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    Home > Chapel & Choir > The Choir
    • An unbroken tradition of learning since 1458
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    The Choir

    The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford was founded in 1480 with provision made in the statutes for 16 singing boys, eight Academical Clerks and four chaplains. Magdalen College was then one of the oldest and largest choral foundations in late-medieval England, and this historic legacy has been preserved and maintained over five centuries. The Choir, which now enjoys an international reputation as one of the finest ensembles in the UK, exists primarily to sing the daily church services in Magdalen College Chapel.  The Academical Clerks now number 12 and the Consort of Voices was founded in 2010, offering opportunities to women students to sing in the Chapel on a weekly basis. In addition to the regular round of services, the College Choir sing at a number of special occasions throughout the year, including the famous May Day celebrations, an ancient tradition dating back to the 16th century.  Famous directors of the Choir who have held the ancient title, Informator Choristarum still in use today, include John Sheppard, Daniel Purcell, Sir John Stainer and Dr Bernard Rose.  The current Informator is Mark Williams.

    Consortofvoices

    The Choristers are part of the College Foundation, receiving their academic education at Magdalen College School. The Academical Clerks and Organ Scholars are undergraduates at the College, reading for degrees in a variety of subjects.  In University Term, the Choir sings Evensong every day except Monday at 6pm.  Services on Tuesdays are normally sung by the Choristers alone, on Fridays by the Academical Clerks alone, and on Saturdays by the Consort of Voices.  The College Choir also sings the Eucharist (Mass) on Sunday mornings at 11am.

    Magdalen College Choir has toured Japan, USA, Hungary, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Germany, France and Poland in recent years; concert appearances have included the BBC Proms and Cadogan Hall. The Choir has worked with a number of leading orchestras including Britten Sinfonia, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.  In Oxford, they have collaborated with both composers and musicians in concert and on disc:  recordings have included the music of John Ward and Thomas Tomkins with the celebrated viol group, Phantasm, and the work of the renowned composer of sacred music, Matthew Martin. They won a Gramophone award under former director Grayston Ives, and have collaborated with the film composer George Fenton, most notably in Richard Attenborough’s movie, Shadowlands, with the Beatles member Sir Paul McCartney, and on the award-winning soundtrack for the BBC TV series, Blue Planet. 

    To find out more about the Choir’s day to day activities, or admission into the Choir as a chorister, choral scholar or organ scholar, please visit our website.

     

    Copies of all choir recordings may be purchased from the Bursary; please email celia.brown@magd.ox.ac.uk for more information.

    Choir photographs by Hugh Warwick

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    Magdalen College Choir

    Click here to visit the Magdalen College Choir Website for news and forthcoming Choir events

     

    Click here to find out how to support Magdalen College Choir

     

     

     

    MICHAELMAS TERM 2019

    The College Chapel and Choir will resume services on Sunday 13th October 2019.

    Tickets for Advent and Carols by Candlelight 2019

    Antechapel tickets for the Advent Service on Sunday 1st December will be available from the Porters’ Lodge from 10am on Monday 25th November.  These tickets are free of charge and cannot be pre-booked nor reserved.  Any spaces in the Inner Chapel on the day will be offered to those people with Antechapel tickets queuing at the North Door.

    Public booking for Carols by Candlelight on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th December will open at 10am on Monday 4th November via Tickets Oxford (website: www.ticketsoxford.com or tel: 01865 305305) or in person from the Oxford Playhouse.  The tickets on sale will be unreserved Antechapel seats and will cost £8 each.  Once again, if there are any spaces in the Inner Chapel on the day, these will be offered to those people with Antechapel tickets queuing at the North Door.

    Other Special Services and Choir Concerts

    Saturday 2nd November, 6pm

    Magdalen College Chapel

    Requiem Mass for All Souls

    The College Choir will sing Maurice Duruflé’s deeply moving setting of the Requiem at this Eucharist at which the College remembers those who have died.  Admission to the service is free, and seating is unreserved.  Members of the public are advised to queue in good time if they wish to be seated in the Inner Chapel for the service.

    Thursday 12th December, 7.30pm

    Sheldonian Theatre

    A Christmas Celebration with John Rutter

    The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and Concertmaster Natalia Lomeiko are joined by the Choirs of Magdalen College and New College and Roderick Williams, former Academical Clerk of Magdalen and world-renowned baritone under the baton of the King of carols himself, John Rutter.  Tickets available from //oxfordphil.com/events/128221539/a-christmas-celebration-with-john-rutter-2019-12-12

    Wednesday 18th December, 7.30pm

    Dorchester Abbey

    The Coming of Christmas

    The Choir of Magdalen College are joined by readers Juliet Stevenson and Michael Pennington in the candlelit beauty of Dorchester Abbey on the 25th anniversary of this much-loved event, in aid of the Home Farm Trust.

    //comingofchristmasjubilee.eventbrite.co.uk

     

     

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