Lewes Baroquefest – 20-23 July 2022

Lewes Baroquefest is back – 20-23 July, St Michael’s Church, Lewes. The festival, directed by John Hancorn and Julia Bishop, opens with ‘A Baroque Bouquet’ from Trio ZAC, with music by Purcell, Locke, Handel and Bach (6.30pm, Wednesday 20). The Baroque Collective Singers are then joined by soprano Alexandra Kidgell for Purcell Anthems and Songs (9pm, Wednesday 20). 

Trio ZAC

Then there’s an evening of baroque chamber music including music by Cavalli, Corelli and Vivaldi from Alison Bury & Julia Bishop (violins), Catherine Rimer (cello) & Claire Williams (harpsichord) (6.30pm, Thursday 21). They are followed by ‘Baroque Alchemy’ from Piers Adams (recorders) and Lyndy Mayle (keyboard) (9pm, Thursday 21). 

incantati

Baroque ensemble incantati present ‘A Garland of Arias and Sinfonias’ from Bach, along with arrangements of traditional Ukrainian & Romanian music (6.30pm, Friday 22) – check out my review last month of their new Bach recording. More Bach follows, with two of his Cello Suites performed by Sebastian Comberti (cello) (9pm, Friday 21). 

Baroque Collective Singers

And the festival ends with the Baroque Collective Singers returning, joined by the Baroque Collective Players, for a performance including Handel’s Four Coronation Anthems, alongside more Handel and Pachelbel’s Canon (7pm, Saturday 23).

lewesbaroquefest.org.

John Hancorn
(credit: Robert Knights)

Julia Bishop
(credit: Beth Mercer)

O Magnum Mysterium - The Baroque Collective Singers with the Lewes Festival of Song

The Baroque Collective Singers

The Baroque Collective Singers are performing in a Christmas fundraiser concert to support the Lewes Festival of Song at St. Anne’s Church, Lewes on Friday December 14th at 8pm.

John Hancorn

Following their successful festival finale last July, The Baroque Collective Singers are once again conducted by their Director, John Hancorn.  They will be performing 'O Magnum Mysterium', a candlelit, radiant seasonal programme of familiar and unfamiliar music, with some beautiful carols for the audience to join in. The programme includes highly contrasting settings of O Magnum Mysterium by Victoria, Poulenc and Ola Gjeilo.  There will be music by contemporary composers such as James MacMillan, Judith Weir and Ed Hughes, as well as works by Holst, Britten and Tavener.  

Guest cellist Sebastian Comberti and pianist and festival director Nancy Cooley will be playing too.  Tickets are £15 (under 16s £7.50) with proceeds going towards a new piano for the festival. Mulled wine and refreshments by donation. Get tickets here.

Sebastian Comberti

Nancy Cooley

  

Summer, Song and Strawberries - The Baroque Collective Singers

Baroque Collective Singers
John Hancorn, director

Sunday 2 July, 6.30pm

St Michael's Church, 158 High Street, Lewes BN7 1XU

The Baroque Collective Singers perform a cappella music for a summer evening, including Tudor madrigals - Wilbye's plangent 'Draw On, Sweet Night', neglected genius Weelkes's 'Hark all ye lovely saints' and, for light relief and some 'fa la las', John Bennet's 'All Creatures Now' - and French and English part songs.

The programme also features stunning choral music by Eric Whitacre, Britten, Janequin and Hindemith - plus prosecco and strawberries!


Details on Facebook here.

Tickets here.

The Baroque Collective Singers

John Hancorn

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas - The Baroque Collective and Singers, Lewes Sunday 19 February

Purcell: 
Dido and Aeneas; Chacony in G minor; Hear My Prayer; Suite in G major

The Baroque Collective
Alison Bury, leader
The Baroque Collective Singers
John Hancorn, director
Catrin Woodruff, Dido
Jennifer Clark, Belinda
Andrew Robinson, Aeneas
Helen Dewhurst, Second Woman
Liz Webb, Sorceress
Liz Kelly, First Witch
Katie Hawks, Second Witch
Janet Ormerod, Spirit
Tony Jay, Sailor



The Baroque Collective and the Baroque Collective Singers present a concert performance of Purcell’s most famous work and probably the world’s favourite opera in English. Dido and Aeneas tells the story of the love between the Trojan hero Aeneas and the Carthaginian queen Dido, and of her subsequent suicide when he leaves to fulfil his destiny as founder of Rome. There is music of ravishing beauty, including Dido's famous lament 'When I am laid in earth', an evil Sorceress, a jolly sailor, and wonderful choruses for the Baroque Collective Singers. The first half of the concert features the Baroque Collective performing Purcell's Chacony in G minor and Suite in G major, and the Baroque Collective Singers performing Purcell's 'Hear My Prayer'.

Sunday 19 February 2017, 6.30pm
St Michael's Church, 158 High St, Lewes BN7 1XU

Tickets: £15 & £10 (Under 16s free) on the door or from Lewes Tourist Information Centre, 187 High St, Lewes, BN7 2DE.
Online tickets here.

Details on Facebook here.

