Guest choirs to look forward to in St Anne’s

Wednesday July 22nd 2015

The Choir of St Polycarps will be in St Anne’s Cathedral on August 30 at 3.30pm.

The Fitzwilliam College Chapel Choir from Cambridge University will sing choral services in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, during the week commencing Monday August 10.

This is one of a number of guest choirs who will be in St Anne’s over August. They include St Polycarp’s Choir, Finaghy, who will be in the Cathedral on August 30.

The Chapel Choir is comprised of 16 – 20 undergraduate and graduate students, both male and female. Most of the members of the choir are students at Fitzwilliam but volunteers are also drawn from other Cambridge colleges.

The choir’s main duty is to provide music for the weekly evening service, held in the award-winning College Chapel, which boasts some of the best choral acoustics in the university, singing full Choral Evensong, Communion Masses, Requiems, Carol Services, Evening Prayer and Compline across the year.

The Fitzwilliam College Choir, Cambridge University, will spend a week as Choir in Residence at Belfast Cathedral.

Fitzwilliam Chapel Choir sings several ‘joint’ services a term with other Cambridge colleges. The choir also regularly sings Choral Evensong as a visiting choir in some of England’s finest cathedrals including Ely, Peterborough, St Edmundsbury and Norwich. The choir sings an annual joint service with St Edmund’s Hall, Oxford.

The choir has undertaken several overseas tours to Italy, Spain, The Netherlands and France. Director of Music is Katharine Parton.

St Anne’s looks forward to welcoming choir members to Belfast for their week of residence in August, which will conclude on Sunday August 16.

During August, St Anne’s will welcome a number of visiting choirs. Musicus Amicos will start the month off on August 2 and return on August 23.

Musicus Amicos, founded July 2014, is a group of musical friends who sing occasionally in churches and cathedrals. They will be welcomed back to St Anne’s where they have sung in the past when the Cathedral Choir has been on holiday.

Lux, a newly-formed chamber choir, will sing at the 11am service, and possibly the 3.30pm service along with the Cathedral Choir, on Sunday August 9. The later service will be a celebration for the Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Lux, under the direction of Matthew Quinn, consists of 12 of the finest young singers from all denominations and backgrounds across Northern Ireland.

On August 30 at 11am the Cathedral welcomes some familiar faces in the form of Cantores Sancti Annae, a group made up of past members of Sopranos and the Girls’ Choir from the Cathedral.

That afternoon, at 3.30pm, St Polycarp’s Parish Choir, Finaghy, recently returned from a five day tour of Cambridge, will sing. The Choir, which sang Choral Evensong in Westminster Abbey two years ago, is directed by Simon Neill.

A warm welcome is extended to everyone at any of these August services in St Anne’s.