Under the leadership of Dr. Edward Higginbottom, the Choir of New
College Oxford has achieved a worldwide reputation. At the same time, it
is still recognizably what the founder of New College, William of
Wykeham, envisaged in the 14th century: a choir of 16 boy choristers and
clerks, whose duty was and still is to provide a sung liturgy in the
grandest chapel to be built in Oxford. The adult singers of the Choir
(alto, tenor, bass) are made up of a number of choral scholars who
become undergraduate members of New College, studying a wide diversity
of subjects.
The Choir's excellence has been recognized by
frequent appearances at the BBC Promenade concerts and by the many tours
abroad: Japan, Australia, Brazil, France, Spain, Italy, the Czech
Republic, Poland, Switzerland, Germany, Malta and the Low Countries.
Their touring schedule takes in a number of European countries on a
regular basis, often in the company of The Academy of Ancient Music.
Recent concerts have included the Chapelle Royale at Versailles (Charpentier's
Messe des morts), the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (Handel's Messiah) and
the Ambronay Festival (Handel Coronation Anthems).
The Choir's numerous recordings - over 70 CDs
in the current catalogue - range from specialist collections such as a
compilation of sacred music drawn from the Archives of Malta Cathedral
to popular anthologies of choral music such as "Agnus Dei,"
which has sold more than 300,000 copies worldwide. The Choir
collaborated with The King's Consort in their recordings of the complete
sacred music of Henry Purcell as well as Handel's oratorios. Another
recording project has been the series called "Masterpieces of the
Renaissance" for Collins Classics, featuring some of the great
polyphonists of the 16th century. The series has recently been reissued
on the CRD label.
The most important release of the
past year, recorded over a period of 18 months, was Bach's "St.
John Passion", sung in German. The recording, released by Naxos,
is unique in that all of the soloists, including James Gilchrist
(Evangelist) and James Bowman, have at one time sung in New College
Choir. Other recent releases include the first recorded performance of
John Tavener's "Total Eclipse" (Harmonia Mundi),
"Coronation Anthems" (Decca) from the coronations of James
II (1685) to George III (1761) and including a number of previously
unrecorded works sourced from Oxford's Bodleian Library, and the world
premiere recording of Pergolesi's "Marion Vespers" (Erato).
This latter recording is an imaginative reconstruction of music that
may have formed part of a great service of thanksgiving in Naples on
December 31, 1732 celebrating the city's recovery from an earthquake.
Edward Higginbottom was educated at Cambridge
University, where he earned a B.A., Mus.B, and PhD. He was appointed
Director of New College Oxford at the age of 29. Under his direction,
the Choir has become renowned for its interpretations of Renaissance and
Baroque music as well as music from folksong to Tavener and Part. An
objective of the Choir has been to sing a particularly wide range of
music, in the conviction that music-making is revitalized by the
challenges of an eclectic repertory.
The April, 2005 tour of the New College Choir
will be the first North American tour in many years.
Link
to the New College website: www.newcollegechoir.co.uk
