Our Newsletter

 

We have just been informed of a problem with the organ at Ripley St Thomas chapel.

This means we have had to re-locate the concert on Sunday 13 April:-

New Venue. - Lancaster Priory LA1 1 YZ

 We have also moved the start time forward slightly to allow time for audience members to find the changed venue.

Start time - 3.30 pm (was 3.00pm)

Apologies for any inconvenience.

Good afternoon all,

Just a short reminder that the choir will perform a programme of beautiful music, at the heart of which sits Duruflé’s masterpiece the Requiem, on Saturday evening in Kendal and Sunday afternoon in Lancaster.  We will be joined by Rebecca Chandler and Ian Pattinson.
It seems this glorious weather is due to break, finally,  on Sunday so if you are looking for some indoor entertainment then do join us!

Best wishes
All at Levens Choir

 

Dear Friends,

In our next pair of concerts in Kendal and Lancaster we explore the music of French composer Maurice Durufle, along with Gabriel Fauré, Estonian Arvo Pärt, and British composers Herbert Howells and Cecilia McDowall.  The centrepiece of our concerts is the stunning Durulfé Requiem, in which the composer uses Gregorian melodies as the basis for his original musical invention.  In this perfect companion piece, the Quatre Motets, Durulfé again fuses Gregorian chant with modern harmonies.  Our programme includes Cantique de Jean Racine by Fauré, the Beatitudes by Arvo Pärt, Herbert Howell's joyful Hymn for St Cecilia and Cecilia McDowall's anthem Aurea Luce.


We will be joined by mezzo-soprano Rebecca Chandler and organist  Ian Pattinson.  Rebecca, who recently graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire with First Class Honours in Music and Performance and plans to pursue postgraduate studies in music, was a member of Levens choir and a Choral Scholar for 4 years.  We look forward to welcoming her back!  Ian Pattinson, Lancaster Priory organist, is well-known as a soloist and accompanist to choirs across the region and beyond.
 

Saturday 12 April 7.30 pm
The Parish Church of St George, Castle Street, KENDAL  LA9 7AS

Sunday 13 April 3.00 pm
Ripley St Thomas CE Chapel, Ashton Road, LANCASTER  LA1 4RS
FREE parking on site

Ticket £17, free to children and students, are available online levenschoir.net , on the door (subject to availability) and from choir members.  We hope to see you at one of these performances.  Please do share this message with others who may be interested.

This will be our first concert in the chapel of Ripley St Thomas, where the organ by Wilkinsons of Kendal underwent a complete refurbishment last year.

These concerts are dedicated to the memory of Margaret Jones, an important member of Levens Choir, who died in December last year.  With her husband Ian, our first Music Director, Margaret was key to establishing the choir in 1975, and until  just a few years ago was an active member of the choir, contributing to it musically and supporting Ian in countless ways.  The choir was honoured to sing at Margaret's funeral.
 

 

Dear Friends,

Welcome to Levens Choir's new season.  We have managed to squeeze several additional concerts, now seven in total, into our calendar,  meaning a busy year ahead.  And a special year.  We begin in October in Silverdale with a celebration of English partsongs from the 19th century to the present, and we finish with a double concert in July next year (in Warton and in Windermere) celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Levens Choir.  Between these bookends,  in December we will present seasonal music and in April Durufle's Requiem and other delights.

2024

Sunday 20 October at 3.00 pm.
St John's Church, Silverdale

"My love dwelt in a northern land"

The genre of English Partsongs is overdue a popular rehabilitation.  Somewhat unfashionable today, partsongs are often described (not always charitably) as ‘Victoriana’ and all-too-easily dismissed as lightweight and saccharine.  Levens Choir has championed this music for many years.  As the music in this concert will demonstrate however, in the hands of the finest composers, partsongs have the potential to be profoundly moving, melding music and poetry as successfully as any other form of vocal music.   Our programme includes pieces by Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Holst, three sacred motets by Stanford, partsongs by his pupil Arthur Somervell and by the contemporary composer Phillip Cooke.  

Tickets £15 available on-line at levenschoir.net at the door or from choir members.  Children and student tickets free

 

Saturday 15 December 7.30 pm
Holy Trinity Church, Bolton-le-Sands
AND
Sunday 16 December 3.00 pm
Carver Church, Windermere 

"Now may we singen"

A programme of seasonal music, old and new, including McDowall and Howells. 


Dates for your diary 2025

Saturday 12 April 7.30 pm
St George's Church, Kendal
AND
Sunday 13 April 3.00 pm
Ripley St Thomas Academy, Lancaster

Duruflé Requiem, Fauré Cantique de Jean Racine, plus works for choir and organ by Pärt, McDowall and Howells

Saturday 5 July 7.30 pm
St Oswald's Church, Warton, Carnforth
AND
Tuesday 8July 7.30 pm
Carver Church, Windermere

*Levens Choir 50th Anniversary concerts*


We hope to welcome you at one or more of these events


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Dear Friends
 

Please find below information on the last concert of this season.

SUNDAY 7th July at 3.00 pm
St Oswalds Church, Warton LA5 9PG

"A Romantic Journey"

In this programme, we will explore the music of Bruckner, Brahms and Rheinberger.

In the nineteenth century classical music shed many of its more formal structures and highlighted the richness of harmonic composition and its emotional content.  In this concert we perform the work of two composers famous for their writing of large scale orchestral works, notably their symphonies. Yet both Anton Bruckner, who was born 150 years ago this year, and Johannes Brahms also wrote sublime choral music and much of this was for small settings and a capella.  Under the direction of Gawain Glenton, we explore some familiar and some novel pieces by both composers and also perform three pieces by Josef Rheinberger, who was born in Liechtenstein, but who spent all his working life in what became the unified country of Germany. All three composers wrote sublime choral harmonies.  This is nineteenth century romantic music at its best.

