It is the beginning of a new term and, exam season notwithstanding, the Choir of Somerville College has some exciting events planned. Our upcoming concerts for the next two months are as follows:
 
06/05/2019
Performance as part of the Little Clarendon Street Festival, 7.30 pm
 
07/05/2019
Organ Scholar Recital, 6pm, Somerville College Chapel
 
08/06/2019
Commemoration Service, 2.15 pm, Somerville College Chapel
 
20/06/2019
Concert (Love and Loss: Madrigals old and new), 8 pm, Somerville College Chapel
 
Additionally, we are excited to announce that our first Choir Reunion will be taking place this term on Saturday, June 22nd. This event is aimed at any former members of Somerville College Choir since 2001 and will include a concert at 5.30 pm in the College Chapel.
 
Also, anyone attending the choral and organ scholarship open day on Saturday 11/05/2019, do make sure to reach out to our Director of Chapel Music, Will Dawes, who will be running the warm-up session. He will be happy to answer any questions you might have about joining Somerville College Choir.

We are delighted to let you know that there will be a reunion for all former members of the Choir of Somerville College since 2001 taking place in the College on Saturday 22nd June from 2pm onwards. The event will be based around an informal concert in the College Chapel at 5.30pm that afternoon, with arrival at the college between 2pm and 2.30pm, followed by a rehearsal and pre-concert refreshments.  Half of the concert will be given by the current choir, with choir alumni invited to join for the remainder of the concert.
 
Guests are more than welcome to attend, but if you'll be bringing guests please email choir@some.ox.ac.uk before the 10th June to confirm names and numbers so that we can have enough refreshments available. There will be no charge for those attending the day, aside from what is spent at the Royal Oak after the concert, where food and drinks will be available for purchase.
 
We'll also publish a document on this website, detailing names of those we're in touch with, confirmed attendees, and names of people for whom we have no contact details.  Do please let us know if you can help tracking people down, as we’re very keen to re-establish contact with alumni.
 
Please click here to RSVP. Even if you’re not able to join us on this occasion, it would be great to hear from you so that we can update our records and so that the 2021 event (the 20th anniversary of the choir’s formation) can be at least as successful!

Choral scholarships are an ideal way of combining academic studies with high-caliber choir singing. Each year, Somerville offers around five Choral Scholarships to applicants wishing to read any subject. We are looking for enthusiastic singers with voices in the soprano, alto, contraltos, tenor and bass range to join our choir.  During term time, rehearsals are held on Thursday evenings and regular performances take place each Sunday.  In addition, there will be further performances, both in the college and abroad.  Choral Scholars are expected to be leaders of the choir, both musically and socially, and in return receive generous funding for singing lessons, frequent solo opportunities, and regular free meals.
 
Organ Scholars at Somerville are provided with generous funding for organ and conducting lessons, and are guaranteed rooms in college for the duration of their course.  The primary function of the Organ Scholar is to play the organ and accompany the choir in rehearsals and performances, however, depending on each Organ Scholar's personal priorities, there are opportunities to sing with the choir, direct the choir and experience orchestral conducting.
 
For more information on applying for a Choral or Organ Scholarship, please visit the following part of the University admissions website. If you are interested in applying for a Choral or Organ Scholarship at Somerville, please contact the College’s Director of Chapel Music, Will Dawes, who is very happy to meet with interested parties at any convenient time.

 Director of Chapel Music Will Dawes writes about the Choir’s tour to India last December:

On Monday 10th December, 30 singers and two organ scholars set off from Heathrow to begin a trip that would take in Mumbai and Goa, and see us giving concerts, working with hugely talented yet underprivileged local children, and absorbing Indian culture.
 
The atmosphere on our journey from Mumbai airport to our hotel was distinctly quiet, with the group taking in the sights and sounds of this densely populated mega-city. From the bikes weaving skillfully between cars and trucks, to the elegant Haji Ali Mosque surrounded by water, a vast outdoor laundry and the bright posters everywhere in Roman and Devanagari script, there were reminders everywhere that this was a city that mingled millions of people, of different faiths and cultures, living in close proximity.
 
For one day, we were tourists, visiting the sixth-century Elephanta caves. Our guide was truly brilliant at showing us round the caves, which mostly consist of monuments and iconography dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva.  We also encountered some extremely cheeky monkeys – one of which pinched a bottle of soda from the group!
 
From a musical point of view, we gave three concerts in three very different venues: The first was in the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai: in a 1,000-seat performance space featuring a pipe organ – one of only a handful in India.

We had some challenging and contemporary pieces to start with, but eventually branched out into real Christmas favourites such as The Twelve Days of Christmas, Ding dong! merrily on high and Away in a Manger.  These all went down a treat, with plenty of whoops and cheers!
 
The second concert was at the Mehboob studios, in a barn of a Bollywood film studio which could well have been an aircraft hangar.  After a concert of music on the theme of water (including works by Palestrina, Holst and arrangements by several former Kings Singers), we were able to enjoy the sounds of traditional Indian instruments such as the tabla and santoor, the latter an Asian dulcimer, playing alongside a Western jazz trio in the open air.
 
