Summer School 2020
“This last week with John Rutter was the most emotional experience I've had in my musical life”
Building on the amazing success of our first workshop Messiah at Home, we continued our unique blend of exquisite choral music and outstanding online teaching with The Self-Isolation Choir Summer School.
Led by our charismatic Musical Director Ben England, The Self-Isolation Summer School explored a delightful range of choral pieces old and new over three separate weeks in the summer of 2020, taking us to new heights of choral excellence from the safety of our own home.
The Programme
Week 1: A John Rutter Celebration
An amazing collaboration with internationally renowned star composer John Rutter and in partnership with Oxford University Press. Introduced with specially filmed and unique Self-Isolation Choir content from John Rutter himself, we spent a week learning John’s sublime pieces before performing them in the final session. The compositions covered were: The Lord Bless You And Keep You, Look at the World, For the Beauty of the Earth, A Clare Benediction, All Things Bright and Beautiful, A Gaelic Blessing and Amen (from 3 Choral Amen). We also partnered with The Fieri Consort who recorded each voice part for each John Rutter piece to assist our learning, so we had no one left behind!
“I just wanted to thank you very much for organising this wonderful summer school. I have enjoyed every minute of Ben's charismatic and clear teaching, he is truly a gem and so inspiring! The Rutter music is sublime, I barely knew any of it but now feel really engaged and uplifted! The lovely Fieri singers and the piano playing are a fantastic addition and we are so lucky to have them to sing to - you have really done us proud I think - and it's only just the start!”
Week 2: The Splendour of Church Anthems & Quanta Qualia
A programme of some of the best-loved and most requested pieces in the canon, including Handel’s “Zadok the Priest”, Parry’s incredible “I Was Glad” and Stanford’s “The Bluebird”. We were so proud to have special guest presenter and composer Patrick Hawes, teaching us his stunning piece Quanta Qualia along with The Fieri Consort who sang all the voice parts to assist with our learning. The words of Quanta Qualia were especially poignant: “O how great and how wonderful the joys of meeting will be”.
“I have just come from the second alto rehearsal, having done all of yesterday's soprano ones and this morning's. I'm absolutely bowled over (all over again) at how brilliant these are. The feeling of community, friendship and love of song is something I never imagined was possible in a virtual space but you have proved it emphatically is. Thank you again for your vision for this choir and for all of your hard work making it happen.”
Week 3: Vivaldi’s Gloria in D Major
A piece that needs very little introduction, our final week of the Summer School focussed on Vivaldi’s Gloria; a notorious piece of choral work sung by choirs all round the world. It was the perfect conclusion to our splendid summer of music with individual part rehearsals led by Ben England and culminating in a full performance at the end of the week.
