St
Matthew’s Choir sings Evensong at Leicester Cathedral
Saturday 9 November 2013
Friends of
St Matthew’s Music organised a Supporters coach to take
the choir, along with several members of the Friends and
congregation, to Leicester on Saturday 9 November. With
a few hours to spend in Leicester before Evensong, many
of us were interested in visiting the Richard III
exhibition – the monarch having been discovered buried
just across the road from the Cathedral. Exciting plans
are in place for the re-ordering for the building to
make way for a new tomb.
At Evensong in the Cathedral, the choir sang music by
Sanders, Sumsion and Bainton to a large congregation of
over 90 people – catching the cathedral totally by
surprise
in its size! Leicester Cathedral is not well-known
amongst the cathedrals of this country and comes with
its challenges so far as music-making is concerned: a
rather lifeless acoustic and an organ at the other end
of the building from the choir. St Matthew’s choir rose
to the challenge and gave an excellent performance in
the service, impressing the clergy and congregation
alike. It was a particular joy for our Director of Music
Stephen Moore, and his brother Tom, who was playing the
organ for us, to see so many people from Leicester turn
out to hear us. Tom was a chorister at the Cathedral and
received his first organ lessons there from the then
Assistant Organist, Geoffrey Carter. Geoffrey later took
on Stephen as a piano and organ student, and they were
delighted that he was there to see them working
together. Many thanks to all who came to support the
choir, it really makes a difference to have so many
familiar faces supporting the choir on its travels.
Here’s hoping that this trip represents the first of
quite a few of a similar nature. Through their
respective organists hearing the choir on recent
occasions we have been invited to sing at both Lincoln
Cathedral and St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, in the
near future. Watch this space for more details…!
Please do consider buying more copies of the Choir’s new
CD My Lord has come which is available priced at
£12. Now the festive season is almost upon us it would
be the perfect way to travel from Advent to Christmas as
is represented on the disc. Stephen is hopeful that the
CD will be reviewed in some national publications and
has sent it to radio stations in the hope we might get
some plays over Christmas. The CD will be on sale at the
Christmas Fayre and at each service between now and
Christmas Day, and it would be great to sell as many as
we can as we look to the possibility of another
recording project in 2014.
As we look forward to Advent and Christmas we approach
one of the busiest musical times in the year when many
schools and churches celebrate through major concerts
and services. We have lots of exciting events planned –
please visit the
Forthcoming
Musical Events page for more details.
Also planned is another evening of carol singing around
the parish close to Christmas. Whilst the date is still
to be finalised we would be delighted to see as many
people present as possible. More details will be made
available in due course, again – watch this space!
The Director of Music, Thomas Moore, is
looking to recruit BOYS from school year 4
to 7 and GIRLS from school year 5 upwards
who are keen to sing and eager to learn.