EASTER CONCERT

Published: 05 February 2024

   

Faure’s Requiem & Cantique de Jean Racine

 

Organist: Jonathan Clinch - Royal Academy of Music
Soprano Soloist: Lydia Bruton
Baritone Soloist: Michael Ferguson

 

Last performed by The Brackley Jubilee Choir in 2015, Faure’s Requiem & The Cantique de Jean Racine are amongst the most widely performed choral works, with Fauré's Requiem generally considered the composer's greatest achievement. Written in memory of his father and first performed in Paris in 1888, this magnificent work is admired for its clarity, balance, serenity, and ethereal beauty, and enjoys tremendous popularity with concert goers and lovers of sacred music everywhere.

Chair of Brackley Jubilee Choir, Auriel Warwick said: “Our Easter concert is a tribute to Faure and Bruckner, whose anniversaries take place this year. The music we’re singing is beautiful and so accessible to those on the threshold of ‘classical’ music.”

Jonathan Clinch is an organist and academic specialising in British Music and culture of the 19th and 20th Century. He holds the post of Lecturer in Academic Studies at Royal Academy of Music, having previously been Frank Bridge Research Fellow at the Royal College of Music and OCVE Research Associate at Cambridge University. He teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in British music and culture.

Lydia Bruton is a young soprano from Coventry, who recently graduated from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, studying under the guidance of local Brackley musician and Associate Head of Vocal and Operatic Studies Jonathan Gunthorpe and outside of conservatoire, Stephanie Windsor-Lewis.

Scottish baritone, Michael Ferguson, studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under the tutelage of Scott Johnson. He continued his education at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama studying the Artists Masters degree first under Robert Dean and then jointly under Robert Dean and Marcus Van den Akker.
In acknowledgment of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Austrian composer and organist Anton Bruckner, this concert programme will also include a selection of choral pieces from Bruckner’s expansive catalogue of sacred music, to complete an evening of engaging and varied music – sure to please both regular and new audience members from the growing Brackley and District community.

Diary note: Saturday 23rd March 2024 @ 7.30pm, Easter Concert at St Peter’s Church, Church Road, Brackley. NN13 7BB. Tickets: £12.00. Available in advance via a Choir member or at the door.

Web Site: http://www.brackleyjubileechoir.co.uk/  

Brackley Jubilee Choir is a mixed voice choir based in Brackley, Northamptonshire. The choir was originally formed in 1977 to celebrate the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee, and over the past 45+ years has built an enviable reputation of successfully performing a range of challenging sacred music, classical, modern and musical theatre concerts. The choir rehearses every Tuesday 7.30 p.m. to 9.15 p.m. during school term time at the Baptist Church, Waynflete Close, Brackley, NN13 6AE. New members are always welcome to join us at our rehearsal evenings from 9th January 2024.