A concert featuring a programme of Restoration verse anthems, including repertoire by Cooke, Blow, Humfrey, and Purcell, performed by the Choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford and the Instruments of Time & Truth, both conducted by Professor Owen Rees. The hire of the Chamber Organ for the concert has been kindly funded by the Church Music Society.
The Choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford has been hailed as ‘an undoubted jewel in Britain’s choral scene’ (BBC Music Magazine), the Choir of The Queen’s College Oxford is among the finest and most active university choirs in the UK. Its extensive concert schedule involves appearances across the UK and abroad, including work with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. It regularly tours abroad, and concert tours have included Taiwan, China, the USA, Sri Lanka, Italy, Sardinia, Portugal, Spain, France, the Low Countries, and Germany. The choir’s engagements in 2022 include Bach’s St John Passion with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, a tour of Portugal, and a live broadcast concert to open the Laus Polyphoniae Festival in Antwerp.
The choir’s wide-ranging repertory includes a rich array of Renaissance and Baroque music and contemporary works. The group broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio, and during the academic year it provides the music for regular services in the splendid Baroque chapel of The Queen’s College.
Queen’s choir’s recent CD releases are on the Signum and Avie labels. A recording of Dixit Dominus settings by Handel an Alessandro Scarlatti (2013), was hailed as ‘a disc of unusually high calibre’ by Early Music Review and awarded 5 stars by Choir and Organ. Carols from Queen’s enjoyed nine weeks in the Specialist Classical Charts, was ‘Drive Featured Album of the Week’ on Classic FM, and was a Telegraph Christmas pick. A New Heaven (2017) and The House of the Mind (2018) both went straight to no.1 in the Specialist Classical Chart in their first week of sales; BBC Music Magazine commented that A New Heaven shows ‘the singers at their radiant best’ and Choir and Organ described The House of the Mind as ‘a gem of a disc’. 2019 saw the release of a recording of music by the great Tudor composer, John Taverner, which received a Diapason d’Or and was described by Diapason as ‘a splendid triumph of English choral art at its best’. 2022 sees the release of their latest recording, of music by Giovanni Bononcini, with the Academy of Ancient Music.
Queen’s Choir has also recorded for film at the famous Abbey Road Studios, and appears on the Grammy-nominated soundtrack of the Warner Brothers film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The choir’s TV work has included Lucy Worsley’s A Merry Tudor Christmas (BBC2) in 2019.
For further information about the choir and its activities, please see our website and social media pages: Twitter, and Facebook
Instruments of Time and Truth, described on BBC Record Review as 'an absolutely superb band of instrumental soloists', was founded in 2014 by musicians Gabriel Amherst and Judith Evans to provide a platform for international performers resident in and around Oxford.
Since its inception IT&T has performed frequently in the Sheldonian Theatre, the Holywell Music Room, SJE Arts, Dorchester Abbey, and many of Oxford’s churches and chapels. Locally, the orchestra has also performed as part of Garsington Opera at Wormsley, Longborough Festival Opera, the Divine Office Festival, and the Tetbury Festival. IT&T has also extended its activities further afield, performing at London’s Kings Place and Wilton’s Music Hall, Leicester’s De Montfort Hall, Peterborough Cathedral, in Bath’s Assembly Rooms as part of the West Country Choral Festival, and at the Stour Festival in Kent. IT&T has also been in demand in Europe, performing in France, Spain, the Canary Islands, and as part of the Valetta Baroque Festival in Malta.
The ensemble has assumed a significant role in underpinning the tradition of choral excellence at the University of Oxford, collaborating with the choirs of Keble, Merton, New, Magdalen, The Queen’s, and St Peter’s Colleges, as well as with choirs from within the community: Frideswide Voices, the Oxford Bach Choir, Oxford Girl’s Choir, Oxford Pro Musica Singers, Schola Cantorum of Oxford, St Edward’s Singers, and the Summertown Choral Society.
IT&T has often worked alongside the Oxford University Music Faculty, coaching the student baroque ensemble, giving masterclasses and participating in conferences on historically informed performance as well, as establishing an highly praised education programme in partnership with the Oxfordshire County Music Service, introducing school students to period instruments and performance practice, with an extensive programme of courses, coaching and individual tuition.