St Stephen’s Choir singing in St Edmundsbury Cathedral
Our choir will be singing the services in St Edmundsbury Cathedral. Bury St Edmunds on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th April. Music will include some of our favourite Easter anthems, as well as a celebration of Stanford’s music to mark 100 years since his death. The choir will be singing The Canterbury Service composed by our Organist and Choirmaster, Stephen Barker, at the Choral Eucharist on Sunday morning.
This Sunday (16th July), St Stephen’s Choir are singing the services in Southwark Cathedral. Music at the Sung Eucharist (11.00am) will include a second performance of My spirit longs for thee, composed for us by Christopher Gower and our own Director of Music’s Canterbury Service. At Choral Evensong (3.00pm) the choir will sing canticles by Herbert Howells and Fauré’s beautiful Cantique de Jean Racine.
On Sunday 9th July, our choir sang a new anthem at our Sung Eucharist that had been composed especially for them by Christopher Gower. Christopher has had a long and distinguished career as a cathedral Organist and Choirmaster, holding positions at Exeter Cathedral, Portsmouth Cathedral and Peterborough Cathedral. On his retirement he moved to Canterbury.
Having given the world premiere, our choir will be giving the London premiere in Southwark Cathedral on Sunday 16th July.
Unfortunately, revised guidance issued by government this week has limited the number of singers who are allowed to sing together inside to a maximum of six. Consequently, members of our choir, despite singing safely distanced for several weeks now, are having to take it in turn to sing. So much for moving forwards out of lockdown; hopefully this rule will be overturned soon.
Monday 17th February 10.00–11.30am St Stephen’s Church, Hales Drive, Canterbury, CT2 7AB
Are you between 7 and 11 years old?
Do you enjoy singing and making music?
Come along to St Stephen’s Church for a fun morning of singing on the Monday of half-term, and see what it would be like to be a chorister.
Information for your parents or carers…
St Stephen’s is well-known for it’s choir throughout Kent. We believe that music is important not just to enrich our church services, but for our individual general well-being.
Our regular rehearsals for our junior choir will be on Monday evenings, 5.00–6.00pm with plenty of opportunities to sing with our main choir at Sunday morning services.
Our Director of Music, Stephen Barker, has over 20 years experience of working with choirs and is also a qualified music teacher. All of our adults who work directly with young people have an enhanced DBS disclosure; we take safeguarding very seriously.
What could your son or daughter get from joining a choir?
Singing in a choir is a great way to develop as a musician – there’s lots of research about the positive effect that music has on the academic development of young people. Amanda Spielman, head of ofsted, recently said that “mastering singing sets children up well for a musical future”, so singing in a choir may spark a greater musical interest and develop into learning to play a musical instrument. Singing as part of a choir is also great for developing concentration and the sense of contributing to something as part of a team. It’s also a great way to make friends who share similar interests!
if you have any more questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me by emailing choir@StStephensCanterbury.net
I look forward to meeting you and your son or daughter at our Open Morning on 17th February, or at any following Monday evening rehearsals.
