On Friday at 6pm the Choir of Somerville College and Somerville Music Society will be presenting West End Favourites and Film Music, a gala concert in aid of the choir's US tour.

Members of the Choir of Somerville College, Robert Pecksmith (organ/piano) and special guest star David Crown (baritone) perform a selection of favourite show tunes and film music. The concert features extracts from The Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, Cats, Star Wars and Show Boat as well as 'One Day More', the rousing finale from Act I of Les Misérables. See the Facebook event for full details of the programme.

Performers:
Ruth Akinradewo (soprano), Ian Buchanan (tenor), David Crown (baritone/conductor), Katie Jeffries-Harris (mezzo-soprano), Matt Kerr (baritone), Douglas Knight (piano). Christoph Schnedermann (bass), Stefan Schwarz (baritone), Robert Pecksmith (organ/piano), Alexandra Worrell (soprano), Emily Winkler (soprano), Orly Watson (piano)

Admission is free. There will be a retiring collection in aid of the choir's summer tour.

Nick Machin (Organ Scholar Elect), will be performing his first solo recital at Somerville Chapel on Friday at 1:15pm.

The programme includes piano works by Turina, Liszt, Debussy and Shostakovich as well as organ music by Berkeley, Stanford and Widor. Please see the Facebook event page for further details.

The recital will be part of the 150 for 150 Recital Challenge in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Royal College of Organists. Somerville will be the only Oxbridge college to contribute two events to this series: Nick Machin's Friday lunchtime recital and an evening recital featuring Robert Pecksmith (Organ Scholar) at the Auenkirche (Berlin) in August.

On Saturday, 26th April 2014, the Choir of Somerville College will be offering a workshop and a short concert as part of the university's annual Choral Open Day.

At 5pm potential applicants can join our rehearsal with David Crown (Director of Chapel Music) and Robert Pecksmith (Organ Scholar). We will be preparing a concert performance of Fauré's Requiem, which will start at 6:15pm. The concert is open to the public and admission is free.

The workshop and the concert will be an excellent opportunity to work with one of the university's leading mixed-voice college choirs and to find out more about Oxford's only non-denominational chapel. Its interfaith ethos gives the choir a unique advantage: Unlike other Oxbridge choirs, the Choir of Somerville College is not restricted to the Anglican liturgy, but sings a much wider range of sacred choral works from all kinds of religious traditions as well as secular music.

Prospective applicants who want to find out what it's really like to be a choral scholar at Somerville, should read the short profiles of three of our singers. Potential future organ scholars may want to have a look at the organ specification and the sample recordings of the chapel's fine Harrison organ on this page as well as our current organ scholar's website.