We are well and truly in the middle of rehearsals for our concert weekend. Our first performance of this exciting programme will be at 7.00pm on Saturday 29th April in Hampton Parish Church. We are also very excited to announce that we will be performing in the wonderful St Nicholas’ Church in Warwick at 4.00pm on Sunday 30th April. We first performed at St. Nicholas’ last Christmas and loved the building and acoustic.
After an incredibly successful Christmas concert season, a small break (to rest those voices), we’re getting ready for 2023! Rehearsals start in less than two weeks as we work towards our first concert weekend of the year in late April. Under the expert direction of Benjamin Hamilton we will also be joined by organist Kevin Gill and cellist Mark Walkem. With beautiful choral music by Bach, Duruflé, Tavener and Nystedt – this is a wonderful way of stepping into Spring together.
Now that we are firmly in Autumn, our sights are set on getting ready for the festive season. We have a packed concert schedule ahead and rehearsals have already started for our Christmas programmes. We’ll publish more details over the coming weeks. For now, here are the details of what is coming up.
Forthcoming concerts
Saturday 3rd December 2022 – Christmas Music, Hampton Parish Church at 6.30pm
Sunday 4th December 2022 – Christmas Music, St Nicholas Church, Warwick at 6.30pm
Thursday 15th December 2022 – Christmas Music, St James’ Church, Packington at 7.00pm
It is thanks to Shakespeare that we have one of the most famous ever quotes about music. As Twelfth Night opens, Duke Orsino speaks the words that are familiar to millions of us: “If music be the food of love, play on“.
Shakespeare’s plays are awash with music. His characters make reference to music, singers and dancers regularly accompany the action on stage, and the Bard’s words themselves flow melodiously.
Unsurprisingly, then, composers for centuries have in turn been inspired by Shakespeare’s plays. Tragedies, comedies and histories have alike found themselves entering the repertoire represented in all manner of ways, from Purcell (writing in the same century that Shakespeare died) to Thomas Adès in the present day.
Ex Urbe are pleased to present as our next concert “settings of Shakespeare” which will include settings by a number of composers including Vaughan Williams, Mäntyjärvi, Macfarren, Wood and Rutter.
In addition, and to celebrate the 150th Birthday of British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) the concert will include “Three Shakespeare Songs” plus “Three Elizabethan Part Songs”. The first set were composed in 1951 and comprise three short pieces, settings of text from two of Shakespeare’s plays, The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream whilst the Part Songs include settings of two further Shakespeare songs from Othello and Twelfth Night. Text by George Herbert is used for the other setting of the trilogy.
“On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a partridge in a pear tree……”
Whilst we hope not to be singing this wonderfully entertaining (very annoying) festive song, Ex Urbe Chamber Choir will be hoping to delight you with an evening of seasonal music and popular carols as you start your preparations for Christmas. After the trials and tribulations of the last 18 months or so, what better way to lift your spirits than to listen to live music. The choir will perform both new and familiar pieces alongside popular carols. And not just the choir will be singing as you, the audience, may be invited to join in so bring your best singing voice with you!
Our Christmas Concert will be held in the Parish Church of Hampton-in-Arden starting at 6:30pm.
Turkey and cranberry sauce, pigs in blankets, mistletoe, chocolate yule logs – of all the elements and traditions that make up the spirit of Christmas, the singing of carols is maybe the most essential. The appeal seems universal and interminable, uniting children and adults in song. Even those too shy or embarrassed to sing will usually join in a carol at Christmas!
Our Christmas Concert this year will be on Saturday, 7 December and will be at Hampton in Arden Parish Church, concert starting at 6:30pm. We shall be singing a number of favourite carols and other Christmas-themed music most of which feature on Classic FM’s list of most-popular Christmas, choral music.
The choir will be joined by the fantastic Stephen Perrins on the organ.
We look forward to welcoming you and getting you in a festive mood!
Ex Urbe Chamber Choir are delighted to announce that they have been successful in being chosen to participate in the national Adopt A Composer scheme.
Chloe Knibbs a brilliant young Birmingham based composer has been matched to Ex Urbe, her work is inspired by city life, folk tales and personal experiences and in her music, explores feminist and social issues. Over the next year, Ex Urbe singers and their dynamic and energetic Director, Benjamin Hamilton, will be actively involved with Chloe in the creative process of producing a new piece of work which will be given its premiere in October 2019 and recorded by Radio 3 for broadcast.
