Bel a cappella presents ‘Tenebrae’
Vocal ensemble Bel a capella presents its first concert for 2013, entitled Tenebrae, which in the Western Christian tradition is the performance of music and chants associated with darkness, or the extinguishing of lights.
Musical Director Anthony Pasquill hands the baton to chorister and conductor Margot McLaughlin for a performance of Lamentations of Jeremiah by Thomas Tallis and resumes it for Frank Martin’s: Mass for Double Choir, Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia, Gabriel Jackson’s Edinburgh Mass and Herbert Howells’ A Hymn for St. Cecilia.
Of these composers, Gabriel Jackson is perhaps the least well known to Australian audiences. Born in 1962 in Bermuda he spent three years as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral after which he studied composition at the Royal College of Music.
He has been commissioned and performed by, amongst others, the BBC, the Tate Gallery, the National Centre for Early Music and ensembles I Fagiolini, the Brindisi String Quartet, the Delta Saxophone Quartet, the Orlando Consort, and the Lyric String Quartet; choirs who have performed his work include the BBC Singers, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the Renaissance Singers, the Corund Ensemble of Zurich, Chapelle du Roi, Oxford Pro Musica Singers, Wells Cathedral Chamber Choir, and the cathedral choirs of Canterbury, Christ Church Oxford, St. Paul’s, Truro, Wells, Guildford and Portsmouth.
His music has been performed and broadcast throughout Europe, the USA, the Middles East and Asian and at many festivals including Aldeburgh, Glasgow, Oxford Contemporary Music, ThreeTwo in New York, Graz Orfeo Festival, Regensburg Tage Alter und Neuer Musik, and the Sidney Spring Festival.
The Edinburgh Mass was commissioned for St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh, and was first performed by Matthew Owens and the Cathedral Choir on St Cecilia’s Day 2001. Approximately 13 minutes long, it is an a cappella setting, in Latin, without Credo.
Tickets: $35/$30
Book at www.belacappella.org.au
Enquiries: (02) 80641729 or email: enquiries@belacappella.org.au
Programme:
Tallis: Lamentations of Jeremiah (conducted by Margot McLaughlin)
Martin: Mass for Double Choir
Britten: Hymn to St. Cecilia
Gabriel Jackson: Edinburgh Mass
Howells: A Hymn for St. Cecilia
