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Crouch End Festival Chorus

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Crouch End Festival Chorus
CEFC with musical director, David Temple
CEFC with musical director, David Temple
Background information
OriginCrouch End, London
GenresClassical, popular music, soundtrack, film score
Instrumentchoral
Years active1984–present
LabelsSilva Screen, Chandos Records, Signum Records
Websitehttp://www.cefc.org.uk

Crouch End Festival Chorus (CEFC) is a symphonic choir based in north London which performs in a range of musical styles, including traditional choral repertoire, contemporary classical, rock, pop and film music.

Led by musical director David Temple, the choir has appeared in the BBC Proms concert series and has performed under the baton of conductors including Esa Pekka-Salonen, Semyon Bychkov, Edward Gardner and Valery Gergiev. CEFC also features on the sound track of films and TV series such as Disney's Prince Caspian, the BBC's Doctor Who and Amazon Prime Video's Good Omens TV series.

CEFC's patrons include the conductor Sir Mark Elder, bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, film music composer Hans Zimmer, rock artists Ray Davies and Noel Gallagher, with whom the choir has performed live and in the recording studio and its co-founder, John Gregson.

David Temple was appointed MBE in the New Year's Honours List in January 2018 for his services to music.

History and organisation

In 1984 John Gregson, the director of the then Crouch End Arts Festival, invited David Temple to become the Festivals's music director. Gregson suggested that the festival should have its own choir and invited Temple to become its chorus master. A scratch choir of amateur singers was formed to perform Verdi's Requiem and the choir was given the name Crouch End Festival Chorus. Its membership has grown to around 150 singers who rehearse weekly in Muswell Hill and perform at Alexandra Palace Theatre, and at venues across London including the Barbican Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Royal Albert Hall.

CEFC is a charitable company run by a board of trustees elected by its members, with the day-to-day functions of the organisation carried out by a management committee of volunteers from the choir's ranks. Members join the choir via a formal audition and all singers are re-auditioned every three years.

Classical repertoire

At its own concerts CEFC performs choral music over a wide chronological range from Thomas Tallis in the sixteenth century to new commissions. Over the course of its existence up to summer 2022 it has performed the work of 113 composers from John Adams to Hans Zimmer. The major British composers, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Tippett and Britten feature regularly on concert programmes, as do European composers including Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn, Poulenc and Stravinsky, and Americans including Bernstein, John Adams and Philip Glass. In recent years CEFC has sought to include women composers in its programmes, including Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Rani Arbo, and Lillie Harris, and commissions from Jessica Curry and Laura Bowler.

Commissions

CEFC has a long history of commissioning and performing new choral works.

Date Composer Title
1985 Ian Lawrence African Hodie
1990 Howard Haigh Saeta
1993 John Woolrich Far From Home
1994 David Bedford I Am Going Home With Thee
1994 Simon Bainbridge Herbsttag
1994 Sally Beamish Love Is Leaping
1997 Joby Talbot Finding Silence
1998 Robert Hugill Here Be Angels
1998 Paul Patterson Hell's Angels
2000 Joby Talbot The Same Dog
2001 David Bedford The City And The Stars
2004 Orlando Gough Shift
2009 Roland Perrin Heaven On Earth
2009 Matthew Ferraro The Tension Of Opposites
2012 James McCarthy 17 Days
2014 Murray Gold ...When My Brother Fell Into The River
2014 Will Todd Rage Against The Dying Of The Light
2014 Bernard Hughes Salve Regina
2014 James McCarthy Malala
2015 Roland Perrin Lansky: The Mob's Money Man
2017 Laura Bowler navigating the dog watch
2018 Ryan Latimer Frigates & Folly
2021 Jessica Curry Echo

Other Classical Concerts

CEFC have appeared regularly at the BBC Proms since 2001.

