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Schola Cantorum is Oxford University’s longest-running chamber choir. It was founded in 1960 by the Hungarian dissident Lászlò Heltay, and over the last three decades many of the choir’s former members have become involved in professional music at the highest levels. Former singers include Emma Kirkby and Jane Glover, while Andrew Parrott, Stephen Cleobury, and Ivor Bolton are among the choir’s former conductors. Schola Cantorum’s patrons are Sir Michael Tippett and Lord Yehudi Menuhin, and for specific projects the choir has worked under Leonard Bernstein, Gustav Leonhardt, Sie Colin Davis, and Sir Neville Marriner as well as Benjamin Britten, Tippett, and Stravinsky in performances of their own music.
Since 1990 Schola Cantorum was conducted by Jeremy Summerly under whom the choir has released many recordings and has toured extensively, both in UK and abroad. In 2002, James Burton was appointed Music Director of Schola Cantorum of Oxford, and since then has conducted the choir in concerts all over the UK and on prestigious and ground-breaking tours of Mexico (twice) and Argentina. Schola Cantorum of Oxford is committed to presenting the passion of its young singers for their music in an innovative and memorable way. The choir's energetic approach to both rehearsal and performance allows Schola to tackle unique provocative programmes of music.
In Spring 2006 Schola gave two performances of Händel’s dramatic oratorio Israel in Egypt. Taking soloists from the choir and performing in two prestigious venues, the Sheldonian and St James’s Piccadilly, with an orchestra drawn from some of England’s finest professional Baroque specialists, this was the perfect showcase for Schola’s young talent.
Over recent years Schola has maintained its history for tackling wide-ranging and challenging repertoire. This stems from both the work of more familiar composers such as Tallis, Strauss and Scarlatti, whose works often challenge ensemble and interpretation, to more modern composers such as Macmillan, Schnittke and Williams whose compositions necessitate great energy and versatility as well as vocal dexterity. Schola also aims to perform a wide variety of music from many different countries and cultures. Recently the choir has performed works in Mandarin, Estonian, Hungarian, Russian and Spanish.
On June 21, Schola performed ‘The Oxford Blues Service’, a commission composed by Roderick Williams, which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong. This piece provides both singers and audience to experience a new perspective on church music, as well as building on Schola’s tradition of working with eminent composers, who have in the past included Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein and Tippett, and more recently Roxanna Panufnik and Per Nørgaard. Schola is keen to cultivate young compositional talent and in 2006 they performed choir member Jonathan Bridcut’s ‘Why do you stand far off?’, written in memory of the London bombings of June 2005.
In September 2006 Schola returned to Mexico to open the Cervantino Music Festival in Guanajuato. Schola is the first English choir to have toured extensively in Mexico (2004) and Argentina (2005), appearing on national television and radio in both countries, performing at festivals and collaborating with local groups. The choir performed at the opening concert of the Roma Europa Festival (2005) at the Quirinale Palace to mark Britain’s presidency of the EU, in Spain (2002) at the Santander International Festival, and in Japan, where Schola won first prize at the Takarazuka Chamber Choir Competition. The trip to Mexico in 2006 included didactic concerts with school children, a collaboration with OFUNAM, one of Mexico’s leading orchestras, and performances in Mexico’s major concert hall, the Sala Nezahualcoyotl. |
