Press Pack | london-oriana-choir

London Oriana Choir Press Pack

last updated May 2020

Choir biography

The London Oriana Choir is one of Britain’s leading choral groups and one of the most exciting and versatile in London. Founded in 1973, and under the baton of Dominic Ellis-Peckham since 2013, the choir has gone from strength to strength, performing music from classical baroque to classic rock at venues such as the O2 Arena, St Martin-in-the-Fields
and the Royal Albert Hall, with broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and Classic FM.

The Choir’s repertoire is broad, ranging from the great choral and orchestral works by Verdi, Brahms, Mozart, Handel and Bach to contemporary commissions. A cappella music is sung in many languages and in all styles from early Renaissance to the present day, from secular to sacred, classical to jazz and including popular and folk music from around the world. The Choir is often accompanied by professional orchestras and has performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Brandenburg Sinfonia and the London Mozart Players.

The Choir has also worked with some of the world’s leading artists including Sir Thomas Allen, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Robert Plant, and Barbra Streisand at the London O2 Arena. In July 2015, the choir performed in the world première of Pete Townshend’s ‘Classic Quadrophenia’ with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Alfie Boe at the Royal Albert Hall to critical acclaim, as well as recording the piece for release on Deutsche Grammophon.

In April 2016, the Choir launched five15 (www.five15.org), a five year programme to promote women composers through commissioning fifteen new works, concert programming, workshops, recordings and other activities. Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Rebecca Dale and Jessica Curry were the first three composers-in-residence; and Anna Disley-Simpson won the competition for young women composers to become composer-in-residence for the 2019/20 season.

The Choir was honoured to be invited to perform the moving piece 'The End of All Things' by Jessica Curry at the opening of the BAFTA Games awards at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in April 2019, which was streamed live worldwide. Lower voices from the Choir appeared with Madonna on international television during the Eurovision Song Contest Final in Tel Aviv in May 2019. At the end of that month the Choir enjoyed a successful tour to Rome singing at Sunday Morning Mass in St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, and at a joint concert with Coro dell'Aventino.