{"id":16,"date":"2012-02-24T16:48:40","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T16:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/norwichsingers.org.uk\/?page_id=16"},"modified":"2019-09-02T14:48:42","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T14:48:42","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.norwichsingers.org.uk\/?page_id=16","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our History<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Norwich Singers were formed by Roy Henton in 1954. We competed successfully in major music festivals at Cambridge, Bedford and London. Under the late Fred Firth’s direction from 1959, we expanded our repertoire and developed associations with television and well-known artists such as Julian Bream.<\/p>\n

From 1959 Dennis Johnson directed us until he retired in 1996. Colin Goodchild took over in 1996 and was succeeded in 2002 by Michael Cudby. Howard Rooke took over in 2009 and Jason Lambert has been our Musical Director since 2012.<\/p>\n

The Singers Today<\/strong><\/h3>\n

We have given many concerts in Norwich and the surrounding area, often inviting local soloists and orchestras to join us at venues throughout the county.<\/p>\n

Notably we gave the first performance in Norfolk of John Rutter’s Requiem, a major work by a modern composer, in conjunction with the locally-based orchestra at Pulham Market, and in 2018 we believe we were the first choir to perform the Pankhurst Anthem, commissioned by Radio 3 to celebrate 100 years since women started to gain the vote, in the East Anglian region.<\/p>\n

In 2007, the Norwich Singers were chosen to support Aled Jones in a concert in Kings Lynn.<\/p>\n

There have been some memorable performances of favourite works such as Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Schubert Masses, Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C, Handel’s Judas Maccabeus, Acis and Galatea, and Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Faure’s Requiem. We perform songs from the long \u00a0history of English song, ranging \u00a0from madrigals to \u00a0the songs of John Rutter. Recently we have broadened our horizons further by performing songs from West End, Broadway and film musicals. The list of recent concerts below demonstrates the depth and breadth of music that the Norwich Singers enjoy performing.<\/p>\n

Much of the music we use is borrowed from the Norfolk Music Library whose service we much appreciate.<\/p>\n

Officers of the Norwich Singers <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Musical Director: Jason Lambert<\/p>\n

Chairperson: Suzanne Long<\/p>\n

Accompanist: Matthew Bond<\/p>\n

Secretary: Ursula Franklin<\/p>\n

Treasurer: Eric Steward<\/p>\n

Recent Concerts<\/strong><\/h3>\n

13 July 2019<\/strong> 2019 is the 65th Anniversary of the founding of the Norwich Singers. To celebrate the choir’s summer concert, at Chapel Field Methodist Church, comprised a varied selection of choral music.\u00a0All the pieces performed at this concert were chosen by the choir and are either favourites that the choir have performed over the years, or personal favourites. Once again we were delighted to welcome Hannah Long as our soloist.<\/p>\n

29 June 2019<\/strong> The Norwich Singers were delighted to give an evening concert at the Parish Church of St Andrew, Stokesby, in aid of Church funds.\u00a0On a glorious summer evening the audience were able to enjoy a mix of secular and sacred music, ranging from Mozart and Faur\u00e9 to Rutter and Tavener. This was interspersed with instrumental interludes from our accompanist Matthew Bond and music director Jason Lambert and members and friends of the choir.<\/p>\n

13 April 2019<\/strong> The Norwich Singers present a varied selection of Classical choral music at their successful Spring Concert held as usual at Chapel Field Road Methodist Church.\u00a0The concert opened with two excerpts from Handel’s Messiah: Behold the Lamb of God and If God be for us. There followed a\u00a0performance of Haydn’s Little Organ Mass. This was followed by\u00a0JH Maunder’s Olivet to Calvary, and the\u00a0concert concluded with two more excerpts from Handel’s Messiah: I Know that my Redeemer Liveth, and the great final chorus of Handel’s work, Worthy is the Lamb that was Slain and the Amen Chorus.<\/p>\n

15 and 18 December 2018\u00a0<\/strong>Our annual Christmas concerts in Chapel Field Road Methodist Church and How Hill in Ludham were great successes. \u00a0Both evenings told the Christmas story through carols, songs and poetry. As well as many of the well-known favourite carols, the choir performed some more modern carols and both choir and the sizeable audiences enjoyed festive nibbles at both concerts .<\/p>\n

\u00a014 July 2018<\/strong> \u00a0 This was a special concert to commemorate the ending of the first world war one hundred years ago. The Rt Hon Lord Mayor of Norwich attended as well as representatives from the armed forces. Our performance included hymns, wartime songs and last night of the proms favourites.\u00a0 Notably we were the first amateur choir to perform The Pankhurst Anthem which was written by Lucy Pankhurst, great granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst.<\/p>\n

17 March 2018 \u00a0<\/strong>Our Spring concert at Chapel Field Methodist Church comprised 400 years of song from the UK. The evening covered all types of song from madrigals to twentieth-century ‘new classics’, all of which were enthusiastically received by our audience.<\/p>\n

16 and 19 December 2017<\/strong>\u00a0 Our\u00a0 Christmas concerts at Chapel Field Methodist Church in Norwich and at How Hill Trust\u00a0 in Ludham were once again well attended, both with festive nibbles during the interval.\u00a0We had plenty of support from good audiences on both occasions to join in the carols.<\/p>\n

15 July 2017\u00a0 <\/strong>Our Summer 2017 concert at Chapel Field Methodist Church celebrated French choral music and comprised Faur\u00e9’s Requiem and Poulenc’s Gloria \u2013two distinctly different pieces, one well-known in the English concert hall, whilst the other perhaps deserves to be more widely heard.\u00a0 In addition, Hannah Long performed songs composed by Poulenc, and a piano duet by the same composer, which was performed by our pianist Matthew Bond and our Musical Director Jason Lambert.<\/p>\n

29 April 2017\u00a0 <\/strong>Our Spring concert at Chapel Field Methodist Church in Norwich was a very relaxed and well-received affair covering many well-known show tunes, enjoyed by a large and responsive audience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our History The Norwich Singers were formed by Roy Henton in 1954. We competed successfully in major music festivals at Cambridge, Bedford and London. Under the late Fred Firth’s direction from 1959, we expanded our repertoire and developed associations with television and well-known artists such as Julian Bream. From 1959 Dennis Johnson directed us until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-16","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.norwichsingers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.norwichsingers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.norwichsingers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.norwichsingers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.norwichsingers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.norwichsingers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":522,"href":"https:\/\/www.norwichsingers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions\/522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.norwichsingers.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}