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Get those diaries out now! Booking is open for our Come and Sing day with Bob Chilcott. Join us on Saturday 2nd November at St John’s Church, Glastonbury (BA6 9DR) from 9.30 to 4.30. Tickets are £25, or £15 for accompanied under 18s and those in full-time education. Music hire is included in the ticket price. Repertoire on the day will include ‘Little Jazz Mass’, ‘Mary, Mother’ (a new Christmas sequence) and more!

Chilcott Come and Sing

Follow the link to book online – further details to come.
https://www.trybooking.com/uk/events/landing/53478

Swans Unmuted

Our first outing since COVID-19 struck and prevented us gathering to rehearse, at St. Cuthbert’s Church in Wells, on September the 18th, was an emotive occasion. The programme had been voted on by choir members from material which we had been able to access in a Zoom moderated home karaoke fashion. In addition, our conductor commissioned a work by Ian Assersohn to mark and celebrate the return of some degree of new normality.

We opened the concert with the world premiere of Ian’s composition, aptly named ‘After’. Much of the music chosen felt as if it captured some of the depth of feeling felt during Lock-down – we sang of the desolation of Jerusalem, and a prayer for forgiveness. The concert moved us and the audience through some very rich musical scenery, culminating in the second performance of ‘After’. There were many moist eyes and lumps in the throat. For this writer at least, it must go down in memory as an extremely moving occasion, and one not easily forgotten.

By kind permission of the composer, a live recording of that second performance of ‘After’, written by Ian Assersohn and sung by the Swan Singers, can be found at his web site:

https://www.appletreemusic.net/listen

Nuts in May

After last year’s prohibition of a real trip down and up Ebbor Gorge for madrigals, coffee and cake, a socially distanced small-group version took place in 2021.

A chance find of a willow statue provided this photo opportunity – too good to be missed!

The conductors!

Nothing daunted..

Despite COVID restrictions the Swans have continued to sing together via Zoom. Of late we have been rehearsing items for our virtual choir concert in place of our traditional Carols and Cake Concert.

The Christmas spirit was very much in evidence during our final rehearsal, as the screenshot shows!

Screenshot of rehearsal

Wells Bishop’s Palace 14th December 2019

The Swan Singers will be at the Bishop’s Palace in Wells on Saturday 14th December as part of the Christmas celebrations ‘Christmas at the Palace’.

Between 12.00 noon and 12.45 pm we will be in the Bishop’s Chapel performing some wonderful sacred Christmas music by composers old and new.

At 1.15 pm the singers will move to the Gallery to indulge in a selection of lighter Christmas musical fare, with gems such as Sleigh Ride and Have yourself a merry little Christmas, and many other seasonal favourites.

Please feel free to come and join us!

Swans on tour Yorkshire!

Swans On Tour Yorkshire 2018!!
Monday 28th May – Carlisle Cathedral (evensong)
Skempton – Preces and Responses
Howells – Magnificat and Nunc ‘Collegium Regale’
Howells – Like as the Hart

Wednesday 30th May – Giggleswick School Chapel
Bainton – And I Saw a New Heaven
Blow – Salvator Mundi
Byrd – Sing Joyfully
Finzi – Lo the Full Final Sacrifice
Gibbons – O Clap your Hands
Harris – Faire is the heaven
Howells – Like as the Hart

Ireland – Greater Love hath No Man
Parsons – Ave Maria
Philips – Ascendit Deus
Purcell – Hear my Prayer, O Lord
Purcell – I was glad when they said unto me
Stanford – Beati Quorum Via
Stanford – Coelos Ascendit Hodie
Tallis – Loquebantur Variis Linguis
Tallis – O Nata Lux de Lumine

Thursday 31st May – lunchtime informal concert with tea and cake

Farmborough Church, Three Towers Festival

Sunday 29 April 2018
Farmborough Concert as part of the Three Towers Festival.
www.threetowersfestival.org

Our programme:
Hear my Prayer, O Lord (Purcell)
Beati Quorum Via (Stanford)
O Clap your Hands (Gibbons)
Like as the Hart (Howells)
Locquebantur Variis Linguis (Tallis)
Lo the Full Final Sacrifice (Finzi)
Faire is the Heaven (Harris)
Bluebird (Stanford)
Amazing Grace (Todd)
My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land (Elgar)
Shenandoah (Wilberg)
The Mermaid (Whitworth)
Wade in the Water (Hogan)
Blue Moon (Blackwell)
Tea for Two (Gritton)
Encore: Poisoning Pigeons in the Park! (Tom Lehrer)