The Oxford Harmonic Choir is offering an exciting opportunity in its upcoming concert to hear the UK première of Sir Andrew Davis’s colourfully re-orchestrated version of the perennial favourite that is Handel’s Messiah. The concert will take place at 7.30 on 26 March in Oxford Town Hall.Continue Reading
A piece of its own: the OHC composition competition
This is the last in the series of monthly posts celebrating the choir’s rich history in its centenary year.
By 2016 the choir had been in existence for over 90 years and performed several premières and little known works throughout its history. But it had never had a piece written especially for it, even though commissioning one had been under discussion for decades. Early in that year however, its then Chair, Lindsey Charles, was inspired by a very successful national competition run by a local amateur orchestra to find a composer to write a piece for it. This seemed a promising way forward for the choir too and in autumn 2016 the committee agreed to go ahead.Continue Reading
First performances and revivals
Oxford Harmonic Choir has a proud tradition of including less well-known works in its concerts; on a few occasions, too, performances of new works have been put on. An early example of the latter was in 1926, when Reginald Jacques conducted a performance of Forty Singing Seamen, a work for baritone, chorus and orchestra by the Oxford composer Thomas Wood. (The 1926 performance was given without the orchestral accompaniment, but the work was performed again with orchestra in 1927 in a subscription concert that had been postponed because of the general strike, see our August post.)Continue Reading
Singing with Bonn: from heyday to final concert
After the Harmonic’s first trip to Bonn in 1987 it was four years before the two choirs sang together again, even though the Bonn Philharmonic Choir visited Oxford in 1988 and 1989. In 1991, however, the Harmonic was invited to Bonn again to sing Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius in Oxfordwoche and a party of 65 singers set off in September with their new conductor Robert Secret.Continue Reading
