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Get all the latest West London Chamber Choir news including where they’re performing, performance dates, and other happenings in the life of a busy A Cappella Choir. For exclusive, personal updates from West London Chamber Choir you can also get in touch. Stay up to date and never miss a musical moment.
January 2024
After a successful recruitment campaign during the second half of 2023, particularly benefiting from an open rehearsal Duruflé Requiem, our numbers now stand more than 35 - a huge improvement following on from the uncertain days post-pandemic. This is enabling our Music Director, Hilary Campbell, to programme more rewarding repertoire as evidenced by an exciting programme of film music this term, culminating in our concert on Sunday 24 March at St Mary's Church, Twickenham, where there will be visual stills and free popcorn on offer!
November 2023
We were delighted to perform our winter concert on 25 November at St Mary's Church, Barnes - an atmospheric journey from Dawn to Dusk with a few surprises along the way! Featuring intriguing instruments, some unconventional staging and an appealing mixture of styles and genres of choral music including many choral favourites; Whitacre's Sleep, Rheinberger's Abendlied and Vaughan-Williams' Silent Noon to mention just a few. The finale comprised the ethereal sound of Ēriks Ešenvalds' Stars, with water-tuned glasses playing a sequence of chord clusters, which are heard throughout the whole piece creating an evocative and ethereal effect.
The year concluded with a successful carol singing outing under the famous Norwegian Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square. Our dedicated accompanist, Krystal, manged to coax sounds out of a modest keyboard which enabled us to add favourites such as
Winter Wonderland, O Holy Night, Carol of the bells and Walking in the air to some more traditional carols. A decent sum was collected in aid of the local Hampton charity, Princess Alice Hospice. The evening, rounded off by a group meal at Wildwood, Covent Garden, was such a success, that it is firmly in our sights for December 2024.
JANUARY 2023
January 7, 2023
Rehearsals recommence on Thursday 12 January at the Community Centre, St Michael & All Angels Church, Barnes. Our Spring concert on 19 March takes place on Mothering Sunday at St Mary's Church, Twickenham, and in celebration we will be concentrating on an entirely female composer programme. If you're interested in joining us do come along and try us out, particularly if you are a tenor or baritone!
AUTUMN TERM NEWS
August 8, 2022
Rehearsals recommence on Thursday 8 September at the Community Centre, St Michael & All Angels Church, Barnes. The first half of term will concentrate on a cappella repertoire with the aim of building our skills in unaccompanied singing. We are delighted that Paul Ayres - composer, arranger, music director and accompanist - will be leading this project. The project will culminate in an informal performance for family and friends during the 6th week on 13 October.
SING IN OUR SWEET LULLABY: SHAKESPEARE IN SONG
July 9, 2022
A magical evening of Shakespeare settings including Vaughan Williams part songs, atmospheric Mantyjarvi, jazzy Shearing accompanied by Richard Moore and interspersed with wonderful solos from tenor, Rob Jenkins. Congratulations to everyone who took part and bad luck to those struck down with Covid. Many thanks to All Hallows Church, Twickenham, for hosting us.
SUMMER SHAKESPEARE MAGIC
April 21, 2022
Live rehearsals are back as normal this term with a beautiful programme based on choral settings of William Shakespeare including music by Moeran, Shearing, Finzi, Vaughan Williams and the Finnish composer, Mäntyjärvi.
Our concert for this term is on Saturday 9 July at All Hallows Church, Chertsey Road, Twickenham - a new venue for the choir. Further information will follow under Events.
STEPPING INTO SPRING
January 13, 2022
It's wonderful to be back rehearsing live at our usual venue, the Community Centre at St Michael & All Angels, Barnes. As well as welcoming new members across all voice parts we are delighted to have Krystal Tunnicliffe joining us as our regular accompanist.
We are really looking forward to our forthcoming concert on 19 March: Over the Rainbow in collaboration with the Kew Gardens Choir which includes a varied programme of light choral music on the theme of colour, ranging from Byrd to Joni Mitchell, via Elgar, Vaughan Williams & Delibes. Check out Events for further information.
LIVE REHEARSALS ARE BACK
September 9, 2021
We are delighted that live rehearsals will recommence on 9 September in St Michael & All Angels Church where the larger space allows strict adherence to social distancing rules. Repertoire will be focussed on French and English works for choir and organ in preparation for our concert at King's College London Chapel on Saturday 23 October.
JUDITH WEIR RECORDING
October 21, 2020
In January, 16 altos and sopranos from Music Makers and friends joined forces with Bristol Choral Society for a recording of Judith Weir's The Big Picture for Delphian label, featuring SSAATTBB choir, piano and percussion.
Judith Weir is the current Master of the Queen’s Music and wrote The Big Picture to celebrate the completion of a major redevelopment and refurbishment to Aberdeen Art Gallery. The CD was released on Friday 25th September.