Beaufort Singers
20 October , 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
£1.50 – £20.00
St Peter’s Church, Stockbridge, SO20 6EU
Hail, Gladdening Light!
Sacred music from the English renaissance to the present day
On 20 October, The Beaufort Singers will give a concert in St Peter’s Church, Stockbridge in an atmospheric programme of unaccompanied choral music.
Beginning with the music of John Tavener, whose death 10 years ago is being marked this year, The Beaufort Singers will journey through music across the centuries, using the texts of Compline to dwell on themes of light and darkness, life and death, prayer and praise. Works by Harris, Mendelssohn and Rachmaninov, as well as by living composers Neil Cox, Cecilia McDowall and Owain Park make for a rich tapestry of music which ends with Charles Wood’s famous setting of ‘Hail, gladdening light’.
The Beaufort Singers is a chamber choir formed at the University of Cambridge in 2016 under the direction of Joseph Wicks. Named after Lady Margaret Beaufort who founded St John’s College, Cambridge, the choir often focuses on 20th and 21st century choral music, and amongst its seminal projects were performances of James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words From The Cross and Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil. It is also passionate about investing in the future of choral music and has commissioned new works from composers such as Neil Cox, Piers Kennedy and Owain Park.
The singers are some of the very finest the UK has to offer and who sing with groups such as Monteverdi Choir, The Sixteen, The Gesualdo Six and Tenebrae. Many have connections to the local area: Joseph Wicks is a former Salisbury chorister and son of Ian & Elizabeth Wicks who lived and worked in Salisbury for many years. Joseph’s sister Rosanna is one of the sopranos, herself a former Salisbury chorister. Lucy Cox also hails from Salisbury and has given many concerts locally as part of Sansara, and even closer to home are Simon Grant and Susie Hill. Susie lived in Stockbridge and went to school here, and Simon started his singing career as a chorister in Romsey Abbey.
