Spring – Sunday March 22nd

Nicholas Houghton will conduct a selection of European motets at St Nicholas’ church in Brighton.

Further details will follow in the New Year.

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Our Christmas concert was a great success. The church was full with happy people all enjoying some lovely music for the season. Mulled wine and mince pies went down a storm too.

Hamish Dustagheer played the organ.

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Our summer concert in the lovely barn at Court Garden Vineyard was a sell-out success! We thoroughly enjoyed singing the gorgeous programme Liz compiled. Afterwards she told the choir ” It was quite wonderful to see you bring the programme to life. I am grateful to everyone for putting the work in – even supporting my more outrageous ideas – and performing with energy and commitment to give the audience a very enjoyable concert.” Everyone who came really did enjoy it!

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Thank you to everyone to came to the concert on Sunday March 23rd. We certainly enjoyed singing this wonderful challenging programme and we hope you all enjoyed the music.

Director Nicholas Houghton has designed a programme of beautiful and emotional music for Passiontide. Stabat Mater (Pergolesi) composed in 1736, is one of the composer’s most celebrated works, achieving great popularity after the composer’s death. Originally scored for alto and soprano soloists, this arrangement is for choir and organ. The other two works in the concert are more modern. Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence (Four Penitential Motets), are pieces composed by Francis Poulenc in 1938–39. He wrote them on texts for penitence, scored for four unaccompanied voices.  Igor Stravinsky published his Mass in 1948, prompted by his discovery of some Mozart masses in a Los Angeles second-hand bookshop. It sets the Catholic Latin text and was intended for liturgical use though it works well for concerts too.. 

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Our Christmas concert in Ditchling on December 15th was a great success. Thank you to all who came and enjoyed the lovely programme Nick put together for us.

We visit the Sussex countryside for a musical celebration of Christmas.

The Church of St Margaret of Antioch is the centrepiece of the historic village of Ditchling on the borders of East and West Sussex.

We are delighted to bring a fabulous programme of choral music to this ancient and fascinating building: https://www.beaconparish.co.uk/st-margaret-s

The concert will feature Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols with harp accompaniment. Other pieces will include favourites by Rutter, Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, Vaughan Williams, Mathias, Darke and Praetorius.

There will be audience carols for everyone to join in to raise the roof in a splendid and joyous Christmas event.

Tickets at £15 available via this link: https://www.trybooking.com/uk/EARK or on the door.

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Sunday September 29th at 10.30 am

The choir is delighted to have been invited to participate in the church’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

Solemn Mass

Directed by Nicholas Houghton

Haydn- St. Nicholas Mass, Stanford – Justorum animae, Bullock – Give us the wings of faith

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December 15th at St Margaret’s Church in Ditchling

After a very successful sold-out event at Court Garden Vineyard, the choir will commence rehearsals in September for a special concert for the Christmas season in the parish church in Ditchling. Details to follow.

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Bye, bye Blackbird

On Sunday June 30th the choir will make its annual excursion into the Sussex countryside performing in the lovely Barn at Court Garden Vineyard in Ditchling. Elizabeth Woodhouse conducts a programme of lighthearted music including a celebration of birdsong and summer jazz from the Great American Songbook.

Local group Unfenced also feature.

March 26th at St Paul’s in Brighton

Our next concert will be on Sunday March 26th at 5pm . We shall be singing in the beautiful space that is St Paul’s Church on West Street in Brighton.

The choir is enjoying preparing a glorious programme of music for the season travelling through Europe and the centuries – A Lenten Journey – Byrd to Duruflé via Bach

2023 is the 400th anniversary of the death of English composer William Byrd and in commemoration we shall sing his wonderful Mass in 5 Parts. The concert will include Antonio Lotti’s Crucifixus and JS Bach’s motet Jesu Meine Freunde. Moving through the years we will feature the motet Warum ist das Licht gegeben dem Muhseligen? by Johannes Brahms and Josef Rheinberger’s Abendlied before arriving in the early 20th century with Maurice Duruflé’s Quatre Motets.

Nick Houghton will conduct this really lovely selection of choral pieces.

Tickets may be purchased online using link https://www.trybooking.co.uk/CDEC

Into 2023

The concert on December 4th was well received by a large and appreciative audience. A few words from Nick: .

” It has been an enjoyable term of rehearsals and culminated in an excellent performance. Thank you to all our soloists in the Buxtehude and Karen in the McDowall. I heard very good comments from members of the audience who notably enjoyed the Grieg, the McDowall and then the Lauridsen. I know we all enjoyed hearing Hamish’s
organ solos, and appreciated his support and excellent playing in the
McDowall (the central section especially) and the Lauridsen.”

Rehearsals will begin in January on an exciting repertoire for our next concert on Sunday March 26th at St Paul’s church in West Street. More details to follow.

Meanwhile the choir extends best wishes to all for a lovely, merry and music-filled festive season.

A new season begins on Thursday 22 Sept 2022

Welcome back to the Brighton Singers. Our first rehearsal of the new season is at 7.30pm on Thursday 22 September in St Lawrence Church, Falmer. We shall begin work straight away on our December concert, singing Cecilia McDowall: Ave maris stella; Morten Lauridsen: Lux Aeterna and motets by Buxtehude, Gabrieli; Bruckner & Grieg.

All the scores will be available at the first rehearsal, and the new rehearsal schedule is already on this site. You will notice that each voice part will take turns attending a 7pm Sectional rehearsal, starting with the Basses on the 2nd rehearsal date. This will give us time to solve any particular issues you are having, and also allow us to work on blending of voices in each part.

Full rehearsals begin at 7.30 so please arrive in good time for that.

More TENORS!

We look like having just 4 tenors and a rather healthy number of basses this term. If you know of any good tenors who might be interested in joining us, please put them in touch with Deidre Francis.

We look forward to seeing you all on 22 September

Summer in Ditchling

On a gorgeous sunny summer’s day Liz Woodhouse presided over a really successful concert in the lovely setting of the Barn at Court Garden Vineyard set in the beautiful South Downs in Ditchling. The venue was a sell-out and the audience certainly enjoyed the programme, which had been devised by Sue Fairhurst. Both choir and musicians received enthusiastic applause.

Liz says “A huge thanks for working hard and giving this term such wholehearted support. I had a great time with you all during rehearsals, and was very touched by the wonderful commitment you all gave to the concert, which made it such a happy occasion for everyone there.”

We look forward to starting work on a new programme in the autumn in preparation for the concert conducted by Nicholas Houghton on December 4th at St Nicholas’ church in Brighton.