We are delighted to announce a very special concert in the college chapel at 7pm on Tuesday 8th March 2016 followed by a drinks reception.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750):
Johannes-Passion, BWV 245

The Choir of Somerville College, Oxford
Soloists: Nick Pritchard (Evangelist/tenor), Giles Underwood (Jesus/bass), Robyn Allegra Parton (soprano), Katie Jeffries-Harris (alto)
Orchestra led by Bojan Čičić
Conductor: Benjamin Goodson

The concert features some of the best Baroque players in the country, who play in the Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and others. We have a professional line up of soloists, and also one of the college’s most talented young singers Katie Jeffries-Harris, who will sing the alto arias.

There will be no charge for the evening but there will be a retiring collection.
Tickets will not be required, but if you definitely plan to come it would help us very much with numbers if you could let us know by emailing carys.miller@some.ox.ac.uk.

A message from the Principal:

I am delighted to announce that Benjamin Goodson is joining Somerville as our new Director of Chapel Music, in succession to David Crown who has moved on after eight very successful years at Somerville.

Ben is a gifted musician and experienced choir conductor.   He studied originally at Hertford College and quickly built up an impressive career, as – among other  posts – music director of the Bath Camerata and (his most recent appointment) chorus master at the Dorset Opera Festival.  His biography can be found here.  Ben will be spending a few days each week in college.  He has already carried out the auditions for choral scholars, and will be sending out a notice very shortly to invite people to audition for the college choir.  I know he has exciting plans, and I look forward very much to hearing the choir go on from strength to strength under his leadership.

Please join me in welcoming Benjamin Goodson to Somerville.

With all best wishes,

Alice Prochaska

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 Smith) 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)

Full programmes of all our six concerts and services in America are now available for download from the tour page.

On Thursday at 1:15pm Robert Smith (Organ Scholar) will be playing a recital on the brand-new Dobson organ at Merton Chapel. His programme will feature works by Bach, Duruflé, Vierne, Pärt and Sousa. See the Facebook event page for further details.

One day later (Friday at 1:15pm) he will be playing a piano recital at Somerville College Chapel as part of Somerville Music Society's lunchtime recital series.

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 Smith's arrangement of Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever, a preview of the choir's upcoming US tour.

In the first week of July we will be going on our most ambitious foreign tour so far: We will be performing three full-length evening concerts, two services and one organ recital in churches and cathedrals in Washington D.C., Delaware and Massachusetts.

Details of all our performances in the USA are now listed on the tour page. Full programmes and publicity material will be added to the page over the course of the next few weeks.

The concerts and services will feature 20 members of the Choir of Somerville College, David Crown (conductor) and Robert Smith (organist).

This US tour, which we have been organising since last summer, was made possible by the generous support of Somerville College and our friends.