Barnet Choral Society has started rehearsals under its new musical director Rory McCleery -- and his choice for their first concert of 2023 plays to the choir's great tradition of performing baroque music.
When appointed to the post, he looked through the society’s repertoire over the last 80 years and was impressed by the number performances they had given by baroque composers.
“Music for Royal Occasions” is the title of the concert, to be held on Saturday 1 April, and Rory hopes it will prove to be a fitting prelude to the Coronation of King Charles III to be held on Saturday 6 May.
Staging a concert of baroque music will also play to his own strengths as a professional singer and conductor of renaissance and early baroque works.
Rory, a countertenor, is the founder and artistic director of the Marian Consort, a vocal ensemble which is featured regularly on BBC Radio 3, and which appeared at the BBC Proms in 2021. He leaves next month for a televised concert tour in Japan.
Having lived in Underhill, Barnet, since 2014 he was delighted to be appointed conductor of the town’s choral society and have the chance to lead a local choir.
“When applying for the post I found the society had this wonderful record of performing baroque music and although it has not been performed as much as in recent years, I thought it would a great opportunity to build on the choir’s historic legacy.
“I didn’t know then that the Coronation would be in May, but the timing couldn’t better, and the concert will be a chance to reflect on the history of royal music in England.”
At his first rehearsal with the choir, held in the hall at Queen Elizabeth’s School, he found a “real sense of enthusiasm” about the repertoire for the concert.
“I saw immediately that we share a real passion for this music and the choir will be joined for the concert by a specialist baroque orchestra and four soloists with international careers”.
One of the pieces to be performed will be The ways of Zion do mourn, the funeral anthem for Queen Caroline in 1737, by George Frideric Handel, best known for his Messiah.
Alongside this will be a performance of Now does the glorious day appear, a 1689 ode for the birthday of Queen Mary by Henry Purcell, who became a royal favourite because of way he brought together French and Italian musical influences.
The choir will be joined by a young baroque orchestra, Spiritato, who play reproductions of original baroque instruments, and four soloists, soprano Elspeth Mairwen Piggott, mezzo soprano Sara Anne Champion, tenor William Wright and bass Thomas Lowen.
Rory – seen here examining the organ at Barnet Parish Church – stressed the importance of the role played by choral societies which provided a wonderful communal space where local choirs can perform alongside professional orchestras and singers.
One of his challenges as the society’s musical director will be to see what can be done to encourage more young people to take up choral singing.
“The society has this great strength of being rooted in the community and hopefully we can find ways to bring in young singers.
“Music teaching in schools has suffered so much in recent years, and the music education service has been impoverished, so perhaps we can help address that challenge and provide an outlet for even greater community involvement and do our bit to sustain the country’s great eco system of music making.”
Rory, who is 36, began his musical career as a chorister at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh, and gained a double first in music at Oxford University as both organ and domus academic scholar of St Peter’s College, before completing a master of studies in musicology with distinction at the Queen’s College, Oxford.
Together with his wife, harpist Rachel Wick, they are artistic co-founders of Dunster Festival in West Somerset. The couple have two small children, aged five months and three.
