MER-13565 COVER 2011.indd - Merton College - University of Oxford

The Choir
The academic year of 2010-11 has been a
defi ning year for the College Choir. The
tour to the USA in April 2011 was a huge
success and we are truly grateful to our
benefactor Reed Rubin and to MC3. Our
eight appearances in Philadelphia and
New York were very well supported and
we greatly enjoyed the hospitality shown
to us by several groups of Mertonians. A
signifi cant occasion was our performance
in Wayne, Pennsylvania: we particularly
enjoyed performing with their fi ne organ,
built by Dobson Pipe Organs. It was most
appropriate that Lynn Dobson and other
members of his fi rm were able to be in
Wayne with us, so that we could announce
that it is the College’s intention that Dobson
should build the new organ for the College
Chapel, in time for the 750th anniversary
celebrations in 2014.
As I write, we are just completing a tour
of France where the choir has performed
the 40-part motets ‘Ecce Beatam Lucem’
by Striggio and ‘Spem in Alium’ by Tallis.
The choir has featured in a number of
festivals, including the concert series in
Louvie-Juzon and the Beaujolais Festival.
Although not yet released, we were able
to take our debut CD In the Beginning and
sold all the copies we had with us by the
end of the third concert. We are hoping for
such an enthusiastic response on the disc’s
release in October!
In the UK, we have visited Tewkesbury
Abbey where we sang Mass with the
Abbey’s Schola Cantorum and in November
we sang a joint service with the choir
of Selwyn College, Cambridge, in their
chapel. Concerts in our own chapel have
included a special event for the Friends
of the College Choir and our Passiontide
Festival in April 2011. This year’s festival
attracted even greater numbers than the fi rst
festival last year and the concerts by The
Tallis Scholars and Madeleine Ridd were
particularly memorable. In May, we gave
THE CHOIR NEWS
our fi rst concert for the ‘Music at Oxford’
concert series and look forward to future
collaborations.
John Tavener and Matthew Martin have
both composed music for the choir and
their pieces will form part of the Merton
Choirbook, which will be part of the 750th
anniversary celebrations.
The sung services are the focus of the
choir’s work and it has been good to attract
large congregations for some of our special
services, not least the service for All Souls
when the choir sang Mozart’s Requiem
with orchestra, to a congregation of 400.
We remain very grateful to our many
benefactors and Friends of the Choir who
help us undertake such an active programme
each year.
Benjamin Nicholas and Peter Phillips
Reed Rubin Directors of Music
POSTMASTER | 2011
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