The Baroque Collective - Handel and Bach

The Baroque Collective Singers and Players join forces for Handel’s magnificent ‘Dixit Dominus’, one of the great choral works of the baroque and a firm favourite with choral singers. John Hancorn conducts, with top baroque violinist Alison Bury leading. The concert also features Bach’s lively double-choir motet ‘Singet dem Herrn’ and a fine Trio Sonata by Handel.

Bach: Singet den Herrn
Handel: Trio Sonata Op.5 No.4
Handel: Dixit Dominus


Baroque Collective Singers
John Hancorn, director
Baroque Collective Players
Alison Bury, leader
Catrin Woodruff, soprano


St Michael's Church, Lewes
Sunday 21 February, 6.30pm
Tickets £15/£10, under 16s free
Tickets from: Lewes Tourist Information Centre or here. 

More on Facebook here.

Baroque Collective Singers - Christmas Celebration

Tickets here.

More on Facebook here.

Programme:

Messe de Minuit pour Noël - Marc-Antoine Charpentier

INTERVAL - mulled wine and mince pies

Jesus Christ the Apple Tree - Elizabeth Poston
Christmas Hath Darkness - Ed Hughes
In the bleak midwinter - Harold Darke
O Radiant Dawn - James MacMillan 

Wallands CP School Choir:
Away in a Manger - Alan Woods
Calypso Carol - Michael Perry
Somewhere in my Memory - John Williams 

Good King Wenceslas - Reginald Jacques - audience carol 

O Little One Sweet - Trad arr J S Bach
Hymn to the Virgin - Benjamin Britten
Ding Dong Merrily on High - Charles Wood 

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear - Arthur Sullivan - audience carol

Baroque Collective Singers - Brahms 'Ein Deutsches Requiem', Op. 45

The Baroque Collective Singers perform Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45 ('German Requiem'), as part of the Hurst Festival.

Thursday 24 September, 8pm. Holy Trinity Church, Hurstpierpoint BN6 9TY.

Lorena Paz Nieto

Gareth Hancock

Soloists are soprano Lorena Paz Nieto, baritone Nicholas Mogg, and pianists Nancy Cooley and Gareth Hancock. 



Deeply moving, profound and powerful, the German Requiem is one of Brahms' most performed and beloved works. It is a massive work, even in this chamber-sized version for two pianos.

John Hancorn

Founded by conductor John Hancorn in 2013, the Baroque Collective Singers chamber choir comprises some of the very best in the area.

Follow the Baroque Collective Singers on Twitter @BaroqueCSingers.

 

Nancy Cooley

Gareth Hancock

 Tickets from Hurst Festival here.
 Box Office: The Players Theatre, 
 147 High St, Hurstpierpoint 
 (open Thu-Sat 9.30am - 1pm)
 01273 833696.

Glorious Baroque

Sunday 29 March 2015, 6pm
St John sub Castro, Abinger Place, Lewes

Baroque Collective Singers
John Hancorn, conductor
The Baroque Collective
Nicholas Houghton, chamber organ

Vivaldi: Magnificat
Scarlatti: Stabat Mater
Buxtehude: Membra Jesu Nostri









The Baroque Collective Singers and their conductor John Hancorn present a glorious concert of Baroque choral music. Domenico Scarlatti’s ten-part Stabat Mater is one of the great masterworks of the time, featuring soaring vocal lines and plangent harmonies. The Magnificat is one of Vivaldi's best-loved choral  works, brought to life in this performance by a quartet of string players from the Baroque Collective playing authentic Baroque instruments alongside the Baroque Collective Singers. Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri is a wonderful cycle of seven cantatas each addressed to a different part of Christ’s crucified body and will feature solos by members of the choir.


Tickets: £10 (under 16s free) available from Lewes Tourist Information Centre (tel: 01273 483448) or on the door

Schütz : St Matthew Passion - Baroque Collective Singers

Baroque Collective Singers

Sunday 13 April, 6pm

St Michael’s Church, High Street, Lewes BN7 1XN

John Hancorn, Conductor

Edmund Hastings, Evangelist

Andrew Robinson, Christus

Following their debut concert in December, the Baroque Collective Singers  present Heinrich Schütz’s St Matthew Passion.  Dating from 1666 and setting the same text as J. S. Bach’s later St Matthew Passion, Schütz’s a cappella work features the solo tenor Evangelist dramatically reciting the Easter Story; Christ as a majestic yet sorrowful visionary; excitable Peter; fanatical Judas; Pilate, well-meaning and reserved; and the pompous and hypocritical high priest Kaiphas. The choruses allow the audience to witness the dramatic events of the Passion as they unfold.

Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) is generally regarded as the most important German composer before J. S. Bach and ranks alongside Monteverdi as one of the great composers of the 17th century. His three Passion settings represent an extraordinary late flowering; he wrote them when he was in his eighties.

Founded by conductor John Hancorn, the Baroque Collective Singers are drawn from the best choirs in the area and aim to explore core baroque repertoire alongside more unusual or neglected works.

Tickets: £10 (under 16s free) available from Lewes Tourist Information Centre, 01273 483338 or on the door.

John Hancorn

Edmund Hastings (photo: Rogue Photography)