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Music for the Armistice Centenary

New College plays host to a weekend of three stunning but poignant concerts of music for remembrance, 100 years after the WWI Armistice. 

Each with a different programme, exciting new ensemble Wykeham's Musicke will explore the wide range of music written for mourning, lament and remembrance, through both choral music and solo song. The ancient and dramatic New College Chapel in the centre of Oxford provides the perfect candlelit venue for this must-see series of performances. 

Wykeham's Musicke is a hand-selected group of professional Centenary singers brought together for this unique 100-year anniversary of the Armistice. Directed by Daniel Tate, who has sung as a Lay Clerk at New College, Oxford, the members draw experience from a wide range of musical institutions in the country, including Tenebrae, Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, Glyndebourne Opera, top Collegiate chapel choirs and London conservatories. 

Tickets are available for the entire series, or for individual performances, here. Please check carefully that your ticket choice corresponds to the correct performance and day! 

All performances take place in New College Chapel. The Chapel is very old, so you may wish to bring a cushion for comfort. Please arrive at least 15 minutes before the start of the performance. 

Concert 1 - Mourning and Lamentation

Saturday 10th November, 8:30pm

The first in the weekend's musical offering for remembrance is an atmospheric performance of choral music written for mourning, sadness and lament, including the achingly beautiful Lamentations by Alonso Lobo, a Renaissance masterwork. 

Also featuring choral settings of When David heard that Absalom was slain and I heard a voice from heaven in both Latin and English, exploring how different composers approached the topic of mourning and death. Howells' Requiem provides a more recent example of this, written around 1933 but not published until 1980 - only three years before his own death. 

Tickets are available for the entire series, or for individual performances, here.

Concert 2 - Songs of War

Sunday 11th November, 3:00pm

An afternoon concert of solo English Song for voice and piano, focusing on composers who were killed or wounded fighting in the First World War - including the devastating 6 Songs from a Shropshire Lad by George Butterworth, written and first performed only a stone's throw from New College Chapel. 

This promises to be a poignant programme featuring some of the best young soloists in the country: Ana Beard-Fernandez (Soprano), Beth Horak-Hallett (Mezzo Soprano), Aidan Coburn (Tenor), Daniel Tate (Baritone), and Ilya Chetverikov (Piano). 

All of this concert's performances will take place in the Antechapel, in front of the College's war memorial. 

Tickets are available for the entire series, or for individual performances, here.

Concert 3 - For the Fallen

Sunday 11th November, 8:30pm - with Alexander Armstrong

As 100 years pass since the Armistice marked the end of the First World War, we have created a unique programme of commemoration featuring several works premiered almost 100 years ago, including Parry's masterful Songs of Farewell (first sung at New College!), and a rarely performed early work by Herbert Howells entitled Blessed are the dead

The musical language is one of deep nostalgia - a curious and unique trait to English music of this period. Other works from the period by Holst, Elgar, Stanford, and Harris are interspersed with war poetry read by Alexander Armstrong. 

As the first generation without living reminders of this costly battle, this is our opportunity through music to say, 'We have not forgotten yet. We will remember them.'

Tickets are available for the entire series, or for individual performances, here.