The Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge, to visit VCU

By Tom Gresham

The Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge, recognized as one of the world’s finest collegiate choirs, will perform at Virginia Commonwealth University on March 28.

The choir, which has participated in services at St. John’s College since the 1670s, will appear in the Sonia Vlahcevic Concert Hall at the W.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts, 922 Park Ave., at 8 p.m. The VCU Commonwealth Singers also will be featured.

The Choir of St. John’s College, which includes 15 boys and 15 men, is renowned for its brilliant and vigorous “continental sound,” unique among English cathedral choirs. Since the 1950s, it has been building an impressive recorded catalogue for labels such as Decca/Argo, Naxos and Hyperion.

“The Choir of St. John’s College has an extraordinary history and we are looking forward to a very special night at VCU,” said John Guthmiller, chair of the VCU Department of Music, director of choral activities and conductor of the VCU Commonwealth Singers. “They will be singing some great repertoire, and I can guarantee a rousing finale to the program.”

The ensemble’s visit to VCU is part of a five-state, nine-concert tour in the United States that runs from March 22 to April 1 – the group’s first trip to the United States since 2006.

Andrew Nethsingha is director of music at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He is also president of the Cathedral Organists’ Association. He has performed in the North America, South Africa, China, the United Kingdom and many other European countries. He works regularly with some of the United Kingdom’s leading orchestras.

The repertoire for the U.S. tour of the Choir of St. John’s College ranges from the 16th century to the 21st and includes: Byrd’s Four-Part Mass, Howells’ Gloucester Service, Swayne’s “Magnificat,” Holst’s “Nunc Dimittis,” Parsons’ “Ave Maria,” Gibbons’ “O Lord, in thy Wrath,” Tye’s “Omnes Gentes,” Purcell’s “Hear My Prayer,” Vaughan Williams’ “Let All the World,” MacMillan’s “A New Song” and Finzi’s mini-cantata “Lo, the Full, Final Sacrifice.”

The Choir of St. John’s College also will collaborate with the Commonwealth Singers on Handel’s “Zadok the Priest.” The Commonwealth Singers is a select choir of 34 singers chosen from throughout VCU. The group has made performance tours in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and northern Virginia. Last year, the choir toured China, performing concerts at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing and the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai.

Tickets for the performance are $10 and may be purchased by calling the VCU Music Box Office at (804) 828-6776. The VCU Music Box Office is open from 2 to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 90 minutes before each ticketed event.