Press Releases23 Jul 15

St Anne’s Cathedral Welcomes Visiting Choirs During August

The Fitzwilliam College Chapel Choir from Cambridge University will sing choral services in St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast, during the week commencing Monday August 10. The Chapel Choir is comprised of 16 – 20 undergraduate and graduate students, both male and female. The choir’s main duty is to provide music for the weekly evening service, held in the award–winning College Chapel, which boasts some of the best choral acoustics in the university, singing full Choral Evensong, Communion Masses, Requiems, Carol Services, Evening Prayer and Compline across the year.

Fitzwilliam Chapel Choir sings several ‘joint’ services a term with other Cambridge colleges, and regularly sings Choral Evensong as a visiting choir in some of England’s finest cathedrals. The choir’s Director of Music is Katharine Parton.

St Anne’s looks forward to welcoming choir members to Belfast for their week of residence in August, which will conclude on Sunday August 16.

During August, the Cathedral will also host a number of other visiting choirs. Musicus Amicos will start the month off on August 2 and return on August 23.

Musicus Amicos, founded July 2014, is a group of musical friends who sing occasionally in churches and cathedrals. They will be welcomed back to St Anne’s where they have sung in the past when the Cathedral Choir has been on holiday.

Lux, a newly–formed chamber choir, will sing at the 11am service, and possibly the 3.30pm service along with the Cathedral Choir, on Sunday August 9. The later service will be a celebration for the Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Lux, under the direction of Matthew Quinn, consists of 12 of the finest young singers from all denominations and backgrounds across Northern Ireland.

On August 30 at 11am the Cathedral welcomes some familiar faces in the form of Cantores Sancti Annae, a group made up of past members of Sopranos and the Girls’ Choir from the Cathedral.

That afternoon, at 3.30pm, St Polycarp’s Parish Choir, Finaghy, recently returned from a five day tour of Cambridge, will sing. The Choir, which sang Choral Evensong in Westminster Abbey two years ago, is directed by Simon Neill.

A warm welcome is extended to everyone at any of these August services.