Wisdom and Strength
7.30pm, Saturday 17 May 2025
St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, SW1X 8SH
Performers
Siglo de Oro
Simon Hogan Organ
Patrick Allies Direction
Programme
- Media vitaKerensa Briggs
- In manus tuasJudith Ward
- St Mark’s MassJudith Ward
- Haec diesSarah Cattley
- Worthy is the LambJoanna Marsh
- Christ, Our Paschal LambKristina Arakelyan
- Love bade me welcomeJudith Weir
- O Clap your HandsJudith Ward
- Flamed TongueMarisse Cato
- Psalm 59Shruthi Rajasekar
- The Spirit of TruthJudith Bingham
- Ubi CaritasAlison Willis
- Nunc dimittisAmy Summers
- O lux beata trinitasKerry Andrew
- Gloria tibi trinitasJudith Ward
World premiere
Renowned British ensemble Siglo de Oro presents an exceptional programme of new sacred music by women composers to celebrate the launch of their new CD recording, Wisdom and Strength.
Siglo de Oro
Siglo de Oro is one of the leading British vocal ensembles of its generation. The group is recognised internationally for its golden tone, fresh interpretations, and innovative programming. Since its acclaimed debut at the Spitalfields Festival in 2014, Siglo de Oro has performed all over the UK, Europe, and North America, recorded five albums for Delphian Records, and broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3.
Siglo de Oro’s recordings with Delphian Records range from fifteenth-century music written for Milan Cathedral to new pieces for choir and saxophone composed specifically for the ensemble. Among these albums was the world premiere recording of a late-Renaissance mass by Hieronymus Praetorius, released in 2018, which was BBC Music Magazine’s Choral and Song Album of the Month. Siglo de Oro’s most recent recording, The Mysterious Motet Book of 1539, reached number 9 in the UK specialist classical chart, and was one of Music Web International’s Recordings of the Year for 2022.
Siglo de Oro has long been committed to performing contemporary music. The ensemble has regularly commissioned new works, including pieces by Kerensa Briggs, Owain Park, Ben Rowarth and Marisse Cato. Siglo de Oro gave the first performance of Emily Hall’s hotel-based opera Found and Lost, and has an ongoing association with the charity Multitude of Voyces, whose mission is to promote the work of under-represented composers.
In the 2024-25 season, the group will take up a three-concert residency at Wigmore Hall, as well as giving concerts across the UK and in Canada, the United States, and Finland.
Photograph of Siglo de Oro by Kaupo Kikkas. Used with permission.
Patrick Allies
Patrick Allies is a conductor and musicologist based in London. He began his musical education as a chorister at the Temple Church, and sang in Gloucester Cathedral Choir before taking up a choral scholarship to study music at King’s College London. Patrick went on to postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge where he was a member of Jesus College Choir.
In his role as artistic director of the London-based vocal ensemble Siglo de Oro, Patrick has made five acclaimed recordings with Delphian Records of music from the Renaissance to the present day. Under Patrick’s direction the group has taken up invitations to perform in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Malta, Canada, and the United States.
Patrick is currently conductor of Imperial College Chamber Choir, the flagship choir of Imperial College London. In addition to directing the choir in its regular services and concerts on the college’s South Kensington campus, Patrick has led the choir on international tours to Estonia and Finland, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s “Choral Evensong” programme.
Alongside his work as a conductor Patrick is a doctoral student in music at the University of Oxford. Patrick’s research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, involves fifteenth-century choirs and their performance spaces.
