Onwards to Liverpool

Our Choral Pilgrimage got off to a great start in Oxford and Norwich, with excellent reviews in The Times and the Guardian. Onwards now to Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral on Friday: tickets are just £15, available in advance from the Cathedral Gift Shop on 0151 707 3525 or at the door from 6.30pm on the night. And thence to Blackburn on Saturday.

Choral Pilgrimage starts

Our 2011 Choral Pilgrimage started in Oxford last night with a packed concert in Christ Church Cathedral; tonight our Tomas Luis de Victoria programme moves on to Norwich Cathedral at 7.30pm. Tickets are available from 01603 218323 and there will be some restricted view seats on sale at the door. An intense, very beautiful programme, with the poignant Litaniae Beatae Mariae to finish the concert as we think about our Japanese friends and the impact of the earthquake and tsunami.

New release: Victoria

Our new CD of works by Victoria is now on sale via our shop. It is released to complement this year's Choral Pilgrimage tour which begins in Oxford on 11 March. The long-established tradition of devotion to the Virgin Mary resulted in some superb settings from Spanish composers. Tomás Luis de Victoria was, quite possibly, the most outstanding composer of the Renaissance and this recording features a tantalizing selection of the sumptuous music he wrote in honour of the Virgin Mary, including some of his exquisite Marian motets and the glorious Missa Alma Redemptoris Mater.

Wells Cathedral

There are worse ways to spend a Saturday morning than gazing for a couple of hours at the West Front of Wells Cathedral (alternating with staring at the laptop screen). Our Choral Pilgrimage hotel here is The Swan, which has a spectacular view from its lounge. The present cathedral was begun around 1180, on a new site to the north of the old. Started nearly 10 years before Lincoln and more than 40 years before Salisbury, Wells was the first English cathedral to be built throughout with the pointed arch, shafted column and ribbed vault of the Gothic style. A great setting for last night's packed concert. Off to Tewkesbury now.

Stained glass windows in Swansea

Four Choral Pilgrimage concerts coming up this week, in Swansea, Wells, Tewkesbury and St Asaph. The Collegiate and Parish Church of St Mary in Swansea has a fine collection of stained glass windows, including the Millenium Window by Martin Donlin.
My other favourites are John Edwards' Baptistry Window:And finally, John Piper's Creation window:


Tickets for Swansea (16th), Wells (17th) and Tewkesbury (18th) are available from the National Centre for Early Music on 01904 651485 and for St Asaph (19th) from the North Wales International Music Festival box-office on 01745 584508.
Limited availability for all four concerts.

City Church of Christ the Cornerstone

The Choral Pilgrimage pays its first visit to Milton Keynes on 2 July, with a concert at the City Church of Christ the Cornerstone. We are getting lots of calls about this concert, but I am afraid it is already sold-out. An intriguing building, it is an ecumenical church, opened in 1992 and dedicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend and Right Honourable George Carey (Anglican); His Eminence Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster (Roman Catholic); the Reverend Desmond Pemberton, Assistant National Superintendent, Wesleyan Holiness Church; and the Reverend Dr John Newton, Chairman, Liverpool District Methodist Church (the Presidents of Churches Together in England). The Queen attended the Dedication service: a Roman Catholic Cardinal gave the sermon before the reigning monarch - the first time this had happened in over 400 years. An interesting anecdote given the history behind our Tudor repertoire this year.

CP9 gets underway

After more than a year of planning, the first day, of 27 days of reckoning was upon us last Friday as we were in Guildford Cathedral for the first performance of the 2009 Choral Pilgrimage. To add to the excitement the concert was being recorded for a CORO live disc that'll be on general release in April.

Check back here to watch a short 'making of' film in the next few days. In the meantime, it's on to the University cities of Cambridge and Oxford on March 13 & 14 respectively. The Sixteen formed in Oxford so it'll be an especially memorable performance for Harry Christophers as the group he formed, back in 1979, celebrates its thirtieth anniversary.