marketing, Author at Armonico

The Voice Squad – new half-day workplace choir sessions

Published on 25th October 2018

Drum roll please! And let’s hear it for The Voice Squad – our new workplace choirs scheme which aims to improve mental well-being, reduce stress and boost productivity. Off the back of a pilot project, we’ve launched half-day workplace choir sessions for businesses and organisations in the Coventry area. They can be tailored for between

Looking back on a Supersize Summer

Published on 26th July 2018

This summer we’ve been touring our flagship programme Supersize Polyphony 360 with the Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and their director of music, Dr Geoffrey Webber. The concept is simple: take large scale 16th century polyphonic choral music and perform it with the audience encircled by the choir to create a completely immersive

Bach Cantatas in Israel – Time to fly!

Published on 8th May 2018

Time to fly!

This week I’ll be travelling to Israel with Armonico Consort to perform three concerts, including two which will highlight our ongoing project to perform and record the solo soprano Cantatas of J.S. Bach.

RAH Diary, 14 March 2018 – Watch the world come alight!

Published on 15th March 2018

Take those with a passion and a belief in art and music, offer them support and training, give them a platform – and watch the world come alight! WHY? The concerts we stage at the Royal Albert Hall for AC Academy projects serve a simple purpose: to bring together the different elements of our outreach

RAH Diary, 10 March 2018 – AC Academy Warwick

Published on 10th March 2018

On 10 March 1964, Simon & Garfunkel recorded “The Sounds of Silence.” We will perform this song at the Royal Albert Hall, in the cover version released by American heavy metal band Disturbed in 2015. Most appropriately, The Sound of Silence features in today’s vlog, taken during rehearsals at AC Academy Warwick.

RAH Diary, 2 March 2018 – The Phillips 66 Choir

Published on 2nd March 2018

Our singing education programme, AC Academy is generously supported by Phillips 66 & JET. They have formed a choir of employees at their London office, led by one of Armonico Consort’s leaders, and jumped at the chance to perform at the Royal Albert Hall later this month. Two of their choir members have written about the experience of joining the choir.

RAH Diary, 23 February 2018, Alysha – Park Hall Academy

Published on 23rd February 2018

Alysha is a Y12 student at Park Hall Academy and under the mentoring of our Artistic Director, Christopher Monks, she is leading the school’s choir. Read what she writes about the journey.

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Christopher’s post-Biber blog

Published on 13th February 2018

Conducting massive polychoral works has somewhat been a theme of my musical life ever since we started exploring the larger scale works of the 16th Century, such as the 40 part works of Striggio and Tallis. When choirs and ensembles go to such considerable lengths to bring together polished and beautifully performed versions of these

RAH Diary, 7 February 2018, Vanessa – AC Academy Coventry

Published on 7th February 2018

Two years ago I went to the Royal Albert Hall and it was very exciting and fun. The most exciting thing about the Royal Albert Hall was actually singing there.

RAH Diary, 26 January 2018, Gaynor Larkin – Head of Education

Published on 26th January 2018

2018 is a landmark year for Armonico Consort and our nationwide singing education programme, AC Academy as it marks the 10-year anniversary of our unique Choir Creation scheme across the UK!

Summer Spring 2018 Season Brochure

Published on 12th January 2018

Our new season brochure is out! Join us for an enchanting season of music, from Biber’s 53-part Salzburg Mass to Tallis’ Spem in Alium. Browse online or download on issuu. Get in touch if you would like us to send you a free copy.

AC Academy at Christmas

Published on 3rd December 2017

The festive season is almost upon us! Over the next few weeks each one of the AC Academy after school choirs will be performing in a concert or two, as we begin the countdown to Christmas.

Come & Sing with John Rutter, a day to remember

Published on 18th November 2017

Well…what a wonderful day that was!

There was absolutely nothing I could criticise about it…

Beowulf Diary, 30 October 2017, Final post, future thoughts

Published on 30th October 2017

It is with sadness that I came to the end of the Beowulf project. As a musician, it is always such a privilege to be part of the creation of something new, and to nurture it as it begins its fragile journey into the world.

To spend a week in the company of such incredible professional musicians and almost 1000 young people from different AC Academy projects, building and rebuilding the performances on each of the four days, was a tremendous privilege and one I will never forget.

Beowulf Diary, 11 October 2017, performance no 2 at Bushell Hall Solihull

Published on 12th October 2017

Rise up! Rise up!

Rise up, rise up for the King.

Beowulf Diary, 9 October 2017, First Rehearsal with the Chorus & Elin Manahan Thomas

Published on 9th October 2017

We are all very excited at the Armonico Consort’s headquarters today as our artistic director, Christopher Monks leads the first rehearsal with the pro singers and the soloists, soprano Elin Manahan Thomas, harpist Catrin Finch, composer Toby Young on keyboards and Harry Potter actor Mark Williams in the title role.

Beowulf Diary, 4 October 2017, AC Academy Coventry

Published on 4th October 2017

During a break from the last session before next week’s concerts, Maame from AC Academy Coventry tells us why she loves Beowulf.