Date Additional Information Work Other performers and conductor
28 August 2001 Scriabin, Prometheus: The Poem of Fire Kirov Orchestra, Valery Gergiev
29 August 2002 Sibelius, Kullervo London Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Adès
11 August 2003 Prokofiev, Alexander Nevsky London Philharmonic Choir, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniele Gatti
9 September 2005 Ravel, Daphnis and Chloé Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen
31 August 2008 Verdi, Requiem BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jiří Bělohlávek
2 August 2009 Berlioz, Te Deum Bach Choir, Trinity Boys Choir, St Paul’s Cathedral Choir, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Susanna Mälkki
16 July 2010 First Night of the Proms Mahler, Symphony No. 8 Westminster Cathedral Choristers, St Paul’s Cathedral Choristers, Westminster Abby Choristers, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jiří Bělohlávek
12 August 2012 Schoenberg, Gurre-lieder New London Chamber Choir, BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jukka-Pekka Saraste
20 July 2014 BBC Sport Prom Orff, Carmina Burana (extracts), Richard Rodgers, ‘You’ll never walk alone’ from Carousel, Freddie Mercury, ‘We are the Champions’ BBC Concert Orchestra, Rebecca Miller
18 August 2014 Rachmaninov, The Bells BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner
9 September 2015 Webster, In the Sweet By and By, Zeuner, Ye Christian Heralds, Marsh, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, Mason, Nearer, My God, to Thee, Ives, Symphony No. 4 BBC Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Litton
31 July 2016 Lera Auerbach, Symphony No. 3: The Infant Minstrel and His Peculiar Menagerie BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner
27 July 2017 London Premiere Mark Simpson, The Immortal London Voices, BBC Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena
9 September 2017 Proms in the Park: Hyde Park Songs of Ray Davies Ray Davies, BBC Concert Orchestra, Richard Balcombe
8 September 2019 European Premiere John Luther Adams, In the Name of the Earth BBC Symphony Chorus, Hackney Empire Community Choir, London International Gospel Choir, London Philharmonic Choir, London Symphony Chorus, LSO Community Choir, Victoria Park Singers
15 July 2022 First Night of the Proms Verdi, Requiem BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sakari Oramao

CEFC is also frequently invited to collaborate with major orchestras. Recent performances include Britten's War Requiem with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Semyon Bychkov in November 2013,[1][2] Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts with the BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra under François-Xavier Roth in November 2016, Prokofiev's Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy in May 2018 and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Philharmonia under Jakub Hrůša in April 2022.

In 2010, CEFC singers joined patron and regular collaborator Ray Davies on stage at the Glastonbury Festival performing to an audience of 50,000 people. The following year, the choir appeared again with Ray Davies in the final concert of the Meltdown Festival curated by the artist for the Royal Festival Hall. Also in 2011 came a performance with Basement Jaxx at the Barbican.

CEFC's working relationship with Noel Gallagher began in 2008 with an Oasis gig for the BBC's Electric Proms. After contributing to the debut album by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds in 2012, the choir toured with the band throughout the UK, and again in 2015.

Film and TV

CEFC features on a number of original film soundtracks including The Awakening (2011) Prince Caspian (2008), and Rocketman (2019) as well as in music composed for the BBC's classic sci-fi series Dr Who. Composers Hans Zimmer and Ennio Morricone have both booked CEFC to perform in live concerts of their music.

Recordings

The choir has made recordings of Bach's St John Passion and Britten's Saint Nicolas and A Ceremony of Carols, conducted by David Temple. They have also recorded Parry's Judith, conducted by William Vann.

The choir has credits on more than one hundred CDs including albums by Lesley Garrett, Katherine Jenkins, Alfie Boe, and Kate Royal, and by rock and pop artists Travis, The Divine Comedy, Robbie Williams, Ray Davies, and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. Ray Davies' The Kinks Choral Collection featuring CEFC reached the UK top 30 best-selling albums in 2009 and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds achieved the top spot in the Official UK Chart in 2011.[3]

References

  1. ^ David Nice, The Arts Desk, 11.11.13. Retrieved 2016-02-21
  2. ^ Colin Anderson, The Classical Source,10.11.13. Retrieved 2016-02-21
  3. ^ Archive Chart, UK Albums Chart, The Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2016-02-21
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