7.30pm, Friday 12 May 2023
Pre-concert talk and Q&A with the LFCCM’s founder Christopher Batchelor at 7pm
St Pancras Parish Church, NW1 2BA

Saint Cecilia surrounded by angels, Michiel Coxie, 1569

Performers

The LFCCM Festival Singers
Soloists of The Sarum Consort
Edward Tambling Organ
Alastair Carey Direction

Programme

Festival commissionWorld premiere

Composers from across the UK come together in a remarkable collaboration that celebrates 20 years of Christopher Batchelor’s founding and leadership of the LFCCM, with the premiere performance of new music inspired by the collaborative creation of the Missa Cantantibus organis Cæcilia in the 1580s by Palestrina’s students in honour of their renowned teacher.

The Festival gratefully acknowledges the support and advice of Cecilia McDowall, Roxanna Panufnik, Phillip Cooke, and Gregory Rose in the design and planning of this project.

Alastair Carey

Alastair Carey Alastair Carey has been involved in choral performance since the age of six. He has performed, recorded and broadcast throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, appearing as a vocal performer with ensembles including The Gabrieli Consort, The Oxford Camerata, The Brabant Ensemble, and The Nederlandse Bachvereniging in performances ranging from the BBC Proms to the Leipzig Bach Festival. As a conductor, Alastair has directed concerts in Asia, Australasia, Europe, and throughout the United Kingdom, including award-winning performances at competitions in the European Grand Prix in Spain and the World Choir Games in South Korea.

The Sarum Consort

Described as “the jewel in the crown of Salisbury music”, The Sarum Consort has been presenting innovative and compelling programmes ever since its first performance in 1992. Under the leadership of founder Andrew Mackay and current director Alastair Carey, the group has established a reputation for excellence in both early music and in contemporary vocal performance, receiving critical acclaim for its recordings on the Naxos label and its live performances in Salisbury and Wiltshire.

Edward Tambling

Edward Tambling Edward Tambling is the Assistant Director of Music at St James’s Church, Spanish Place, and a freelance organist, singer, and editor. Edward became organ scholar of Christ Church, Oxford in 2006, going on to Westminster Cathedral after graduating, and has since worked at Westminster Abbey, Holy Trinity, Dartford and St John’s School, Leatherhead. In 2009, Edward gained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists. His organ teachers have included his father, Christopher Tambling, and David Sanger.

Edward’s editions of Renaissance polyphony have been met with critical acclaim, and this has led to performances and recordings of his editions by ensembles such as The Cardinall’s Musick, The Monteverdi Choir, The Sixteen, The Sarum Consort, and The Marian Consort. In 2012, Edward was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of St Cecilia in recognition of his substantial contribution to early music. Other musical interests include American jazz, which he is keen to maintain on a practical level.

The LFCCM Festival Singers

The Festival’s own professional vocal ensemble, The LFCCM Festival Singers, expands and augments the Choir of St Pancras Parish Church with additional singers from London’s world-class choral institutions. Most members of the ensemble have come from a collegiate background and gone on to study as postgraduate students at one of the London conservatoires. This combination of superb sight-reading and world-class vocal training gives the group tremendous flexibility, enabling the performance of a repertory that spans five centuries: ranging from motets from the Eton Choirbook to new commissions by composers such as Roxanna Panufnik, Michael Berkeley, Cecilia McDowall, Howard Skempton, Michael Finnissy, Gabriel Jackson, Francis Pott, Sebastian Forbes, Francis Grier, Kerry Andrew, Antony Pitts, and many more.