St Mary’s Church on Saturday, 28^th March. The concert will begin at 7:30pm.


 

West Sussex County Times interview with HCC music director Timothy Peters

https://dai.ly/x98kixy

Horsham Chamber Choir’s autumn concert provides a feast of spiritual and meditative compositions combining contrasting musical styles as well as an exercise in modulation by the choir.
At the heart of the programme are Missa Brevis by Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodaly and Berliner Messe by Estonian contemporary composer Arvo Pärt.   The former was written while the Soviet Union was bombing Budapest and written initially for solo voices, chorus and orchestra. Kodaly saw out the Battle of Budapest in the shelter of the city’s opera house, and Missa Brevis received its first performance in a cloakroom there. The backdrop for the Berliner Messe by Pärt was the emancipation of the city following the break up of the Soviet Union.
Counterpoints to these historic, emotional and spiritual pieces are “and the Swallow” by Caroline Shaw, set to the text of Psalm 84, and Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare, arranged by Horsham Chamber Choir’s very own Music Director Timothy Peters. Both pieces help to provide a seasonal vibe for the concert.
“The composition by Kodaly is particularly dramatic, while the Part is more meditative. That is understandable - considering the circumstances in which they were written” says Timothy Peters. “Kodaly is well known internationally for his unique method of music education, while Arvo Pärt uses his tintinnabuli technique, partly inspired by Gregorian chant, throughout the Messe.”  The choir will also perform a musical exercise determined by the audience to demonstrate the full and resonating sound of Pärt’s technique. 
The concert will be performed at St Mary’s Church in the Causeway in Horsham at 4.30pm on Saturday 9^th November.  Tickets are available at the Horsham Chamber choir website at www.horsham-chamberchoir.org.uk or at the door.


 

Following a busy autumn and Christmas schedule, Horsham Chamber Choir, led by Musical Director Timothy Peters, is in final preparation for its next thought-provoking performance.

The concert, titled “Earth to Sky”, provides its audience with a space voyage through song and insight. Guided by a wide range of pieces by composers as diverse as Frank Ticheli, Ralph Vaughn Williams, Laura Mvula, Meredith Monk and Franz Schubert, the choir will initially lead its audience on a journey from our planet and look back as Earth changes from meadows and forests into hills and mountains, deserts and oceans. Later it will become a brown and green patchwork of colour, and ultimately a blue marble.
In the second half of the concert the journey explores outer space, visiting planets, stars and constellations. To provide its audience with greater context for their musical journey the  programme will also feature bite-sized lectures given by scientists of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory.

Timothy Peters says: “Natural wonders have fascinated humans since they first appeared on this planet. We would like our audience to immerse themselves in what we know about the earth and its place in the stars through both our choice of musical interpretations and the wisdom of experts”.

The concert will take place at St John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Horsham at 8pm on Saturday, 23^rd March. Tickets are available at the Horsham Chamber Choir website at www.horsham-chamberchoir.org.uk or at the door.

Since our last newsletter in the Spring we performed two very successful concerts, the first in June called Folk Traditions and the second in November called Threshold – Spirituality in Choral Music.  We are clearly building a loyal and growing audience who are helping us to fill the venues we use in Horsham, namely St John’s Catholic Church Hall and the Barn in the Causeway this year. In just a few weeks we will be performing our traditional Christmas programme (Saturday 16th December) which will again be at the Barn in the Causeway. Tickets can be purchased from our website.

Our Music Director Timothy Peters has continued to challenge us with new music, but with a bit of additional homework we are meeting his high expectations of us! He has a very carefully planned programming model which ensures that we are able to do justice to the more challenging pieces he has selected by the time we perform them. At our AGM in October Timothy stressed that trust is a particular strength in this choir, and we have strong leaders in each section. 

During the year we have been able to attract a number of new members who have helped us to improve our overall balance and a make a more rounded sound. In the summer Liz Yeats, who has been our highly effective Concert Manager for an incredible 33 years, stepped down and her role was taken over by Nola Gyles, who has already made a valuable contribution by attracting sponsorship from Toovey’s Auctioneers. 

Another important change in our management was the appointment of Lisa Quas as our new Chair, following the decision by her predecessor Peter Hooper to step down after 10 years. We are very grateful for the enthusiastic and wise leadership that Peter has contributed to the Choir during his tenure. We will be posting more about Lisa soon.

We now have 37 members and with continuing investment in our website and social media content, we are set to spread our passion and enthusiasm for choral music around Horsham in 2024. Details of our concerts next year are already on our website.

Wishing you all a very enjoyable build up to the magic of Christmas!

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