After travelling to Goa, the third concert was performed in the 17th century Church of St Francis of Assisi. There was no electricity, it was swelteringly hot, and we had several animal friends join us both physically and vocally during the concert, including pigeons, bats, dogs, and a rat that ran straight through the choir whilst we were singing.  Coupled with the colour of the lights, and the glorious stonework the sound of the music was sublime.
 
The undoubted highlights of the trip were our workshops with the charities Songbound and the Karta Initiative. The latter was a cross-college effort with choir, tutors, and principal all combining to give 30 bright and personable 16-17 year olds a morning interacting with members of the University. The sessions that we had with the children from Songbound – which uses music to make a difference to the lives of some of India’s poorest children – will live long in the memory. We spent an hour in each session teaching them songs, learning from them, sensing their great joy at making music when the rest of their days were known to be troubling.

It was a pleasure for us to be part of such an extraordinary trip and to be able to act as ambassadors for both the College and wider University. As a college choir, we have arrived back with those memories and experiences firmly in our thoughts. The trip reminded us that Somerville is part of a global community, with alumni and well-wishers all around the world. Through the shared enjoyment of music, I hope that we strengthened the ties between Somerville and our friends in India. I’m thrilled that we’re already considering the next tour. More on that soon…
 
First-year experimental psychology student, Miriam Remshard:

When I joined the choir, I did not know of the plans to do a tour of India. So, when I received my first email in September informing me that I would be travelling to India in less than four months, I was excited to say the least. Seeing a country which is so different to the UK was an incredibly eye-opening experience. From the hot and humid climate, the animals (such as cows and goats) standing in the middle of the road, the hectic traffic, to the friendly, smiling and welcoming people, it was unlike anything I had ever experienced. There are many memories I will cherish from this tour. For me as a first-year student and new to the choir, it was a really special event and a fantastic opportunity to get to know the other members of the choir a lot better. Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to our next tour!

Thank you!

We are thrilled to announce that this morning (24th November) we have reached our crowdfunding target of £10,000! A huge thank you to everyone who has supported this initiative so far. We are immensely grateful for this generosity and for your making this tour possible for all the choir. 

Our campaign remains live until Friday 30th November, so it’s not too late to support us if you haven’t already, please do so here: https://somerville.hubbub.net/p/indiachoirtour2018.

We look forward to updating you on our activities during the tour, and thank you once again!

Best wishes,

The Somerville College Choir

It is just a matter of weeks before we embark upon our groundbreaking India tour. The choir have already raised a substantial amount to make this tour possible, and we are now on the final push for any support to make this trip of a lifetime affordable for every choir member. For full details of the tour and how you can support us, please visit our crowdfunding page: https://somerville.hubbub.net/p/indiachoirtour2018.

This will be the first visit to India by a choir from Oxford University and is an incredible opportunity for the members of the choir to visit such a culturally rich part of the world. The College has exceptionally strong and meaningful links to India, with distinguished alumnae that include Indira Gandhi, India's first woman Prime Minister and Cornelia Sorabji, the first Indian woman at Oxford in 1889, and the first Indian woman lawyer to practice in both the UK and India. We are also the home of the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development which advances India’s sustainable development by bringing different academic disciplines and sectors together.  The Centre develops future leaders by offering scholarships to exceptional Indian students to study at Oxford. As a result, we view this as a wonderful chance to explore and develop our existing links with this great country.

We will be visiting India in December 2018, to perform concerts and run workshops in Mumbai and Goa. The choir will run several workshops during our visit, and we are looking forward to taking part in activities with the Mumbai-based charity Songbound. 

We will also be running educational workshops with students of The Karta Initiative, a social mobility mission which aims to widen access to world-class higher education and opportunity for brilliant low income students from developing and emerging countries. This will involve members of the choir talking to the students about their own subjects, different pathways and university life in general.

In addition to these workshops, we are thrilled to have an invitation to perform in the National Centre for Performing Arts (Mumbai), and we will give several other performances during our visit including at the Mehboob Film Studios as part of the Times Literary Festival, and the Church of St Francis of Assisi in Goa.

We would be extremely grateful for any donation, big or small, which will help us get to India. Our aim in this campaign is to make the tour more affordable to members of the choir regardless of background or financial circumstances. We already have raised a substantial amount towards the tour, including from choir contributions, support from Somerville College, generous external donations and our modest fundraising activities.  By raising this amount of £10,000, we are able to bridge the final funding gap to make this tour financially possible for all members. 

However, money isn’t everything. If you feel you would like to help in other ways, you could help us promote our crowdfunding page to friends, family, and online, so that we reach as many people as possible. Maybe you could share our posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or even just tell someone about us. Every little helps!

Somerville College Choir will be hosting a 24-Hour Music Marathon in the College Chapel this Friday and Saturday, in order to raise funds for its tour to India, taking place in December.

