News

In the first of our Artist Spotlight posts, we feature pianist Alexander Soares!

Pianist Alexander Soares will perform on Saturday 4th September at 2.30pm in Isolation Songbook. We can’t wait to welcome him to accompany Helen Charlston and Michael Craddock in the hugely successful lockdown-inspired programme.

A BBC Music Magazine Rising Star in 2021, pianist Alexander Soares has garnered a reputation as an authoritative soloist, sensitive collaborator, and dynamic recording artist. Praised for his performances of “huge intensity” (The Telegraph) and “diamond clarity and authority” (BBC Radio 3), he launched his career after winning the Gold Medal in the prestigious Royal Overseas League Competition. He was subsequently selected as a solo artist by City Music Foundation – he has performed in major venues and festivals, with regular broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, FranceMusique, WDR, SWR2 and RTP. In 2019 he signed with Rubicon Classics to release his debut solo album Notations & Sketches. Praised for its captivating programme — the piano solo works of Boulez, Dutilleux and Messiaen — the disc was selected as ‘Editor’s Choice’ by Gramophone Magazine (May 2019) and received widespread critical acclaim as “a stunning album” (FranceMusique) with playing of “style and sophistication” (BBC Music Magazine). His second CD – Threnodies – features piano works by Bridge, Britten, Berg and Ravel and was released in June 2021. Alexander has also recorded for KAIROS and Delphian Records. He combines a busy and varied performing schedule with doctoral supervision at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and research of musical memorisation. www.alexander-soares.com

Grab your tickets to Isolation Songbook here!

We’re delighted that Christopher Robinson, one of the foremost choir trainers in the UK, is visiting the Boxgrove Choral Festival as our special guest conductor!

It’s a particular joy to welcome Christopher to Boxgrove thanks to some lovely links back to different stages of his illustrious career in church music.

Festival Director Joseph Wicks first met Christopher whilst at St John’s College, Cambridge. A Fellow and former Director of Music at St John’s, Christopher’s legacy in Cambridge is still deeply felt to this day, and he regularly comes to college to hear his old choir singing in chapel services.

Before coming to St John’s, Christopher was Organist & Choirmaster at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle where he ran a very fine choir indeed, week in week out, and also on some televised services attended by Her Majesty The Queen. It was here that Vicar of Boxgrove Priory, Ian Forrester, encountered Christopher for the first time, working with him in his role as Succentor to draw up music lists and the like.

So, in welcoming him, we are not only ending our Festival with a thrilling honour, but also enabling a lovely reunion or two!

Christopher will conduct the joint forces of The Beaufort Singers & Boxgrove Priory Choir at Mass on Sunday 5th September in the final Te Deum by Vaughan Williams.

The service will be live-streamed, starting at 11am, with the setting of the Mass in G minor by Vaughan Williams also being performed by The Beaufort Singers. We hope you can join us either online or in person for what promises to be a special moment to end the 2021 Festival!  

It really has been far too long. The Boxgrove Choral Festival is returning this year!

The dates for your diary are 2-5 September, and we couldn’t be more excited to be planning concerts, services and recitals once again. Ticket details will appear on this website in the not too distant future, so watch out for the links coming soon!

Now would be a good time to join our mailing list so we can keep you informed as things go live. We can’t wait to share more!

We were so looking forward to meeting in August 2020 at Boxgrove once again. Sadly, it wasn’t to be, due to the uncertainties at the time with the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic. We send our best wishes to our wonderful audience in Sussex.

In place of the cancelled festival, we put together a virtual performance of ‘Keep me as the apple of an eye’ by Neil Cox. A real festival favourite, we thought this to be the obvious choice as we marked the moment we were to have met.

Please do get in contact if you’d like to support us as we work towards an exciting future.

Watch this space for news of 2021’s festival!

We have recently released two new videos on social media.

The first was a live snippet from the Boxgrove Choral Festival. Bring us, O Lord God by William Harris opened our second ever concert back in 2017, and we sang it in the Festival Concert as well as at the end of our service of Compline, from which this excerpt is taken. You can see in the corner of the shot members of the congregation holding candles – some 50 people came to the service, and we were able to give everyone a candle. The candlelight leant the service a special atmosphere and contributed a particularly long lasting memory of the occasion.

We also released a video which commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the November armistice that ended the First World War. Owain Park’s ‘For the Fallen’ was written for us in November 2016 and was first performed at our inaugural concert.

The text is by Lawrence Binyon, set famously by other composers as well as being adopted by the Royal British Legion as it’s Exhortation for ceremonies of Remembrance to commemorate the fallen of all conflicts.

Welcome to our new website!

We are hugely grateful to Owain Park for setting it up for us. It was then over to me to tinker away with the look of the site and its content which has kept me busy over half term, and no doubt it will continue to grow over the next few weeks. Keep looking out for little enhancements here and there!

Work behind the scenes on lots of things go on thanks to my wonderful colleagues Susie and Simon, and I hope very much to be able to share news of our recent work in due course. Exciting times lie ahead!

JW