The Queen's College Record 2020

Reports and College Activities
Howells, Bernard Rose, Kenneth Leighton and David Bednall), and a concert of music
contemporary with the completion of the new chapel, by Bach and Handel. For the
performance of Handel’s coronation anthem Zadok the Priest the current choir was
joined by a large number of previous choir members, producing an absolutely thrilling
effect. The instrumental ensemble for this concert was the Oxford-based Instruments
of Time and Truth, with whom the choir again collaborated for a concert performance
of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 in Hilary term.
In the final week of Michaelmas term the choir gave a concert of Christmas music at
Great Milton, in the series hosted by Raymond Blanc’s hotel and restaurant Le Manoir
aux Quat’Saisons. There followed a performance of Handel’s Messiah to a capacity
audience in the University Church, which was also the choir’s first performance
with the Academy of Ancient Music, one of the world’s leading period-instrument
ensembles. A CD recording project with this ensemble, scheduled for June, was
postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the pandemic also of course led
to the cessation of choral services, but the choir came together during Trinity term to
make a virtual-choir recording of Brahms’s Geistliches Lied (bit.ly/choir-brahms).
The choir’s recording of Christmas music by Michael Praetorius and modern
composers, and featuring Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, was issued as the cover CD
of the December 2019 issue of BBC Music Magazine, and a BBC Radio 3 recording
of Choral Evensong (recorded in Michaelmas term) was broadcast in March 2020
to mark International Women’s Week. All the music on the broadcast, including the
psalms hymn, and organ voluntary, was by women composers, including Judith
Bingham, Roxanna Panufnik, Rebecca Clarke, Cecilia McDowall and Ethel Smyth.
Particular thanks go to our Senior Organ Scholar, Laurence John, who has given three
years of excellent service to the choir, chapel and College.
College Record 2020 | The Queen’s College 51