May
2008 May
2008
BBC Radio 3 - In Tune, Thursday 8th May
Vasari Singers will be appearing live on BBC Radio 3's In Tune, Thursday 8th May in a broadcast featuring several live music performances and interviews with our music director, Jeremy Backhouse. Tune in from 5pm.
April
2008 
PRS Foundation grant
The choir is delighted to announce a substantial grant award from the PRS Foundation supporting our 2008 concerts programme, featuring several contemporary works, new commissions and World Premieres. These include world premieres in Ripon Cathedral, at the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, and our major new commission by Gabriel Jackson in November of this year
The choir is grateful to the PRSF and the Trustees for the financial support, and to the other donors who have already given their support.
Further information on the premiere, and details of the work itself, will follow shortly.
March
2008
An exciting concert featuring programming around Biblical visions, this programme features several recent Vasari commissions, a world premiere of a new commission by Michael Berkeley, and the apocalyptic "Vision of aeroplanes" by Vaughan Williams. The concert sees Vasari return to the festival and venue where the choir premiered the groundbreaking oratorio Cloud of Unknowing in 2006, opening the 2008 London Festival of Contemporary Church Music.
Visit the concerts section for more information.
Vasari Singers has signed a two-pronged deal with Artist Management and PR Consultancy Jonathan Cooke Ltd.
The deal sees Jonathan Cooke represent Vasari Singers as exclusive Agent tasked to fix choir performances at the UK's leading Festivals. The company also takes the main Public Relations role for the group, reporting to the choir's PR and Marketing lead, Daniel Burges.
Jonathan Cooke said "The Vasari Singers are one of the best adult chamber choirs around, and they have an ambitious programme for 2008 including a recording of Duruflé's Requiem for Signum Records with Sarah Connolly, Robert Cohen and Chris Maltman, and a big new commission by Gabriel Jackson premièring in November. The opportunity to work on such exciting projects, and also build on their previous work with commissions like Francis Pott's Cloud of Unknowing, was too good to miss."
Cooke also works several of the UKs leading choral groups including the Bach Choir, and artists including cellist Jamie Walton and early music ensemble La Nuova Musica.
Jeremy Backhouse adds "In the past few years, the exposure the choir has received has grown dramatically as we have become ever more ambitious with our programming, including a huge amount of new works commissioned by Vasari. Teaming up with Jonathan will allow us to develop even further on the national and international stage."
For more information visit the website.
February
2008
February sees the choir return to the stunning chapel at Tonbridge School, Kent, to record a new CD for Signum Records. The programme features Durufle's Requiem, along with the four motets on Gregorian chant themes by Duruflé (Ubi Caritas, Tu es Petrus, Tota pulcra es Maria and Tantum ergo), and two works by Jean-Jacques Grünenwald - the organist who succeeded Marcel Dupré at the St Sulpice in Paris. (Vasari has previously recorded two CDs of the entire choral works of Dupré to great acclaim, alongside a collection of Dupré's entire organ works performed by Jeremy Filsell)
The choir will be joined in Tonbridge by several exceptional artists. Jeremy Filsell (organ), Sarah Connolly (Mezzo soprano), Christopher Maltman (baritone) and Robert Cohen (cello) will all feature on the disc in the Requiem in what will be a very exciting recital.
This fantastic CD will be available in the Autumn.
January
2008
The Vasari Singers is proud to announce that the choir has won another grant award from the PRS Foundation toward the cost of commissioning a major new a capella choral work from one of Britain's finest sacred choral composers today. This significant grant will see composer Gabriel Jackson write a 25 minute work for the choir, to be premiered in November 2007, at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London.
This is another very exciting commissioning project which re-affirms the choir's place at the heart of creating and performing new British choral music. In 2008 the choir will also premiere several other new works, including in Ripon Cathedral and at the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, and since 2000, Vasari Singers has commissioned some 21 choral works.
The choir is grateful to the PRSF and the Trustees for the financial support for this commissioning project, and to the other donors who have already given their support.
Further information on the premiere, and details of the work itself, will follow shortly.
Reviews of the choir's CD of The Cloud of Unknowing continue to be published, including an Editor's Choice accolade in Organists Review, a Top Pick in the Christmas edition of The Observer, and nomination for Recording of the Year at MusicWeb International. Click here to see all the reviews gathered so far.
The choir will kick off 2008 with another set of dynamic and dramatic programming throughout the year.
February sees the choir back in Tonbridge to record a new CD, new choral works will be premiered in Ripon Cathedral in April, and the choir returns to the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music to open the festival in June.
Another new CD will also be released, featuring a new recording of Durufle's Requiem, and a planned large commission will be unveiled later in the year.
For more information please keep visiting the site!
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