Author Archives: vhk10

a service for PSOs

Posted on June 25, 2025 by vhk10

PSO in this context stands for ‘Parish Safeguarding Officer’, a job I’ve been doing at my church for four years. This year Bath & Wells, for the first time, organised social events specifically for us (some other Dioceses have been … Continue reading →

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a 35th anniversary concert

Posted on June 10, 2025 by vhk10

The Erleigh Cantors were deprived of any sort of 30th anniversary concert because it would have fallen in 2020. Nevertheless, an anthem was commissioned from Andrew Millington, and the 35th anniversary was marked in the same way with a new … Continue reading →

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the Transylvania programme

Posted on May 31, 2025 by vhk10

Gloucester Choral Society sang the same programme everywhere on our choir tour of Transylvania. Three blocks of choral music interspersed with organ pieces. (Except that in the castle we gave a cut-down unaccompanied programme twice with different singers each time.) … Continue reading →

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Gloucester Choral Society plays Transylvania

Posted on May 31, 2025 by vhk10

It’s a remarkable choir that persuades dozens of its members (and hangers-on) to spend over three days travelling by train from one end of Europe to the other to go on their choir tour. But many of us on the … Continue reading →

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Bookending with Bach

Posted on May 15, 2025 by vhk10

The centrepiece of Gloucester Choral Society’s final concert of the season was Rheinberger’s Mass in E flat for double choir. I’d actually previously sung this with two other choirs, the Erleigh Cantors (alongside another current GCS member) and Priory Voices. … Continue reading →

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a farewell organ recital

Posted on April 30, 2025 by vhk10

I went to what was billed as an ‘Easter Bank Holiday Bonanza’, Dewi Rees’ final organ recital before leaving Bath Abbey for St Alban’s Cathedral. For this, a small part of the quire was cordoned off so that the audience … Continue reading →

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Thin Riga Viking

Posted on April 15, 2025 by vhk10

Years back, I and my circle went through a phase of creating anagrams out of one another’s names, aided in part by a computer program. The title of this post was the best one anyone could come up with for … Continue reading →

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Morley at Passiontide

Posted on April 8, 2025 by vhk10

Bath Abbey Chamber Choir’s final performance with Dewi Rees (an evensong originally planned for Holy Week was cancelled) was one of music and readings for Passiontide. The music included a couple of pieces from our repertoire (Elgar’s O salutaris hostia, … Continue reading →

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Modernism in London

Posted on April 5, 2025 by vhk10

I was not going to pass up an opportunity to hear Der Wein, the centrepiece of a concert at the Barbican themed around Baudelaire given by Ryan Wigglesworth and the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Sophie Bevan. The concert opened with … Continue reading →

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Verdi or Dixit?

Posted on March 31, 2025 by vhk10

I had a choice between two concerts on the same night: either singing Handel’s and Scarlatti’s settings of Dixit Dominus with a larger choir than they were written for in Bristol, or singing Verdi’s Requiem with a smaller orchestra than … Continue reading →

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