In March, our talented students will bring music to North East audiences, performing at iconic venues and working alongside accomplished professional ensembles.
Durham University Choral Society is excited to join the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia at the world-renowned Glasshouse International Centre for Music for a performance of Bruckner’s Great Mass on Saturday 2 March. The performance will feature 80 students, alongside the North East’s only professional orchestra and its chorus. Conducted by Thomas Zehetmair, our students have enjoyed working with professional musicians at the Glasshouse and meeting members of the community who sing in the Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia.
Student ensembles will also perform three concerts in historic Durham Cathedral. Taking place on Monday 4 March, Friday 8 March, and Wednesday 13 March the Cathedral will host the University’s finest classical musicians from its Chamber Choir, Palatinate Orchestra, and Orchestral Society.
Durham University Chamber Choir opens the series on Monday 4 March with ‘Awake, O North Wind’. Twenty-four of the University’s best singers will perform choral music from Baltic composers, closing with leading contemporary Bristol based composer, John Barber. Adam Whitmore, a 4th year Modern Languages and Cultures student, conducts the concert.
Friday 8 March brings an evening of monumental compositions: Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to ‘Candide’, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s brooding and tenderly romantic Symphony No. 2, alongside Missy Mazzoli’s Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres), described as “music in the shape of a solar system” by the composer. The concert is performed by the Durham University Palatinate Orchestra and is conducted by 3rd year Music student, Jude Holloway.
The series concludes on Wednesday 13 March with the immense Symphony No. 1 by Gustav Mahler from Durham University Orchestral Society, conducted by 4th year Mathematics student, Monty Milner. Given the work’s epithet, ‘Titan’, this symphony is a journey through life, depicting dawn, dance, a funeral procession, and a stormy finale dissipating to peace. Also featuring in the concert is John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine featuring rhythmic woodblock and brass fanfares. The composer comments: “You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you hadn't?”
And from regional to national, Saturday 30 March will see our flagship a cappella group Northern Lights compete in London at the semi-finals of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA). The group will be defending their UK title following their success in 2023 where they travelled to New York to compete in the ICCA world finals.
Northern Lights President Lucille Richards commented: “We have just had our milestone 10th anniversary, celebrated with two national Championship titles, a sold-out Edinburgh Fringe Run, an A Cappella Video Award and features on two of the best collegiate compilation albums worldwide. We are so proud to represent Durham University and the North East on an international scale, while performing at the highest standard and making lifelong friendships!”
Watch their 2023 ICCA semi-finals set below:
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