The concert is the first for City of London Choir (CLC) under the baton of their new Musical Director and Principal Conductor, Daniel Hyde, and the performance is also notable as being the first collaboration between Hyde’s two choirs: CLC and the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge; a partnership intended to foster new opportunities for younger choral singers including major performance platforms and a programme of mentorship providing bursaries and lessons with top vocal coaches.
YOUNG APPRENTICE BASS AND TENOR SCHEME
The City of London Choir is committed to developing the participation of young people in its performance and celebration of choral music. This concert is an opportunity for experienced singers to return to a much-loved titan of the genre with younger recruits, many of whom are singing the work for the first time.
The choir has a particular mission to recruit young tenors and basses within just a few years of the vocal changes of adolescence. The choir’s Young Apprentice Bass and Tenor Scheme (generously supported by Postlethwaite Music Foundation) aims to foster and encourage young choral tenors and basses from London schools in the maintained sector.
BURSARIES AND SINGING LESSONS WITH TOP VOCAL COACHES
The choir’s General Manager, Jenny Robinson, said: “It’s a fact of life that far fewer tenors and basses apply to join choirs than sopranos and altos. These are increasingly difficult times for music-making, and the CLC has an eye to the future in running a scheme that gives incentives to young tenors and basses to experience the joy of singing - not just rehearsing with a leading London choir week by week, but also on stage with top professional orchestras and soloists.”
Up to four bursaries per season are currently offered to aspiring young tenors and basses aged 16-23 from state schools, those on gap years and taking undergraduate degrees. Bursaries cover music costs, travel to weekly rehearsals and other expenses. In addition, the young singers receive one-to-one singing lessons with top vocal coaches.
EXPERIENCE CHORAL SINGING ON A GRAND SCALE
Musical Director and Principal Conductor, Daniel Hyde is committed to fostering a life-long love of music and singing, and to opening the doors to that experience early on for young people from a wide range of backgrounds. Reflecting on the nature of the collaboration, which he hopes will be a launchpad for new opportunities for CLC to share its platform with younger performers, Daniel Hyde said:
“Pieces like 'The Dream of Gerontius', written for big choruses and symphony orchestras, have exciting potential to create intergenerational choirs. They’re often not possible – especially in the big London venues – without bringing together several organisations. The special thing about combining two very different choirs like CLC and King’s is that it gives young people a chance to experience choral singing on a grand scale. They’re being immersed, probably for the first time, in Elgar’s rich textures and drama. It takes their chapel training into new territory. Involvement in a great work of art extends their musical, physical and emotional journey."
“It’s important to me that today’s students will feel drawn to continue music-making alongside other professional pursuits as adults – by no means a foregone conclusion in the current climate. There will never be a shortage of fine recordings of works like 'Gerontius', but right now we have a responsibility to ensure that future generations will, like the present one, want and be able to give their own great live performances.”
Hyde’s own musical career began as a chorister at Durham Cathedral; he was Organ Scholar at King’s College, Cambridge while soloist Andrew Staples was a Choral Scholar there, having previously been a boy chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral.
FUTURE PERFORMANCES
The two choirs will collaborate again in June, performing the Verdi Requiem with the BBC Concert Orchestra in King’s College Chapel. The CLC’s future performances also include the Faure Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir John Rutter, in St Giles Cripplegate, London, also in June.
The performance of Elgar's 'The Dream of Gerontius' takes place at the Royal Festival Hall, London on Thursday 13 March at 7:30pm:
Kathryn Rudge, mezzo-soprano
Andrew Staples, tenor
James Platt, bass
Daniel Hyde, conductor
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
City of London Choir
King's College Choir, Cambridge
Tickets are on sale from the Box Office:
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/the-dream-of-gerontius/