Voluntary Choir
Hereford Cathedral Voluntary Choir was formed in 2000, primarily to sing services at the cathedral on some occasions during the year when the cathedral choir is not available.
As well as covering a number of Sundays each year, the choir has sung at weddings, given concerts around the county and recorded for local radio, including BBC Hereford and Worcester’s broadcast Christmas services in 2005.
In 2007 the choir undertook its first overseas tour to Nürnberg, Germany, and returned there in October 2009, singing at a morning service at St Sebald's Church in the city centre, as well as at concerts both there and in the nearby university town of Erlangen.
Rehearsal time is generally limited to just one or two practices before each public event, so a high standard of musicianship is required from the 25-30 members. Many of the choir’s student members have gone on to take up choral scholarships at universities across the country: we are always pleased to welcome them back to sing with the choir again during their university holidays.
The choir aims to complement, rather than duplicate, the cathedral choir’s repertoire, and has given world premiere performances of several works by living composers as well as singing some of the great choral works from the wealth of church music written in earlier centuries. The choir commissioned and gave the first performance of Raymond Warren's Spiritus Domini (in Nürnberg in 2007) and Patrick Dunachie's The Prophecy of Joel, which was premiered at the Three Choirs Festival in August 2009. Members of the choir have taken part in both the RSCM diocesan choirs festival held in the cathedral each autumn, and also in the meetings of the Association of Cathedral Voluntary Choirs held in cathedrals across the country.
Membership of the choir is by informal audition, and enquiries are always welcome. Further information may be obtained from the director, Peter Dyke, whose contact details are:
1A Cathedral Close
Hereford
HR1 2NG
01432 353843
Fauré's Requiem
The cathedral's annual Requiem for All Souls' Day was sung by Hereford Cathedral Voluntary Choir on Tuesday 2 November 2010, to allow the cathedral choir a day of recovery following their successful tour to South Africa. Over a hundred people attended the service at which the whole of Fauré's setting was sung. Timothy Parsons played the organ and solo sections were taken by Elizabeth Allen, Timothy Brown and Michael Ash.
Concert at Leominster Priory
On Saturday 28 May 2011, the choir gave a concert of English choral repertoire as part of a conference marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Hymns Ancient and Modern. Music performed included well-known favourites such as S.S. Wesley's Blessed be the God and Father but also relatively unknown works. One such piece was written by the eighteenth-century Hereford Cathedral organist, Langdon Colborne: Ponder my words was used in a new edition prepared by Michael Ash.
Composition Workshop
During the afternoon of Saturday 16 July 2011, the Voluntary Choir held its second choral composition workshop, following the successful format pioneered in 2010. This aimed to give composers in the area an opportunity to have a sacred choral piece they had written sung in an informal setting. Composers of all ages and levels of experience were invited to submit a previously unpublished work for SATB (or similar) choir. The twelve or so works submitted used a range of sacred texts and lasted up to 5 minutes. At the workshop five compositions were selected and rehearsed by the Voluntary Choir for 15 minutes, with a workshop performance of each immediately afterwards. Opportunities were available for discussion over refreshments with choir members and the experienced composer Anthony Powers.
"The Voluntary Choir has gained a reputation for performing contemporary repertoire," said Peter Dyke, the choir's director, "and we think it is very important for us to support local composers to ensure a wealth of good new music is available to choirs in the years to come. We hope that one or more of the pieces we used on 16 July could be sung at future services by the choir in the cathedral."
At the cathedral services the following day, the choir sang music written exclusively during the 20th and 21st centuries, including Raymond Warren's Spiritus Domini and Piccolo's Canterbury Mass. At Evensong, Esther Kay's setting of the Lord's Prayer was used, and the anthem was At the round earth's imagined corners, written by the 2010-11 organ scholar of Hereford Cathedral, Timothy Parsons.