As well as the following special events, there is the regular service of Choral Contemplation on Sundays during term at 5.30 to which you are all most welcome:
 
Friday 7th February, 6pm-6.45pm, College Chapel
Choral Scholars' Recital
This annual event is a lovely opportunity to hear the Choral Scholars (including the Chloe and Helen Morton Scholars) of the College Choir perform as soloists, accompanied by our Organ Scholars and Margaret Irene Seymour Award holders.  The performance will include works by Bach, Händel, Schubert, Butterworth, and Elgar.
Free Entry
 
Friday 21th February, 6pm-7pm, College Chapel
Dante and the Music of Purgatory
During this interdisciplinary event, Katie Bastiman (4th year linguist and Choral Scholar) will guide us through the music of Dante’s Purgatory, looking at the psalms and hymns that Dante cites and why they are significant within the context of the poem. The College Choir will sing settings of these texts to music including MacMillan's Miserere, Howells' Collegium Regale Te Deum, and Tallis' Te Lucis ante terminum. Join us to learn about this celebrated Italian poet, and the importance of music for the structure, tone, and significance of his work.
Free entry
 
Sunday 8th March, 5.30pm-6.30pm, College Chapel
Music and Readings for Lent and the Spring
In this special event, the choirs of Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville College combine to celebrate International Women’s Day, in the 100th year of Women being allowed to graduate from Oxford.  The event will feature music by Amy Beach, Sarah Quartel, Rafaella Aleotti, Sarah MacDonald, Judith Weir and Greta Tomlins.
Free entry
 
Wednesday 11th March, 7.30pm-10pm, College Chapel
Bach: St John Passion
The biannual performance of Bach’s masterpiece is always a highlight of the college’s musical life.  Featuring the Oxford-based professional period-instrument orchestra The Instruments of Time and Truth, a professional Evangelist, and soloists from the choir, this great work is a must see event.  It tends to be very well-attended, so do please reserve your tickets as soon as you can.
 
Matthew Thomson: Evangelist
Benjamin Thompson: Christus
Arthur Landman: Pilate
Oliver John Ruthven: Continuo
The Instruments of Time and Truth
The Choir of Somerville College, Oxford
Will Dawes: Conductor
 
Tickets £10 (£5 for students) via [email protected]
 
Thursday 18th June, 7.30pm, College Chapel
Summer Concert
 
Saturday 1st May 2021, from 3.30pm, College Chapel
Choir Reunion
 
In addition to the above events, you might like to know about the following larger plans.
 
One of our ambitions is to increase the number of pieces in our repertoire by female and non-binary composers, so I’m delighted that the College has part-sponsored a major new venture from Mutitude of Voyces, who are publishing compilations of music composed by female composers.  We are performing numerous pieces from Volume 1 of this series (SATB anthems) this term and are also in discussions to be the primary sponsor of a volume of Secular music for SATB choirs
 
After our ground-breaking tour to India in December 2018, we’re heading abroad again this year, this time to Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau between the 11th and 21st July.  As in India, the trip will comprise major concerts, alumni receptions, and outreach.

The first video recording of our concerts and services in America has now been uploaded to YouTube: 

The Choir of Somerville College (conducted by David Crown and accompanied by organist Robert Pecksmith) sings Charles Wood's Expectans expectavi at Washington National Cathedral.

UPDATE

More live recordings from our US tour:

Charles Wood: Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in D
(Washington National Cathedral, 1 July 2014)

Arthur Somervell: O Saviour of the World
Andrew Carter: Go before us, O Lord
(St. John's Episcopal Church, Northampton/Massachusetts, 5 July 2014)

John Joubert: O Lorde, the maker of al thing
Paul Simon: Bridge over troubled water (arr. Sechler)
(Christ Church Christiana Hundred, Wilmington/Delaware, 3 July 2014)

Today's service at 6pm will be the last chapel service of term and a chance for all members of the college community to come together to celebrate the end of another year at Somerville and say goodbye to those who are leaving (including Chapel Director Fiona Gatty and several members of the choir).

The service will feature the usual mix of speeches, readings and music. The choir will be singing works by Hassler, Wood, Händel, Guest and Rutter. The service will also include two hymns: the college song (Omnes laetae nunc sodales) and Jerusalem. The organ voluntary will be Robert Pecksmith's arrangement of Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever, a preview of the choir's upcoming US tour.

On Saturday the choir will be singing choral evensong at Coventry Cathedral.

The music for the service includes Farrant's Hide not thou thy face, Rubbra's Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in A flat as well as Howells' A Hymn for St. Cecilia.

The organ voluntary will be the final movement of Vierne's Organ Symphony No. 1 in D minor.

Saturday 1st February 2014, 4pm
Evensong with the Choir of Somerville College, Oxford
David Crown, conductor
Robert Pecksmith, organ

Choral services at Somerville Chapel will resume today at 6pm. The choir will be singing Howells' A Hymn for St Cecilia, Rutter's O clap your hands together and the Kyrie from Victoria's Missa O magnum mysterium. The organ voluntary will be Messiaen's Joie et Clarté des Corps Glorieux. Please see our music list for details of the services in weeks 2-8.

Today the choir sang at Dr Olive Sayce's memorial service in the college chapel. Dr Sayce, Emeritus Fellow in Modern Languages, was a generous supporter of the choir and helped to fund our second choir tour to Germany (2009) and our first commercial CD recording (2011).

A live recording of one of the anthems from today's service, Howard Goodall's setting of Psalm 23 (The Lord is my Shepherd), is available through our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EViB5epHMn8.

On Monday the choir will be giving its third performance at St. Paul's. The music for the service includes Stanford's Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C and well as Howells' coronation anthem Behold, O God our Defender. The organ voluntary will be Wesley's Choral Song.

Monday 13th May 2013, St. Paul's Cathedral, 5pm
Evensong with the Choir of Somerville College, Oxford
Conductor: David Crown
Organists: Douglas Knight, Robert Pecksmith

Having sung at last year’s Accession Day Service as part of the celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee, the Choir of Somerville College will be returning to St. Paul’s to sing evensong at 5pm on Monday of 6th week (18th February 2013). The programme will include Noble’s Evening Service in B minor, the Radcliffe Responses and Balfour-Gardiner’s Evening Hymn. The choir will be conducted by David Crown and accompanied by organists Douglas Knight and Robert Pecksmith.

A selection of live recordings from the Accession Day service at St. Paul's Cathedral has just been uploaded to our YouTube channel:

Ralph Vaughan Williams: O taste and see 
Kate Piddington (soprano), Robert Peckmith (organ)

Charles Villiers Stanford: Magnificat in G
Tal Katsir (soprano), Douglas Knight (organ)

Charles Villiers Stanford: Nunc Dimittis in G
​Stephen O'Driscoll (baritone), Robert Pecksmith (organ)