This month marks the Fifth Season of Lent Concerts, which this year celebrates the world première of a new Passion by Oxford composer Simon Whalley, Christus: A Passion according to St Mark.
Concerts (which last c. 45 minutes) begin early - 5:45 for 6pm on March 9th and 6 for 6:15pm thereafter - and have been deliberately scheduled so that everyone can fit in the concert – older children, adults, those going home from work and those coming into Oxford for other activities later in the evening.
Principal soloists in Christus are soprano Roya Ziai (Evangelist) and bass Jonathan Arnold (Christus), with a choir made up of choral scholars and lay clerks from several Oxford colleges, principally from the Queen’s College as well as from Exeter, Keble, Christ Church and Somerville, along with the younger voices of choristers from Abingdon School, where Whalley is Composer-in-Residence.
Younger instrumentalists from Abingdon School will – along with the now celebrated group of Oxford Lent Concert baroque and modern string players – also accompany soloists and chorus for Christus. Concerts II, III and IV will – in addition to the unfolding Passion cantatas – also include early music: Purcell’s Funeral Sentences and Lord, what is man?; Greene’s Lord, let me know mine end; along with purely instrumental music drawn from Biber’s Mystery Sonatas and Haydn’s Seven Last Words. This music will be played by the professional instrumentalists (including members of OXUS). For full programme details see: www.op59.net/lent2010.html .
As in previous OLC series, each concert will also feature the exhibition of Contemporary Icons by leading Oxfordshire artists: from Roger Wagner, whose painting Menorah has recently been acquired by the Ashmolean and whose work The Book of Praises is currently featured in its latest exhibition, to Nicholas Mynheer, whose works are exhibited in churches and cathedrals up and down the land, as well as icons by sculptor Martin Smith and paintings by Jane Dowling RA, Alison Lilley Berrett and Tim Steward.
Concerts (which last c. 45 minutes) begin early - 5:45 for 6pm on March 9th and 6 for 6:15pm thereafter - and have been deliberately scheduled so that everyone can fit in the concert – older children, adults, those going home from work and those coming into Oxford for other activities later in the evening.
Principal soloists in Christus are soprano Roya Ziai (Evangelist) and bass Jonathan Arnold (Christus), with a choir made up of choral scholars and lay clerks from several Oxford colleges, principally from the Queen’s College as well as from Exeter, Keble, Christ Church and Somerville, along with the younger voices of choristers from Abingdon School, where Whalley is Composer-in-Residence.
Younger instrumentalists from Abingdon School will – along with the now celebrated group of Oxford Lent Concert baroque and modern string players – also accompany soloists and chorus for Christus. Concerts II, III and IV will – in addition to the unfolding Passion cantatas – also include early music: Purcell’s Funeral Sentences and Lord, what is man?; Greene’s Lord, let me know mine end; along with purely instrumental music drawn from Biber’s Mystery Sonatas and Haydn’s Seven Last Words. This music will be played by the professional instrumentalists (including members of OXUS). For full programme details see: www.op59.net/lent2010.html .
As in previous OLC series, each concert will also feature the exhibition of Contemporary Icons by leading Oxfordshire artists: from Roger Wagner, whose painting Menorah has recently been acquired by the Ashmolean and whose work The Book of Praises is currently featured in its latest exhibition, to Nicholas Mynheer, whose works are exhibited in churches and cathedrals up and down the land, as well as icons by sculptor Martin Smith and paintings by Jane Dowling RA, Alison Lilley Berrett and Tim Steward.