MARCH 2024 Our Joint Concert

We had a great evening! The instrumentalists from Helston Community College were superb; brass and strings playing Gabrieli, and a brilliant young clarinettist playing Mozart. Some of the instrumentalists also joined us in two choral pieces, by Monteverdi and Pergolesi, together with four impressive choristers from Truro Cathedral who sang the tenor and bass solo parts. Soprano and alto solo parts were sung by our own Sarah, Kate, and Ruth. The choir’s stand alone piece, And I saw a New Heaven, by Edgar Bainton, was accompanied by our great friend and virtuoso organist, Michael Høeg.

We had a large and very appreciative audience – thank you to everyone who supported us all.

We were very pleased to welcome several new choir members this term, who sang with us in this concert for the first time.

JANUARY 2024 Upcoming concert with Helston Community College

We are delighted to announce that our forthcominre with singers and instrumentalists from the Helston Community College Music Department.

The programme is still being developed, but will include Pergolesi’s Magnificat, Monteverdi’s Beatus Vir, a movement from Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, and a Gabrieli piece.

DECEMBER 2023  Our new Music Director

On December 7th 2023, we had two major changes. The first, was our first rehearsal with our new MD, Martin Palmer. The second, is that our rehearsal night changed to Thursday from Tuesday.

We had a first look at two of the baroque pieces for our next concert which will be on March 23rd, 2024.
We are excited to share this performance with members of Helston College Choir – a first for both choirs.

OCTOBER 2023  Major announcement.

We are very sad to announce that our forthcoming concert on November 18th 2023 will be our last under the baton of our present Music Director, Nigel Wicken. Nigel took up the post in 2016, and we have had many successful and enjoyable concerts under his direction. We have enjoyed singing a wide range of music from Bach Cantatas and Passion to Holst arrangements of English Folk Songs, via many other genres, often including pieces by his favourite, Buxtehude. We greatly appreciate the time we have spent with him which has been challenging, satisfying, and fun!

From January 2024 we will have the privilege of being directed by Martin Palmer, who is well known in Cornish musical circles as a choral and orchestral director, and until his recent retirement, Head  of Music at Truro School. We look forward to welcoming him in the New Year. A concert programme is under construction and details will be released shortly.

MAY 2023

Following our concert of Music from across Europe, on Sat April 22nd, we begin rehearsing Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri on Tues, May 9th at 7.15pm for performance on Sat 15th July at 7.30pm

FEBRUARY 2022

Since our last update, we have made, and then had to alter, several of our plans. However, we are now able to announce the date of our next concert which will be on:

Saturday, June 11th at 7.30pm in St Michael’s Church, Helston

It’s an exciting programme of Psalm arrangements by many composers, including Vaughan Williams, Batten, Weelkes, Macmillan, Purcell and Britten.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2021: AT LAST SOME NEWS!

Here we are three quarters through our 50th anniversary year, with some good news on the horizon.
Our latest plan is that subject to the Local Enhanced Covid Measures which will be announced in the next few days,
we recommence rehearsals on Tuesday, Sept 21st from 7-9pm in St Michael’s Church, Helston.
This is to comply with social distancing requirements.
Our first concert will be on Saturday October 30th also in St Michael’s Church as usual, and will be Parts 1 & 2 of Haydn’s Creation.
We will also being singing in St Michael’s Advent Carol Service on Sunday, November 28th at 6.30pm
Please come and help us celebrate what’s left of our special year.

50th ANNIVERSARY YEAR 2021
This certainly hasn’t gone to plan! It looks as though we’ll squeeze in just the one concert this year, and our planned but rearranged Psalm Concert in 2022.

CHRISTMAS 2019

We are breaking with tradition this year, and will be holding our Winter Concert before Christmas, rather than in January the following year as we usually do. On Saturday, 14th December 2019, at 7.30pm in St Michael’s Church, Helston, we will be singing a rich selection of mostly less well-known Christmas music.
Buxtehude: Das Neugeborne Kindelein; Mendelssohn: two items from Christus op 97; Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Christmas Carols; M. Haydn: Viderunt Omnes;
Charpentier: Messe de Minuit.
Do come and join us.

