Food anthem ‘Stand Up For Good Food’ a hit at BBC Food & Farming Awards

BBC Food & Farming Awards

Thursday 1st May, BBC Radio 4 BBC Food Connections festival commissioned David and lyricist Anna Farthing to write a brand new food anthem, Stand Up For Good Food which was premiered at the BBC Food & Farming Awards ceremony at St George’s Bristol. Singing to an audience which included celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver, Raymond Blanc and Mary Berry, BBC Director of Radio Helen Boaden, Bristol Mayor George Ferguson, Bristol Schools Junior Chamber Choir and Exultate Singers stole the show with the song, an excerpt of which was broadcast in a special report on the awards on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 5 May. For more information about the song, contact info@davidogden.co.uk

Photograph by Christopher Gray

City of Bristol Choir: Mozart Mass in C Minor and Bach Magnificat

cover picSaturday 17th May at 7.30pm, St George’s Bristol David conducts City of Bristol Choir and The Lochrian Ensemble in performances of Mozart’s ‘Great’ Mass in C Minor and Bach’s Magnificat.

Bach’s Magnificat is bright and lively with wonderfully lyrical solos providing moments of reflection between the energetic choruses and dazzling trumpet lines.

Mozart’s stirring ‘Great’ Mass in C Minor combines beautiful and virtuosic soprano duets, rousing and dramatic choruses, and orchestral fireworks. The line-up of soloists includes rising stars of the opera world. Portuguese soprano Susana Gaspar represented her country at Cardiff Singer of the World in 2013 and is a frequent soloist at the Royal Opera House. Scottish soprano Eleanor Dennis regularly appears with Scottish Opera and was recently described by Fiona Maddocks in The Observer, as a “singer with a marvellous future. I’m not sure I can ever remember a soloist who so obviously deserves to be a star”. As well as his many opera roles, the “exciting” tenor Ed Lyon has appeared as a soloist at the BBC Proms, and was described by The Guardian as “one of Britain’s top baroque tenors”.

Tickets £10 to £25 (discounts for concessions) from St George’s box office on 0845 40 24 001 or online at www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk

Exultate Singers: Baroque Masterpieces

 

Wednesday 25 June 2014 at 7.45pm, St George’s Bristol Exultate Singers performs choral masterpieces of the Baroque era in St James Priory including J.S. Bach’s thrilling motet Der Geist hilft, and Domenico Scarlatti’s meditative and poignant setting of the medieval Stabat Mater poem which weaves ten voice parts in an exquisite tapestry of polyphony throughout the work. The choir is joined by the exceptional cellist Richard May, who will play continuo cello alongside Richard Johnson on chamber organ. Tickets £15 for adults, £13 concessions, £5 students in full time education, £2 under 18s from www.exultatesingers.org, by telephone on 0117 923 0164 or in person from Opus 13 Music at 14 St Michael’s Hill, Bristol

Bristol Schools Chamber Choir Summer Concert

Tuesday 24th June 2014 at 7.30pm Bristol Schools Chamber Choir performs Gabriel Fauré’s enduring masterpiece, Requiem at St George’s Bristol. Also on the programme is the contemplative, well-loved Cantique de Jean Racine, Monteverdi’s Beatus Vir, solo arias and songs. Tickets are £10 / £8 / £6 / £5 (£1 discount for concessions), available from St George’s box office by phone on 0845 40 24 001 or visit www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk

Come and Sing event, Taunton

Saturday 12 April, 10.30am-4pm • St Andrew’s Church, Taunton

David directs an all day ‘Come and Sing’ event for RSCM Somerset Area, primarily on his own music. The programme is planned to include many items that attendees will want to take back to their own churches – favourites, and some less well known. RSCM individual members, Friends of RSCM and members of RSCM-affiliated churches can book for £12, non-members £15 and people in full-time education £5. Contact Jerry King at Somerset Area RSCM to book – telephone 01275 462433

Exultate Singers: Splendours of Venice

facebook-290314Saturday 29 March at 7.30pm • St Georges’ Bristol

Following the choir’s memorable performance as part of last year’s Bristol Baroque Festival, Exultate Singers will join forces once again with the renowned early music ensemble His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts to perform music from Renaissance Venice originally written for St Mark’s. The programme includes works by Giovanni and Andrea Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Hassler and newly-edited motets by Gioseffo Guami. If you were at last year’s concert you’ll remember what an exhilarating evening it was. One audience member wrote to us afterwards to say it was, “A wonderful concert…. Beautifully staged, staggering singing and inspiring accompaniment.”

Tickets from £10 to £21 for adults, £2 discount for concessions; tickets for students in full time education £6, under 18s £4. Available from Exultate Singers’ shop and St George’s box office on 0845 40 24 001 or online

 

City of Bristol Choir: The Greater Light

facebook-160314Sunday 16 March at 7.30pm • St Alban’s Church, Westbury Park, Bristol

City of Bristol Choir presents an atmospheric concert of romantic English choral music on the theme of light including works by Vaughan Williams, Chilcott, Talli, Holst, Elgar and Martin Shaw. In the candlelit ambience of St Alban’s Church, the 100-strong choir will be accompanied by combinations of bells, organ and percussion to create both mystical and celebratory sounds and moods. Tickets £15 (concessions £13, under 18s and full time students £5) from www.cityofbristolchoir.org.uk and by phone on 01454 778477.

 

Gershwin Spectacular: Bristol International Jazz & Blues Festival

facebook-080314Saturday 8 March at 2.30pm • Colston Hall, Bristol 

David conducts the Big Boogie Big Band, vocalist Jacqui Dankworth and a choir of 250 singers in the world premiere of a newly-commissioned set of arrangements of Gershwin songs written by Ned Bennett. The Gershwin Spectacular is part of the Bristol International Jazz & Blues Festival at the Colston Hall, which runs from Friday 7 to Sunday 9 March. Tickets £15 from the Colston Hall box office on 0844 887 1500 or online at www.colstonhall.org

 

Exultate Singers: A Sense of the Divine

facebookSaturday 8th February at 7.30pm • St George’s Bristol

This year’s Sense of the Divine concert is out of this world! Singing music spanning 1000 years, Exultate Singers perform choral works inspired by the universe, the moon, planets and stars. The centrepiece is Lux aeterna by Ligeti, written for Stanley Kubrick’s iconic film 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Vaughan Williams’ wonderful setting of Shakespeare’s words in Serenade to Music, marking the 450th anniversary of the playwright’s birth.

To accompany the wonderfully atmospheric and mesmerizing music, the travelling Planetarium from the Explorer Dome projects breathtaking images of the night sky onto the ceiling and balconies of St George’s. Tickets £13 to £22, available from St George’s box office on 0845 40 24 001, or book online