Univ Record 2018

From the Director of Music
The 2017/18 academic year has been a productive one for
musicians at Univ. The College Music Society, UCMS,
has been active staging the ever-popular open mic nights
in the bar, and arranging for Univ musicians to perform
in Master’s Lodgings Concerts. The guest speaker at
the UCMS dinner was James Boyd, a violist, chamber
musician, and teacher. He was a founding member of the
London Haydn Quartet and is a member of the Raphael
Ensemble. He was able to sum up for our musicians
the joy of making music; concentrating not so much
on the “how”, but on the “why” of this most visceral of
artistic endeavours. His words served as an inspiration to
everyone present.
The Chapel Choir has had a particularly busy year. It started with the tall task of
learning William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast. The Choir was invited to sing this after our
Director of Music, Giles Underwood was booked to sing the baritone solo. The concert
celebrated the 40th anniversary of The Oxford ProMusica Singers, a group for whom
Giles has sung solos many times. This jamboree took place in the Oxford Town Hall at
the beginning of November 2017, with full orchestra, and was a significant departure
for a chapel choir such as ours to undertake. The choir rarely gets to sing music of this
grandeur, and never with a chorus of over 100! They gained a great deal of experience
which they were able to bring back to the choir stalls.
Also in November, the ladies of the choir sang a concert featuring Benjamin Britten’s
Ceremony of Carols; a piece The Director of Music has always wanted to do at Univ. The
strength of the upper voices in our choir suited this amazing set of pieces and we are
lucky enough to have our own harpist, second-year classicist, Rosie Von Spreckelsen
(2016, Classics) to accompany. This concert took place in the church of St Mary-at-Hill
in the City of London, but more about that venue later.
Having learned and performed Ceremony of Carols, we were able to include a number
of its movements in our Advent and Christmas carol services. This gave these events
a different feel than in past years and the presence of the harp in the chapel added
enormously to the atmosphere.
After Christmas, the Choir joined forces with The Martlet Ensemble to sing an
evening of Bach Cantatas for Epiphany. We were joined by soloists Claire Booth, Lucy
Ballard, James Oxley and Johnny Herford, and it was wonderful to see the Chapel so
full. The next major event in the Choir’s diary was a tour to Paris in April, helped in
large part by OM William fforde (1975, Classics) and run by our organ scholars, Alice
Habisreutinger (2015, History) and Stella Kremer (2015, PPE). This was a great success,
both musically and socially. The Choir was invited to sing services at the American
Cathedral and La Madeleine, and gave a private concert at the home of Monsieur Oliver
Godard. As soon as they were back in the country, there were rehearsals for their next
concert, on April 14, in St Martin-in-the-Fields. This performance was part of the
Brandenburg Choral Festival of London, and on the back of its popularity, Univ has
been asked to give another in 2019.
All this, as well as the normal run of weekly services in the Chapel!
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