Requiem in a Day

Requiem in a Day: London

St James, Sussex Gardens, Paddington W2 3UD • Saturday 28th March 2020

Come-and-sing choral workshop and evening performance

Join composer Matthew Coleridge in Victorian Gothic church of St James, one of London's most popular venues for choral music.

Working alongside St James's Director of Music George de Voil, Matthew will guide us through his Requiem, before we give an atmospheric evening performance in the candlelit church.

We'll also be joined by acclaimed young cellist Olivia da Costa, a recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Music.

An unforgettable day of music-making in the beautiful acoustics of St James.

Olivia da Costa George de Voil

"A glorious piece to sing... a lot of us were in tears by the end of it" Teresa Stubbs, Buckfast Abbey workshop, March 2019

Further info

Details of the day

09:00 singer registration and distribution of music (music hire is included in the workshop fee).

09:30 morning rehearsals. Matt will guide us through his Requiem, accompanied by George de Voil at the piano. There will be a mid-morning refreshments break, and some short sectional rehearsals.

12:30 break for lunch. You'll find a wide selection of cafés and coffee shops nearby.

14:30 - 17:30 afternoon rehearsal, with cellist Olivia da Costa, George de Voil at the organ, and our professional soloists.

19:00 - 20:00 concert performance. You'll sing Matthew's Requiem in an atmospheric concert in the candlelit church. Our soloists will perform items during the first half hour of the concert

Booking info

Workshop tickets (£20) includes all music hire for the day.

Audience tickets (£10) for the evening concert can also be purchased using the booking link below.

St James, Sussex Gardens

Lancaster Gate station (3 mins walk) Paddington Underground (6 mins walk)

Paddington Station (6 mins walk)

Bus no's 46, 94, 148, 274, N207 to Lancaster Gate station (3 mins walk)
Bus no's 7, 23, 27, 36, 205, N7, N27, N205 to Paddington Station (6 mins walk)

Santander Cycle docking stations at Bayswater Road (Hyde Park) and Devonshire Terrace

Car parking in the vicinity is Residents Only. Unrestricted parking is available north of the A501 (15 mins walk).

The Gothic Revival church of St James, just a stone's throw from the stunning Italian Gardens between Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, dates from the 1880's. It has a rich musical heritage; former organists include Harold Dark and Sir George Thalben Ball. Oscar Wilde was married in the church in 1884.

PLEASE NOTE: there are several steeps steps to the entrance of the church, making wheelchair access impossible.

The Musicians
Matthew Coleridge

Matthew Coleridge
composer & conductor

Matt is rapidly gaining a reputation as an inspiring and energetic workshop leader. His Requiem-in-a-Day workshops are led with "humour, skill and encouragement" (Buckfast Abbey workshop 2019), gathering momentum through the day before culminating in moving performances of his music. He has "an extraordinary ability to make singers believe they can produce what he has in mind" (SWEMF workshop 2018).

His choral music has been performed around the world, and has been recorded and broadcast by professional ensembles including The Queens Six, Kantos Chamber Choir and RSVP Voices.

Olivia da Costa

Olivia da Costa
cello soloist

A recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, Olivia studied with Felix Schmidt and took part in masterclasses with Alexander Baillie, Tim Hugh, Daniel Gardener and Anita Lasker Wallfisch. She made her concerto debut with the City of Cambridge Symphony Orchestra in 2013, playing Bloch's Schelomo. As an orchestral musician, she has performed with LSO String Academy, the International Youth Symphony and the Britten Sinfonia Academy. Olivia plays a 19th century Betts cello on loan from the RAM.

George de Voil

George de Voil
organ

George is a prize-winning Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, and Classic FM, and has given organ recitals at Westminster, Chester, Liverpool, Bristol, Sheffield, Edinburgh and Truro Cathedrals, as well fulfilling a series of annual engagements across the South of France.

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George was a choral scholar at The London Oratory School before taking up the Parry-Wood Organ Scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford. There he gained a First Class honours degree in Music, and was solely responsible for the renowned mixed-voice choir. During his time at Oxford, he directed the world premiere recording of Charles Villiers Stanford's Mass in G, Op. 46. The disc was praised by BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone, and led to George being named a Classic FM "Young Artist to Watch", while Martin Bird declared in the Elgar Society Journal, “George de Voil is something of a find… He may be young, but his innate musicianship, his feeling for line, for balance, for phrasing, for the placing of chords, is exciting…”.