Requiems at Home
Requiems at Home
The Self-Isolation Choir presents Requiems at Home for Faure, Brahms, Durufle, Verdi and Mozart.
Mozart Requiem with our musical director, Ben England - starting in January 2021
Faure, Brahms (in German), Durufle and Verdi with our course director, Harry Bradford - available now
Specially commissioned new recordings of each requiem for these courses
We invite you to record your own voice for the complete Requiem
Full rehearsals for each voice part: soprano, alto, tenor and bass, all taught separately
Three monthly LIVE online concerts to sing through the entire Requiem – you can join these as many times as you like
Learn the chorus and solo parts too - why not?
Music backing on English cathedral organ or piano
Requiems Recording
Following feedback from the choir, the decision has been made about the choir recordings for each Requiem. We invite you to record the lot. The entire Requiem. Those who record their own voice will hear it combined with the others in the choir when played back at one of our concerts.
There is no pressure on you to do any recordings and you are no less an important member of The Self-Isolation Choir should you decide not to submit any recordings at all.
Choirs have debated long and hard which are the best Requiems to sing and whilst there is no definitive list, we at The Self-Isolation Choir have decided that the time has come to give them a go.
There is such demand to learn and sing these great works, but we were unhappy about the subject matter at this current time. The clamour for these has, however, been so great that we have decided we can wait no longer and it’s time for “in paridisum.”
So we launch REQUIEMS AT HOME with Faure, Brahms (in German), Durufle and Verdi AVAILABLE NOW, with Mozart in January 2021.
We now have over 2,300 subscriptions for the Requiems and we look forward to singing these iconic pieces together over the coming months.
The courses for Faure, Brahms (Ein deutsches Requiem - in German), Durufle and Verdi are pre-recorded videos. This means you can start the course at any time. There will not be a requirement to send in any recordings and the “performance” will be three monthly LIVE stream concerts when we shall sing through the entire Requiem. The cost of each course will be £19.99 or you can save £10 by signing up for all five requiems.
Mozart’s Requiem
Starting in January 2021, The Self-Isolation Choir will turn its attention to Mozart’s Requiem. This will be a full scale learning and performance of the entire Requiem led by Ben England, our musical director. He will lead the course and arrange for a full orchestrated version with international soloists to be created from scratch. Work will commence on this mammoth task in October and everything should be in place by the time we start in January 2021. We shall ask you to record your voice for every chorus and will broadcast the result in a live concert broadcasted on March 31st, 2021. This gives us more time than the nine weeks we had with MESSIAH and we shall only request that you submit audio – no video. The cost of the Mozart Requiem At Home course is £29.99
Course Director
Please meet our REQUIEMS AT HOME course director, Harry Bradford, who will lead the courses for all bar Mozart.
Harry will lead the teaching for Faure, Brahms, Verdi and Durufle with a cathedral organ/piano backing and the Recordare Chamber Choir. A prize-winning conductor and choral director, Harry has an MMus with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music. He was the Genesis Sixteen Conducting Scholar 2018-19 and is co-founder and conductor of Recordare, a vibrant and versatile choir of Genesis Sixteen alumni. He is also the musical director of North Herts Guild of Singers and the Thames Philharmonic Choir.
“We are delighted Harry is joining us as the Course Director for most of the Requiems. It’s important we support and encourage our younger stars and so we are fortunate to have Harry and his contacts leading these courses”
Mark Strachan, Founder of The Self-Isolation Choir
In 2009, Harry was a BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year. He subsequently read music at the University of Cambridge and was a choral scholar in the choir of King’s College under the direction of the late Sir Stephen Cleobury. At King’s College, Harry was the music director and arranger for the scholars’ close harmony group, The King’s Men. He remains active as a singer and has worked with Tenebrae, Mogens Dahl Kammerkor, the Hanover Band Chorus, London Choral Sinfonia, Siglo de Oro and Britten Sinfonia Voices. As well as his position with Thames Philharmonic Choir, he holds permanent positions with the North Herts Guild of Singers, Stanmore Choral Society and the Argus Media Office Choir, and directs his close harmony group, the Chetwynd Consort.
To take a look at Harry’s website and see him in action, click here.
Requiems At Home - New Recordings
New recordings of these Requiems are taking place to aid our learning:
Music - this will be recorded on the Westminster Cathedral organ in London for Faure, Durufle and Verdi and on a piano for Brahms, in an arrangement written by Brahms himself and performed in 1871 at the London premier.
Singing - the singing of all the choruses and solos for our course will be performed by the Recordare Chamber Choir, an exciting young professional vocal ensemble founded by conductor Harry Bradford and Sopranos Danni and Kirsty O’Neill. It is comprised of 8-22 recent alumni from the Genesis Sixteen scheme, students from the Royal Academy of Music and former choral scholars from leading institutions such as the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and Royal Holloway.
So as you can see, Harry is well qualified and follows the mould as set by Ben of being charismatic, deeply musical with a passion for communicating this to us all. We are in safe hands.
Timings
The REQUIEMS AT HOME courses will be available as follows:
Faure - available now
Brahms (In German) - available now
Durufle - available now
Verdi - available now
The dates of the LIVE concerts will be given privately to members by email.
How it will work
The course will be a mix of live streaming and recorded learning at an all-in-one charge of £19.99 per Requiem, including teaching, score (Durufle is still in copyright so there is an extra change for this score and you will be emailed these details), three monthly live concerts and VAT. Harry will record his teaching on video for separate voices, as is the tradition with The Self-Isolation Choir, and these videos will be emailed to you.
This means you can start the course at any time you like and take as long as you wish. Harry will teach using our own new and full recordings of each Requiem. In addition, Harry will hold 3 monthly LIVE concerts for the entire choir for each Requiem.
Harry will be supported by James Orford on Westminster Cathedral organ for Faure/Durufle and by Richard Gowers on organ for Verdi and piano for Brahms.
REQUIEMS AT HOME will provide you with the ultimate teaching of the choruses AND solos for these amazing works. There will be 3 LIVE performances for each Requiem and you will be asked to record your part for each (this is not mandatory). The courses are for you to learn the work and enjoy singing with a new and energetic conductor.
Every month for three months, we shall have a LIVE streamed concert for each Requiem which you are invited to join as many times as you like. These live sessions will happen every month, so if you miss one, you can always join the next. The exact timings of these sessions will be emailed to you.
Scores
Many of you will have scores already and these will be perfectly satisfactory. We shall recommend online free scores which will be sent to you by email for all bar Durufle where a purchase may be necessary if you do not have access to a score.
