Music of Byrd, Purcell, Howells, and Vaughn Williams
The Choir of St. John’s Cambridge
Christ Church Episcopal, Broadway at Elm
The Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge, will present a program of English music in New Haven on Monday, March 23 at 8 PM at Christ Church Episcopal (Broadway at Elm). Under its recently appointed director Andrew Nethsingha, the 30-strong choir, 15 boys and 15 men, will perform music of Byrd, Purcell, Howells, and Vaughn Williams, as part of its nine-stop US tour.
St. John’s College, Cambridge was founded in 1511 and its choir, now recognized as one of the world’s finest collegiate choirs, has participated in Evensong, Sung Eucharist and Sunday-morning services at the College since the 1670s. (Among its more recent alumni is Simon Keenlyside, one of the world’s leading operatic baritones.)
The ensemble has become renowned for its brilliant and vigorous “continental sound,” unique among English cathedral choirs, and since the 1950s has been building an impressive recorded catalog for labels such as Decca/Argo, Naxos, and Hyperion. This year, it will make a live broadcast on BBC Radio 3 of Choral Evensong on Ash Wednesday (February 25th).Notable for innovation as well as tradition, the Choir is admired for its interpretations of 20th-century music and in October 2008 launched a weekly webcast of one of its services.
The concert, presented by Yale Institute of Sacred Music, is free and open to the public; no tickets are required. More information is available at 203/432-5062.