It was good to have Jeff Skidmore and Ex Cathedra featuring on tonight's The Choir. Jeff has done an amazing...some would say pioneering... job in Brum over the years.
1. He has maintained a first-rate choir in the provinces. This sounds patronising to the provinces, but in reality most singers who want to 'make it' congregate in London, even if they don't actually live there.
2. He has kept ExC involved in a wide repertoire. They could so easily have been just another early music set-up.
3. He keeps his programmes 'accessible'. His relatively recent passion for the music of Latin-America is part of this objective, I think.
4. He has commissioned work from current composers. (I must say personally that the Hutchins featured tonight was pleasant enough, but surely just more Whitaker/Lauridsen et al sound-alike?)
5. He runs a huge education programme pronoting singing in schools.
I was a founder member of ExC in the very early 70s when Jeff looked about 14, so perhaps I am biased in their favour. But putting that aside, he has worked really hard...and not just on the musical front...to make ExC the success it is today. He deserves hearty congratulation.
PS. I thought Paul Agnew sounded especially good in the Lalande de profundis which ended the programme.
PPS. I do hope this programme wasn't a repeat. The last time I started a thred here I was talking old news.
PPS. I notice the Beeb is still plugging this Top 10 Choirs stuff. Oh dear.
1. He has maintained a first-rate choir in the provinces. This sounds patronising to the provinces, but in reality most singers who want to 'make it' congregate in London, even if they don't actually live there.
2. He has kept ExC involved in a wide repertoire. They could so easily have been just another early music set-up.
3. He keeps his programmes 'accessible'. His relatively recent passion for the music of Latin-America is part of this objective, I think.
4. He has commissioned work from current composers. (I must say personally that the Hutchins featured tonight was pleasant enough, but surely just more Whitaker/Lauridsen et al sound-alike?)
5. He runs a huge education programme pronoting singing in schools.
I was a founder member of ExC in the very early 70s when Jeff looked about 14, so perhaps I am biased in their favour. But putting that aside, he has worked really hard...and not just on the musical front...to make ExC the success it is today. He deserves hearty congratulation.
PS. I thought Paul Agnew sounded especially good in the Lalande de profundis which ended the programme.
PPS. I do hope this programme wasn't a repeat. The last time I started a thred here I was talking old news.
PPS. I notice the Beeb is still plugging this Top 10 Choirs stuff. Oh dear.
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