Christmas, as usual, was a very busy time for the choir of St. Botolph's Church but, so far, 2019 is proving just as enjoyable and challenging!
On
Saturday, January 26th most of our choir members travelled to Chichester to take part in a combined Festal Choral Evensong at St. Paul's Church, Chichester (where our priest, Rev. Peter Kane, served his curacy). Our singers joined with the St. Paul's choir, and others from Whyke; St. Mary's, Portsea, and Arundel Cathedral - about 60 voices in all.
The event was directed by St. Paul's choirmaster, Christopher Larley, and included C.V. Stanford's Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C, "Walk in the way of love" (a beautiful introit by Christopher's father, Patrick Larley) and Handel's famous "Zadok the priest" as well as a psalm and hymn.
The forces in the combined choir were matched by numbers in the congregation for the 5.30pm service, and the St. Paul's 'catering team' did a fantastic job feeding us all afterwards with a wonderful spread of cakes and desserts!
Now the St. Botolph's choristers are working hard in preparation for their next outing - they are singing Evensong at Portsmouth Cathedral on
Saturday, 30th March, when they will be joined by a few friends from the Portsmouth area. Music will include Rose responses, Wood in D canticles, Psalm 116 (with a chant specially written by choirmaster Tony Tournoff), and S.S. Wesley's anthem 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace'. Philip Drew, organist and choirmaster of the church of the Holy Spirit, Southsea, will be at the organ.
Plans are also underway for a concert on
Saturday, June 15th at St. Botolph's. Although the choir will be involved in this, the intention is to show the group's versatility and will include 'friends' as well as the choir members. The music will
not be anything like you might hear on a Sunday morning at St. B's and is likely to include spirituals, songs from the shows, solo and small group slots (although nothing is set in stone yet) - a real mixture of light music for a summer evening (hopefully the weather will oblige!) Do put the date in your diaries and watch out for more details nearer the time.
The church is very lucky to have Richard Baker acting as our organist at the moment, but we are still (at his request) urgently seeking an organist who could take some of the burden off his shoulders after Easter and play for at least two or three services each month. If you know anyone who may be interested, please show them the advert below and ask them to get in touch with Rik Clay, our churchwarden, as soon as possible.