Beowulf Diary, 18 September 2017, script writer Danny Coleman-Cooke talks about the project

Published on 18th September 2017

It’s fair to say I’m not the first person to have sat wondering how best to interpret Beowulf. Since it was written over a thousand years ago, it has inspired films, comic books, video games and even board games.

Beowulf Diary, 14 September 2017, Mark Williams joins the cast

Published on 14th September 2017

We are thrilled to announce that Mark Williams, better known for his roles as Mr Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter movies, Doctor Who and Father Brown for BBC TV, will be our special guest narrator in the forthcoming tour of Toby Young’s epic musical tale, Beowulf.

Beowulf Diary, 21 July 2017, Christopher Monks, conductor

Published on 21st July 2017

About two years ago the soprano Elin Manahan Thomas came to me having just worked on another project elsewhere with our composer in residence, Toby Young. She, like I was really taken by his music and his ability to work proactively and inspiringly with the musicians he was writing for. Elin convinced me that the epic story of Beowulf was the right starting point for a collaboration.

Beowulf Diary, 12 July 2017, AJ & Chloe from Strictly join us for a dance workshop

Published on 12th July 2017

We’re working hard on our big creative project of the autumn, a new musical adaptation of the fantasy saga Beowulf. So we were thrilled when Strictly Come Dancing’s newest stars AJ Pritchard and Chloe Hewitt agreed to lead a dance workshop for 15 pupils of St Elizabeth’s Primary School in Coventry. AJ and Chloe reached

Tony Hadley at Oz & Armonico

Published on 12th July 2017

We’ve just returned from our summer festivals tour of Oz & Armonico Drink to Music which included the privilege of being artists-in-residence at Harrogate Festival and a trip to beautiful Buxton. Our final concert before the summer break was at Lichfield Festival where we found we had a surprise visitor: the Spandau Ballet and I’m A Celebrity star, Tony Hadley, was at the Swinfen Hall Hotel event having recently become a patron of the Lichfield Festival. He thoroughly enjoyed the evening of music, wine and anecdotes.

Beowulf Diary, 4 July 2017, Toby Young, composer

Published on 4th July 2017

The oldest surviving poem in Old English, Beowulf is a fantasy saga which has inspired countless retellings of the myth, including Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Armonico Consort’s composer-in-residence Toby Young, who has previously worked with the likes of Duran Duran and The Rolling Stones, has set this touching epic drama to music.

St Matthew Passion – first rehearsal

Published on 15th February 2017

St Matthew Passion was the first piece of music I ever truly dismantled as a conductor 15 years ago in an attempt to get under the skin of this incredible work of art. It is now three years since Armonico Consort’s last tour of Bach’s masterpiece, and whilst I have conducted the work countless times, I never fail to feel slightly daunted by the task of bringing it to life for the modern ear.

What a fantastic rehearsal tonight at AC Academy!

Published on 13th February 2017

This week I led the warm up through the use of rounds, first a clapping exercise then a song. The clapping exercise involved splitting the choir into four and asking them to clap different rhythms. Whilst it would be expected that by the end of the exercise the students would have sped up, they kept a good tempo and, as always, approached the task with enthusiasm.

Another fun session at AC Academy today

Published on 7th February 2017

In the choir rehearsal today Gaynor let me lead the warm up before the session. First I decided to loosen the students up by a fun exercise called Up, Down, Stop, GO! which got them moving around the class. I followed this by some comical yet effective vocal exercises the students approached with full confidence and enthusiasm, although being amused by them.

A term with AC Academy

Published on 29th January 2017

I am currently studying music performance at Coventry University and feel extremely passionate about music education and the importance of music practice in schools, particularly for young children. As part of a module in my current study I was offered the opportunity to work with one of AC Academy after school choirs which, after a little research, seemed the perfect chance for me to gain experience with children that have shown interest in music.

Office Move

Published on 15th January 2017

We are pleased to announce that we will be moving to a new office in Warwick town centre in late January.

Not only will this put us closer to our frequent partner and venue St Mary’s Church, but will also lower our carbon footprint as we will no longer need to drive to the post office!

The new office will better accommodate our ever-growing company and our ever-rising ambitions.

AC Academy Leader Training Day

Published on 10th January 2017

With a fuzzy head, we began the year by bringing all of our professional AC Academy choir leaders together from across the UK for a training day. We were very grateful to the staff and pupils of Thomas Jolyffe School in Stratford-upon-Avon who not only donated rooms and refreshments, but also their choir and a couple of teachers who selflessly became ‘guinea pigs’ for the day!

Carols by Candlelight

Published on 23rd December 2016

A mainstay of the Armonico Consort Christmas programme, Carols by Candlelight was a sold-out success once again.

Ensconced in the iconic St Mary’s Church in Warwick, the audience was treated to a family-friendly evening by the Consort as well as singers from our education programme AC Academy. In order to ensure everyone left with a real sense of festive cheer, the audience was encouraged to sing along with the penultimate carol, Once in royal David’s city.