SUMMER CONCERT 2019

We look forward to another ambitious new venture with our next summer concert, on Saturday, June 22nd 2019, at 7.30pm in St Michael’s Church, Helston, when we will be performing  Henry Purcell’s semi-opera,  KING ARTHUR. The piece has a VERY cxomplicated plot, involving love, magic, quaffing, trumpets and flag-waving. Definitely not to be missed!

WINTER CONCERT 2019

Our next concert at 7.30pm on Saturday, January 26th 2019, in St Michael’s Church, Helston, conducted and directed as always by Nigel Wicken, has the title:
ANCIENT and MODERN.
The ANCIENT will be two pieces by W A Mozart: Little Sparrow Mass k220,
and the Lauretian Litany k195.
The MODERN consists of several pieces; James Macmillan’s Lux Aeterna, and New Song,
Judith Weir’s Two Human Hymns, and the first performance  (i.e. world premiere!)
of Evening Hymn, a piece for choir and organ by local composer, Pippa Drummond.
We are delighted that our guest organist will once again be Michael Hoeg, who has played so magnificently in several of our previous concerts.

SUMMER CONCERT 2018

The Helston Chamber Choir and Orchestra Summer Concert will take place on Saturday, June 30th, 7.30pm, in St Michael’s Church, Helston, when we will be presenting a semi-staged version of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.
All the female soloists are members of the choir, and the male soloists have sung with us on several previous occasions.
Be prepared for courtiers, witches, and sailors, in quick succession!

Dido                            Jenny Oldfield
Aeneas                       Jesse Giuliani
Belinda                      Kate Banfield Rickard
Sorceress                  Ruth Williams
Second woman        Sarah Bayes
First Sailor               Michael White
Stage direction       Ben Oldfield
Conductor                Nigel Wicken

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Nicholas Hurndall Smith, tenor

We are delighted to announce that Nicholas will be singing the part of Evangelist in our performance of Bach’s St John Passion on March 17th 2018, at 7.30pm in St Michael’s Church, Helston.

Nicholas Hurndall Smith studied music as organ scholar at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, before training as a singer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under David Pollard. He has since been equally at home on the operatic and concert stages, in roles by Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Britten and Stravinsky and he appears all over the world with a variety of conductors and ensembles, with Monteverdi & Bach being special favourites.
He recently sang in the acclaimed Bach Weekend with the Feinstein Ensemble at Kings Place, performing Bach’s Cantata Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht and the B minor Mass. With the London Concert Choir he has sung Haydn’s The Seasons and the Mozart Requiem, and Britten’s St Nicolas with both the London Mozart Players and the English Chamber Orchestra. He has also appeared with Fretwork in a recital of Purcell and Dowland.
Nicholas has been a member of the solo voice ensemble I Fagiolini for the last thirty years, taking part in their innovative staged productions, films, recordings and tours. Last summer saw them in a revival of How like an Angel with Circa at the St. Olav Festival in Trondheim, and this year they have been touring their new Monteverdi recording ‘The Other Vespers’.
Nicholas also enjoys adding alpine and rock climbs to his repertoire. In June he completed a unique ‘double’, climbing the Old Man of Hoy and running the Hoy Half Marathon in one weekend.

Helston Chamber Choir is proud to announce our next concert :

Saturday, March 17th 2018 at 7.30pm, in St Michael’s Church, Helston

J S BACH

ST JOHN PASSION

Nicholas Hurndall Smith: Evangelist
Jesse Giuliani: Jesus       
Simeon Royle: Pilate
Kate Banfield Rickard: soprano    
Ruth Williams: alto
Michael White: tenor     
Michael Hoeg: organ
Helston Chamber Choir and Orchestra
Director and  conductor: Nigel Wicken

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~****************~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beth and Greg’s Wedding 4th November 2017
St Winwaloe Church
Gunwalloe Church Cove

We had the great pleasure and privilege of singing at the beautiful and moving marriage ceremony of our alto, Beth, with her fiance Greg, on a sunny winter’s afternoon.

Members of the choir, dressed in autumnal colours at the Bride’s request, preparing to sing the Theme from Terminator 2 at the entrance of the Bride, at the Groom’s request!

The very happy couple after the ceremony