Following on from its highly successful 50th anniversary celebrations, London Oriana Choir once again demonstrates its diversity, depth and strength of repertoire and performance in this 2024/25 season, with music crossing centuries, continents and genres with new venues and new collaborations.
Highlights include:
An opening concert in October entitled Take Flight with music devoted to the skies amidst the stunning setting of St Paul’s Covent Garden, including a rare performance of Cecilia McDowall’s ‘Night Flight’ with award-winning cellist Gabriella Swallow.
Two December nights at the choir’s festive home of St James’s Piccadilly for Candlelight Carols, with a host of choral favourites and audience carols, including music from Sir David Willcocks, Cecilia McDowall, Errollyn Wallen and Eric Whitacre.
In January, a Come & Sing: Dido and Aeneas at St John’s Waterloo with the Creation Quartet, open to all.
In March, a performance of Bach’s seminal Mass in B Minor at a venue new for the choir, Holy Sepulchre London, the National Musicians’ Church, with the Meridian Sinfonia and in-demand soloists, including award-winning soprano Sian Dicker and bass Michael Ronan.
A final concert in July at another new venue, Cecil Sharp House, with special guests Maz O’Connor, Will Lang and Niopha Keegan, performing Four Corners, with folk stories and sounds drawn from the four nations of the United Kingdom.
Two tours, one to Oxford in November followed by Padua and Venice in May.
Commercial hires working with repeat and new collaborators.
Raising funds for the SingUp Foundation, which champions the power of singing to improve health and wellbeing for all, continuing the choir’s tradition of holding retiring collections for charities at its concerts.
Musical director Dominic Ellis-Peckham says: “Our anniversary season was a true celebration of all that London Oriana Choir has achieved over the last 50 years and we kick off our second half-century with a new programme that builds on that success with new venues, new music and old favourites.”
Highlights of the golden anniversary season included a gala concert with celebrity guests, including the two-time Grammy nominee, US singer-songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman, the release of a new album entitled Her Voice featuring music from the choir’s five15 initiative championing women composers, a collaboration with professional ensemble The Gesualdo Six and a new commission, Here Hum the Bees, from the choir’s celebrated patron Cecilia McDowall.
For further information about London Oriana Choir, its history and tickets for all its concerts, visit www.londonoriana.com
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