Summer 2006 - Summer 2007
The Schola featured in an article in the April 2006 edition of Adoremus which can be read online via the choir’s website www.scholacantorum.co.uk. The Summer Term was marked by the three great Feasts of Ascension, Corpus Christi and Saints Peter & Paul. As two of these feasts have been moved to Sundays, we sadly no longer have the opportunity to sing some of the greatest works in their proper liturgical contexts. The Summer Concert included Holst’s challenging setting of the Nunc dimittis which was a fitting text to mark the sad moment as we bid farewell to an extraordinary Upper Sixth: these boys were some of the best singers and musicians we have known – the ‘Class of 06’ will be remembered for some time.
Michaelmas Term included some of our regular fixtures such as the Annual Mass for the Papal Knights at Warwick Street, the St Cecilia Concert, Speech Day and our Advent visit to Nazareth House. In addition we were invited to sing Capitular Mass at Westminster Cathedral while the Cathedral Choir was abroad, and we also sang at the opening of Towards Advent, the Festival of Catholic Culture. The Carol Service at Our Lady of Victories was particularly splendid and featured a number of new carols including Chanson Joyeuse de Noël, a beautiful but difficult piece made all the more complicated by the French text. On top of the other seasonal engagements such as Carols at the Oriental Club and the Dorchester, some of the boys joined forces with Brompton Oratory’s Junior Choir to sing in the Royal Ballet’s annual Christmas production of the Nutcracker at Covent Garden.
The Schola’s tour of Barcelona and Montserrat during the Lent Term is described elsewhere in these pages by the School Chaplain. The Schola sang at the annual Altar Servers’ Mass at Westminster Cathedral and performed Mendelssohn’s Lauda Sion with orchestra at St John’s, Smith Square as part of the Easter Concert. The choir’s long association with composer Colin Mawby resulted in a new commission, Wolves and Lambs, which we premiered at his 70th birthday concert at St Magnus the Martyr, arranged by former Vaughan parents Jonathan and Frances Palmer. The Schola sang Mawby’s most famous piece, Ave verum, as an encore which Colin kindly agreed to conduct. I was so glad that he did; it was a memorable and moving moment for us all.
During the Summer Term some of the trebles sang at a wedding at Sacred Heart, Wimbledon, and the Schola sang two settings of Tu es Petrus by Palestrina and Duruflé along with Widor’s double choir Mass to mark the Feast of Saints Peter & Paul. I was interviewed about my work with the Schola for the Catholic satellite channel EWTN in a feature which will be transmitted at a later date. At the time of writing, the Schola has been invited to sing High Mass in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, in November 2007.
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