Charter Choir of Homerton College

At the time of writing, 27 Homerton students are enrolled in the choir; this includes 23 undergraduates and four PGCE students, in subjects as varied as Music, History, Theology, English, Geography, Education, Computer Science, Modern Languages, Politics, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and Psychological and Behavioural Sciences. This may also be the first time we have ever had more tenors than basses (anyone who sings in a choir will understand what a rare commodity tenors are)! How fortunate I am to work in a College in which there are so many students willing to be dedicated advocates for choral music.

It has been an exciting year. After a relatively calm start to 2023, Easter Term saw a marked increase in activity as we prepared for a joint service with Girton Choir, an Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral, a performance at the annual Charter Dinner, a commercial recording, and a tour to Iceland. Owing to installation works taking place in St John’s Church, Hills Road at the beginning of May, Tuesday Evensong took place for the first time in Homerton’s Great Hall, accompanied on the piano. In the event, we ended up sharing the space with Homerton’s maintenance team who, as a result of some rather inclement weather, had to ensure that the water leaking from the Victorian gutters was not damaging A Florentine Procession by Jane Benham Hay.

A few days later, on a very temperate Sunday afternoon, we were given a warm welcome to Girton College by their choir and director, Gareth Wilson. This was the first joint Evensong that the Charter Choir had been involved in since before Covid and, as far as we know, it was the first time that choirs from the two furthermost Colleges have collaborated. A truly historic occasion! We look forward to a return visit by Girton in late January 2024. The Charter Choir have also inherited a set of cassocks and surplices from Sidney Sussex Choir and were able to try these out for the final Cambridge Evensong of the academic year. However, straight after the end of term, a plethora of examination Firsts were accompanied by another choir first, namely singing in St Paul’s Cathedral. For this occasion, we were joined by a number of choir alumni who sang Evensong with us, and the service was followed by alumni drinks reception on Fleet Street, organised by the Homerton Development Office. Daunting as it was to perform and worship in England’s de facto national cathedral, it was incredibly gratifying to receive such warm feedback from the clergy and to be immediately invited back, so I hope that we will find a suitable date for this in the academic year 2024–25.

Much of the music performed by the Choir this year, both at special events and in our regular weekly Evensongs at St John’s Church, consisted of settings of the Psalms by composers across the ages. This served as preparation for our third commercial release (provisionally entitled Psalms, Stars & Light, recorded in June at St George’s Church, Chesterton, and due to be released on the Convivium label in spring 2024). As well as a couple of organ works played by Shanna Hart (Assistant Organist) and Organ Scholar (Lorenzo Bennett), it features a wide variety of choral styles, ranging from plainchant, 16th-century polyphony, hymn settings, and the music of several living composers such as Bob Chilcott, Bobby McFerrin, Douglas Coombes, Carol J Jones, James MacMillan… and a short Anglican psalm chant by myself.

Several of these works then came on tour with the Choir to Iceland, the highlight of our year, where we sang to audiences in Vík, Skálholt, and Reykjavík. Breathtaking scenery, earthquakes, thermal pools, sunburns, and glaciers are part and parcel of life in Iceland, if the Choir’s experience is anything to go by. In addition to the newly recorded Psalm settings, we performed the world premiere of And we die, composed by Amber Coxill, Music student and Choral Scholar, inspired by the poetry of Emily Brontë, Katherine Castle, and Emily Dickinson. The last day of the tour consisted of a service plus a concert, twice over, in Reykjavík’s Hallgrímskirkja and Landakotskirkja respectively. The stunning architecture of the Hallgrímskirkja, set against a blue-sky backdrop, was a sight to behold, and the Lutheran Mass afforded the Choir several opportunities to sing to a mixed congregation of locals and tourists. Quite coincidentally, our trip overlapped with a tour by concert organist Katelyn Emerson, and so we were fortunate to share the music-making with her that morning.

The Choir on tour to Iceland, the highlight of our year, where we sang to audiences in Vík, Skálholt, and Reykjavík.

Choir withdrawal symptoms having dissipated by the end of the summer, it was time for the normal personnel changeover in September, which this year included the departure of Shanna Hart as Assistant Organist and Music Administrator; she will be sorely missed by many. Highlights of the Michaelmas Term included singing a new set of Preces and Responses by Coby O’Brien, Homerton Music student and Choral Scholar, and being interrupted by a dalek while singing the Dr Who theme tune at a special Formal Hall inspired by the same television show. The Choir coped admirably through the term with the usual crop of unexpected illness-related absences, and although I managed to catch the new wave of Covid during week 8, I am most grateful to Douglas Coombes for standing in for me. As ever, the Charter Choir is also enormously grateful to the Honorary Lay Chaplain, Patricia Maude, and to the Revd James Shakespeare and the team at St John’s Church, for all that they do to support the Charter Choir. 

Alumni and friends are most welcome at Charter Choir services and concerts, full details of which can be found on our website at www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/charter-choir. In the meantime, please follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/homcharterchoir) or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/charter_choir).

Photographs by Shanna Hart