Tickets £15, free to students and children, are available from choir members and on-line at levenschoir.net

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Feedback on Vivaldi: The Red Priest concerts

For this project we brought a group of locally-based musicians together with 3 leading baroque players, including the dazzling soloist and leader Kinga Ujszászi.   Thus "South Lakes Baroque" was born!   As well as usual rehearsal time, the group enjoyed a day's workshop with Kinga and Gawain.  The feedback from our local players on this experience has been overwhelmingly positive.   Some of our players who had come late to period instrument playing, learned much about baroque style and technique - described as a "masterclass" by one - whilst others with a background in baroque playing were grateful for this chance to dust off their baroque bows - it seems such opportunities are few in our area - and to engage in a challenging project..    The project was described variously as exhilarating, a privilege, exhausting, exciting, inspirational, inclusive.  One player said

“I think that we all, singers and instrumentalists alike, did a grand job of communicating the excitement, drama and varied emotions of Vivaldi's music to the audiences, with the inspirational guidance and leadership of Gawain and Kinga"

Our players showed a keen appetite for more, so do watch this space for future outings of "South Lakes Baroque"!

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Please feel free to share this newsletter with friends and acquaintances.  We hope to see you in Warton.

Hello subscribers,

We have a pair of concerts coming up in April.

Dear Friends

We are delighted to bring you details of our new programme for 2023/2024.  Check out our website and Facebook page for updates.  Please do pass on this newsletter to anyone who may be interested in our events.

2023

December Sunday 10 December 7.30 pm at Carver Church, Lake Road, Windermere LA23 2DB
"A European Christmas" conducted by Gawain Glenton.

In this programme spanning the 16th to 20th centuries, we include music from the four corners of Europe including Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Catalonia, Spain (Cancionero de Upsala), France, Venice, and Ukraine.   Featuring well-known names and some less familiar  - Sweelink, Praetorius, Gabrieli, Nordqvist, Grieg, Rachmaninov, and Poulenc (Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël) - our linguistic skills are about to be stretched to the limit as the choir will sing in 7 languages (not simultaneously obviously and excluding English!).  This is a hugely varied programme full of contrasts.
Tickets £15.

2024

March Saturday 30th 4 pm St John's Church Silverdale. LA5 0RH

"Tenebrae": Music for Holy Saturday.  Conducted by Gawain Glenton.

A short concert (45 minutes) of music by Gesualdo, Victoria and others.

Retiring collection.


April Saturday 27th 7.30 pm, St Thomas Church, Stricklandgate, Kendal LA9 4QG
and 
Sunday 28th 3.00 pm  Lancaster Cathedral, Balmoral Road, Lancaster  LA1 3BT

Vivaldi motets. Conducted by Gawain Glenton

The programme for these two concerts consists of a set of Vivaldi motets.  These are rarely performed and should be of great interest to those interested in early music as well as lovers of Vivaldi's music.   With a soloist and 18 piece band playing period instruments, these promise to be memorable events..  More information to follow. 



July Sunday 7th afternoon St Oswald's Church, Main Street, Warton, Carnforth  LA5 9PG

Bruckner, and Brahms.  Conducted by Gawain Glenton.

In complete contrast to our April concerts, and in celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth, we will explore the music of Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) together with compositions by his contemporary Johannes Brahms.  More information to follow.

Tickets

Tickets can be purchased on-line or at the door or from choir members.  Students and children - tickets are free.


We look forward to seeing you again at one or more of these events.   Please spread the word ...!

What the reviewers said ... recent concerts: -

July 2023 Warton.  “A virtuoso display of choral music of the highest quality”

March 2023 Grange over Sands.  “The result is homogeneous and sonorous and the audience was drawn in by the sincerity and depth of the music, sung with serious attention to detail, care with the language and committed communication.“

March 2023 Kendal.  “The ensemble at full throttle was spine tingling”

December 2022 Windermere.   “John Tavener’s The Lamb … looks innocuous but is not easy to sing, and the choir captured its beauty.”

July 2022 Kendal.  “Few amateur choirs can produce bass bottom D drones and soprano top B naturals and yet Levens managed this with consummate ease. “

April 2022 Lancaster.   “Monteverdi’s Domine ne in furore gave the choir the chance to demonstrate its skills, providing a lovely round, rich sound, helped by the sympathetic acoustics”

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Dear Subscriber

The last concert of our 2022/23 season is fast approaching.  

On Saturday 8 July at St Oswald Church, Warton, Carnforth Levens Choir will perform a programme of music by two extraordinary Elizabethans, William Byrd and Benjamin Britten.  Full of variety, beauty and interest, the programme includes many familiar pieces  such as the exquisite Mass for Four Voices, Ave Verum Corpus and Sing Joyfully by Byrd, Hymn to St Cecilia and Hymn to the Virgin by Britten, as well as other perhaps less well-known works such as Britten's Five Flower Songs and Advance Democracy.  Conductor Gawain Glenton.

We hope you will be able to join us.  The concert starts at 7.30 pm and tickets are £15 (available on line and at the door).  Please be aware that parking in Warton can be tricky, so it is advisable to arrive early.

A peek at next year's season ...

- in December we will be in Windermere with a programme of Christmas music from Europe.
 
-  we are very excited at the prospect of our April concerts.  We will perform twice, in Lancaster and Kendal,  a programme of Vivaldi motets, accompanied by a group of early music players.

Further information on the next season will be provided in the following newsletter.

Best wishes for a good summer, and thanks for your continuing support from all of us at Levens Choir!