University Chamber Choir

The University Chamber Choir appears in various sizes from small consort to larger forces up to around 75 singers according to the repertoire to be performed. Peter Seymour is the regular director of the ensemble and there are regular associations with University Baroque Ensemble. Members of the choir also sing in the University Choir. Membership is by audition but is open to all students, usually held at the beginning of the Autumn Term of each academic year.

The Choir has appeared at various prestigious festivals including Beverley Early Music Festival (2007) and York Early Music Festival – in 2007, 2008, 2010 with Robert Hollingworth and in programmes of Purcell (Masque from Fairy Queen and The Yorkshire Feast Song) with University Baroque Ensemble.

A smaller ensemble of the choir often performs as part of Baroque Day in May and this season presents biblical narratives by Schütz and Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas. In July 2012, as part of York Early Music Festival, the Choir will join forces with Florilegium and the Arakaendar Bolivia Choir, directed by Ashley Solomon, in an exploration of the music made when Jesuit missionaries arrived in Bolivia in the 17th century. In the same Festival the Choir joins forces with I Fagiolini directed by Robert Hollingworth in a performance of Striggio’s 40-part Mass and Tallis’ Spem in alium.

Selected repertoire

  • Bach, CPE   Die letzten Leiden des Erlösers
  • Bach, JS   B Minor Mass
  • Bach, JS   Cantatas 4, 61, 106, 110, 191
  • Bach, JS   Motets
  • Bach, JS  Magnificat
  • Bach, JS   St John Passion
  • Bach, JS   St Matthew Passion
  • Bernstein   Chichester Psalms
  • Bach   St Matthew Passion
  • Brucker   Mass in E Minor
  • Carissimi   Historia di Jephte
  • Fauré   Requiem
  • Handel   Acis and Galatea
  • Handel   Dixit Dominus
  • Handel   Israel in Eygpt
  • Handel   Semele
  • Haydn, J   Die Jahreszeiten
  • Haydn, J  Harmoniemesse
  • Haydn, M Requiem  
  • Jeffreys   anthems
  • Martin  Mass
  • Monteverdi  Vespers 1610
  • Monteverdi  Missa in illo tempore
  • Mozart   Missae brevi and motets
  • Mozart   Requiem
  • Purcell   The Fairy Queen
  • Purcell   anthems and odes with strings
  • Schubert   Mass in A Flat
  • Schütz  St John Passion
  • Sheppard  Media vita
  • Stravinsky  Les Noces
  • Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms
  • Tallis  Spem in alium
  • Taverner   Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas
  • Vaughan Williams An Oxford Elegy
  • Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music
  • Vivaldi  Gloria

Repertoire also includes 20th century choral classics, including Howells Requiem and works by Tippett, Parry, Stanford, Delius, Elgar and Vaughan 
Williams. There have also been programmes of Josquin & his contemporaries; English music from the 16th century; music from St Marks, 
Venice (Monteverdi to Cavalli); a programme of Purcell odes and anthems with strings; Cathedral music from 19th/20th centuries; music for Ash 
Wednesday.