Read our fascinating interview with our President Roger Medwell MBE, DL – a former engineer and captain of industry now helping to steer Armonico Consort in its concert and charitable missions.
We’re inviting talented teenage singers from the Warwick, Coventry and Solihull areas to audition to become AC Academy Scholars with free tuition and coaching from top professionals, high-level performance opportunities and mentoring for Oxbridge and university choral scholarships.
INTERVIEW: Royal wedding soprano Elin Manahan Thomas tells Christopher Morley about singing for billions and touring “my very favourite thing to sing”, Bach’s B minor mass, which she’ll do – with Armonico Consort – this spring.
Hats off (scarves on) to our Voice Squad workplace choirs at Coventry City Council and University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire for warming a very chilly evening at the Coventry Christmas Lights switch-on with their rousing singing.
Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) is one of the most significant figures in British 20th century music, particularly when it comes to choral and vocal music. So we were delighted when the charitable trust set up in his memory agreed to support two of our AC Academy Scholars.
One of the newest members of the world-famous King’s Singers, Edward Button first heard the group at St Mary’s Church, Warwick and never imagined he’d end up joining them. He tells us how his early love of singing, parental encouragement and lots of practice, have led to his dream job.
The bikes are back in the sheds, the saddle sores healing and the pennies have been counted and the fantastic news is that Oz & Armonico’s Great Bike Adventure has raised an incredible £14,000 to date …
We’re thrilled that wine specialist, writer and TV presenter Oz Clarke has agreed to lead a 200-mile, four-day sponsored bike ride to help us raise over £10,000 to set up more children’s choirs across the UK.
“Audiences love to smell a bit of fear,” says our Artistic Director Christopher Monks in a blog for Gramophone Magazine about the new recording of Supersize Polyphony. He talks about the challenges of performing large-scale works by Striggio and Tallis …
The original music for Beowulf was written by Toby Young, Armonico Consort’s composer-in-residence. We asked him about his influences and the all-important verdict of last year’s young singers.
It’s release day! And there’s a supersized degree of excitement here at Armonico HQ as we launch our gorgeous new Supersize Polyphony recording on Signum Records.
We’re happy to report on the latest of our new Voice Squad choirs. What’s lovely, and different, about this particular Voice Squad choir is that, unlike our workplace choirs, this one is actually taking place at home – the home of the residents of Austin Heath Retirement Village in Warwick. The choir started just a
Our intrepid AC Academy Scholar, Anna, joined Gaynor (Head of Education) for a live interview on BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire’s Culture Club show. They chatted to presenter Dave Marshall Barrett about our new scholarship scheme supporting young people to take their singing to the next level. And you get to hear a clip of
Last autumn we welcomed our very first AC Academy Scholars to the Armonico Consort fold. Lara, Anna, Ella and Josh are four wonderfully talented young singers from schools in Coventry and Warwick who haven’t previously had access to professional singing lessons. Singing has a wealth of social, educational and well-being benefits that are constantly evidenced
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
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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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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
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.
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!
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.
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.
Well…what a wonderful day that was!
There was absolutely nothing I could criticise about it…
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.
Rise up! Rise up!
Rise up, rise up for the King.
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.