Featuring performances by members of Somerville College, the marathon will incorporate a wide variety of musical styles, ranging from jazz standards to organ symphonies, from an open-mic session and lute songs. The final running order will be confirmed here and on Facebook on Thursday evening.
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Entry will be by donation, with all the money raised going towards the tour more details of which can be found here. If you can't attend in person, do check out the live stream.

Schedule

Friday 12th October
2pm-3pm - Opening Concert (featuring the full choir and solo recitals)
3pm-4:20pm - Solo Singing Recital (featuring members of the choir)
4:20pm-5:45pm - Instrumental Concert (featuring marimba, percussion, lute and recorder duets, and organ works)
5:45pm-7pm - Instrumental Recital (featuring clarinet, voice and piano)
7pm-8pm - Chinese Instruments Concert
8pm-9pm - Organ recital, performed by the college's two organ scholars
9pm-9:40pm - Lute Song Recital (featuring members of the choir accompanied by Quentin Miller)
9:40pm-10:10pm - Song Recital: Director of Chapel Music Will Dawes sings Finzi's Earth, Air and Rain
10:30pm-11pm - Jazz Standards (performed by choir members Max and Eloise)
11pm-12am - Piano recital (featuring works by Granados, Makholm and Beethoven)

Saturday 13th October
12am-12:30am - Gu-qin Music (performed by Xiaoyi Ouyang)
12:30am-7am - Various piano music throughout the night (performed by Alastair Flynn, Andrei Diaconu, Xiaoyi Ouyang, Aidan Quinlan, Robin Leach, Jack Pegg, Ilona Clayton and Joel Summerfield)
7am-7:35am - Instrumental Recital by Andy Wang and Emma Line
7:35am-9am - Leanne Yau performs various pop, acoustic and folk songs accompanied by guitar
9am-9:30am - Trumpet Duets (performed by Aidan Quinlan and Ellen King)
9:30am -10am - Organ Recital by Rory Moules
10am-11am - Singthrough of European Sacred Music, led by Will Dawes
11am - 12pm - Singthrough of Popular Songs from the Musicals
12pm-1pm - Piano Recital by Marianna Kapsetaki (featuring 10 Preludes, op. 23, by Rachmaninoff)
1pm-2pm - Closing Recital, featuring the full choir and solo works including Dichterliebe (performed by Will Dawes) and Frauenliebe und -leben (performed by Georgie Malcolm)

​Click here to download a PDF file of the full programme detailing the specific performers and repertoire in each recital.

Congratulations to those going to Oxford in October!

​If you've not already lined up a choir to join, then do consider us - we're performing the Mozart Requiem in the Sheldonian this term, and then touring to India in December. You don't have to be studying at Somerville to join us - we've also singers from Brookes as well as non-students regularly singing with us, so do get in touch!

Auditions details here: https://goo.gl/forms/FkYiapO8rBoE7vgU2

Don't miss the choir's last public performance this term, in concert alongside the Somerville College Orchestra.

The concert features a programme ranging from Eric Whitacre's gorgeous Five Hebrew Love Songs to Johann Sebastian Bach's timeless Double Violin Concerto.

Thursday 9th March 2017, 7:30pm
Somerville College Chapel

Entry is free and there will be a drinks reception after the concert. Click here to see the Facebook event page.

We are delighted to announce that Will Dawes is joining Somerville as our new Director of Chapel Music, in succession to Benjamin Goodson, who recently secured the impressive appointment as the new assistant of the chief conductor of the Rundfunkchor Berlin.

Dawes is currently the Director of Music at the church of St Mary Magdalen, Oxford, Conductor of Ensemble 45, Frideswide Voices (Oxford’s first liturgical choir for 7-14 year-old girls), and takes up the position of Director of Chapel Music of Somerville College, Oxford, in January 2017.  He is a graduate of the RAM where he studied Choral Conducting and Singing, and has directed several excellent choral societies and chamber choirs across the UK.

‘I’m thrilled to become Director of Chapel Music at Somerville, and very much looking forward to working with the extremely capable College choir, and continuing the excellent work of my predecessors,’ says Dawes.  ‘Somerville has already proved to me to be an ambitious and welcoming community, and I’m excited to be part of the future of one of Oxford’s most open-minded colleges.’

Alongside his career as a conductor, Will is active as a consort singer and is a member of the internationally acclaimed and multiple-Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble Stile Antico.  The group performs all over the globe, so far including concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall (BBC Proms), over fifty different venues in the USA, as well as Mexico, Portugal, Estonia and Canada. He is a former Lay Clerk of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and has also appeared as part of the Gabrieli Consort, Cardinall’s Musick, Collegium Vocale Gent, and Polyphony.

As a soloist, Will has sung works such as Carmina Burana (Orff), Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Mahler), and The Wound Dresser (Adams) as well as more canonic works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Händel.  His one and only operatic role to date is that of Mr Gedge in Britten's Albert Herring.

For further information, including forthcoming performances, please visit www.willdawes.co.uk.