Conductor and composer
Friday 12 November at 7pm, Clifton Cathedral
A concert to coincide with the COP26 Climate Change conference in Glasgow featuring the world premiere of Raise a Voice – a rebellious songbook for our times. Commissioned by City of Bristol Choir , this exciting set of songs for a choir of adults and young people combines thought-provoking lyrics by Jennifer Thorp with Toby Young’s energetic, accessible and engaging music to captivate both singers and listeners.
Saturday 16 October at 7.30pm, St George’s Bristol
Exultate Singers returns to the stage of St George’s Bristol in its full glory to perform a programme of choral music spanning 400 years from the early 17th century to the early 21st including David’s anthem Every breath a song, Rheinberger Cantus Missae in E flat, and Bach’s motet Singet dem herrn.
Tickets £15 / £20 from St George’s Bristol box office
Saturday 2 October at 4.30pm and 7.30pm at St Alban’s Church, Westbury Park, Bristol
In a poignant return to the concert platform, City of Bristol Choir marks its 30th anniversary season with a programme that includes the first piece that the choir ever performed – Mozart’s Requiem. The work is full of drama and exquisitely crafted music for soloists, choir and orchestra. Each hour-long performance also includes Mozart’s bite-sized masterpiece, his setting of the Ave Verum, and Elgar’s atmospheric and reflective orchestral work, Sospiri.
Tickets £10 for adults, £5 for students/under 18s from City of Bristol Choir’s box office
Sunday 26th September at 3pm, Weston-super-Mare beach, adjacent to the Grand Pier, BS23 1AL
The first performance of David’s song We are One on the beach at Weston-super-Mare, written especially for this event in collaboration with lyricist Dr Anna Farthing. The song will be performed by newly-formed choir of health professionals within the flags of Luke Jerram’s art installation In Memoriam in a memorable and fitting finale to the Weston Arts + Health Week.
Sunday 26th September at 8.10am
BBC Radio 4 live broadcast from Holy Trinity Church, Westbury-on-Trym for Harvest including David’s new anthem As the light upon the river.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00101jf
29 August to 2 September 2021, Salisbury
Join David in Sarum College, Salisbury for five days of music making, organised by singing holiday specialists, Run By Singers. Celebrate the seasons of the sacred and secular calendars with a range of British choral music through the ages – from plainsong and anthems by Tallis, Gibbons, Wesley and Howells to folksongs, madrigals by Morley and part songs by Elgar, Holst and Stanford.
During the week there will be opportunities to sing in St Martin’s Church, Salisbury, Romsey Abbey and Salisbury Cathedral. Transport to and from Romsey will be arranged and is included in the course fee.
This will be a residential week based in the Sarum College conference centre where participants will stay as a group, sharing meals, music and fellowship.
This course is for experienced singers who want to improve their choral technique and enjoy exploring a rich mix of repertoire in a convivial social setting. Singing couples and individual singers are all welcome. Music will be sent out in advance and, while nobody is expected to be note-perfect on arrival, singers are expected to familiarise themselves with the music beforehand. This is not a course for beginners, but if you are singing regularly in a choral society or church choir you should find it comfortable and well-paced.
Sarum College is in the heart of the City Centre and the amount of walking and standing involved during the week should not challenge anyone of average fitness. If you have concerns about the required level of activity please contact Run By Singers in confidence before you book.
15 December 2020, online broadcast
David conducted Exultate Singers, joined by the baritone Marcus Farnsworth, in a special online concert recreating the event 100 years ago which premiered Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending.
The Lark Ascending was performed just as it was on 15 December 1920, arranged for solo violin and piano, and realised by renowned violinist Jennifer Pike. Bristol Ensemble and Exultate Singers complete the evening with excerpts from the original programme – Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols, Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins and Parry’s Jerusalem.
The broadcast is available until 15 January to watch on Vimeo – scroll forward to 13 minutes 25 seconds for the opening introduction.
David appears as part of the team announcing the new name of Bristol’s concert hall – Bristol Beacon. A huge moment for the arts in Bristol, as the hall looks to the future as a symbol of hope and community, a focal point for music in the city, a gathering space, illuminating the way ahead, a place of welcome, warmth and light, an open invitation to the city for everyone to come and share in the joy of live music.
Sunday 20 September, St George’s Bristol
Exultate Singers was delighted to give two concerts in the gardens at St George’s Bristol, its first performances since February. The singers were grouped into bubbles of six and rotated around positions on the veranda and amongst the shrubs, singing a programme of music relating to nature to an audience of 50 at each hour-long concert. The sun shone, and all was right with the world for a couple of hours!
Photo by Evan Dawson
David’s choir at Arval UK, based in Swindon, has recorded an uplifting version of Leonard Cohen’s classic, Hallelujah. Enjoy!