Ishavskatedralen - Tromsøysund menighet

Concert with Tromsø Tensing and The Byron consort

DATO: 18. December 2017 kl. 20:00
STED: The Arctic cathedral
KATEGORIER: Concert

The local youth choir Tromsø Ten sing invites you to a Christmas concert together with the Byron consort, witch is Harrow school in London’s elite vocal ensemble, which specializes in a cappella sacred music of the Renaissance, Romantic and Modern periods.

 

The Byron Consort of Harrow School


Harrow School is one of the oldest and most famous schools in England, educating over 800 boys, all of who are full boarders. There are many famous alumni, of whom Winston Churchill is probably the best known.

The Byron Consort is Harrow’s elite vocal ensemble and was founded in 2001 by Philip Evans (then Assistant Director of Music and now a House Master at Harrow) who continues to direct the choir. It consists of around eighteen Harrow boys and four adults. The choir sings a mixture of unaccompanied sacred and secular music, most of which comes from the Renaissance, Romantic and Modern periods. Many of the boys are ex-choristers from leading cathedral and collegiate choirs – there have recently been representatives from the choirs of Westminster Abbey, King’s and St John’s College Cambridge, Canterbury, Westminster and Winchester Cathedrals, St. George’s Chapel Windsor and Christ Church Cathedral Oxford – many of the boys are Music Award Holders at Harrow School.

Since its inception the choir has sung regularly at services and concerts at Harrow and has sung at St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Westminster, Winchester, Canterbury and Chichester Cathedrals, St George’s Chapel Windsor Castle, various college Chapels in Oxford and Cambridge and many other London churches. A few years ago, the choir sang for the former British Prime Minister David Cameron, the late Duke of Marlborough and their guests at a Christmas dinner at Blenheim Palace.

The choir has now been on fifteen overseas trips: to Malta and Gozo, Rome (three times), Venice (twice), Florence, Palermo in Sicily, Vienna & Salzburg, Stockholm, Washington & New York and Moscow & St Petersburg (twice), and to Toronto and Chicago. Many notable venues include St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, St Mark’s Basilica in Venice, the Duomo in Florence, St Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow and Trinity Wall Street & St John the Divine Cathedral in New York City.

In April 2014, the choir visited North America for the second time. In Toronto, they sang in the Chapel of Trinity College, St Paul’s Basilica and St James’s Cathedral as well as at St Mark’s Church in Niagara on the Lake. In Chicago, they sang in the Church of the Atonement, the Rockefeller Chapel of the University of Chicago and the Roman Catholic church of St John Cantius.

The choir visited Milan and Turin in February 2015, during which it sang in the Duomo and in Sant’Ambrogio in Milan, amongst many other sacred venues. In December 2015 the choir travelled to Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, during which it gave concerts to over 1000 people on two occasions and sang at many notable venues including Raffles Hotel in Singapore. In 2016, the choir commissioned new settings of the texts O salutaris hostia and Tantum ergo from the famous English composer Gabriel Jackson and gave the world premiere performances of them in Harrow School Chapel on Palm Sunday in the presence of the composer. The choir’s most recent overseas tour was in April 2017, during which there was a series of performances in South Africa and Kenya, singing in St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town and at the residence of the British High Commissioner in Nairobi amongst a number of other venues. The choir’s next trip will be to Norway in December 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/user/ByronConsort