Come and Sing!

REQUIEM - choral workshop & concert

NEWPORT CATHEDRAL, GWENT NP20 4ED • 9th OCTOBER 2021

Join composer & conductor Matthew Coleridge and the St Woolos Sinfonia for a glorious day of music-making in the beautiful cathedral of St Woolos in Newport, South Wales. Spend the day learning his "exquisitely beautiful" REQUIEM, before singing in an atmospheric evening performance, conducted by the composer.

"A glorious piece to sing... a lot of us were in tears by the end of it"

Teresa Stubbs - Buckfast Abbey workshop 2019

Newport Cathedral

Hailed by the late Sir Neville Marriner as "a valuable contribution to 21st Century choral repertoire", Requiem is an uplifting and deeply moving piece to sing. Its young composer is an engaging and charismatic conductor, bringing out the best in singers with enthusiasm and warm encouragement.

Don't miss this opportunity to sing with a wonderful professional orchestra in a Welsh premiere!

Newport Cathedral
Newport Cathedral

"This was no ordinary come and sing... informal and relaxed, led with humour and encouragement. As a singer, it felt like a big achievement spend one day learning and performing one splendid work"

Simon O'Hea - Portsmouth Cathedral workshop, 2020

Booking info

Workshop ticket £20

Singer ticket with loan of vocal score on the day

Workshop ticket £27

Singer ticket with advance purchase of vocal score (includes p&p)

Audience tickets

Audience ticket for the evening concert performance

On the day

St Woolos Cathedral

105 Stow Hill, Newport, NP20 4ED

A fascinating mix of ancient and modern, St Woolos Cathedral is a beautiful and intimate venue for music making. The Norman nave gives way to a modern chancel, with a striking rose window by John Piper. Music is a vital part of the Cathedral's life, with a flourishing choir, a fine pipe organ and its own professional orchestral-in-residence, the St Woolos Sinfonia.

  • by road

    By Car

    Newport Cathedral is a 5-10 minute drive from Junction 26 of the M5. Parking is available in several public car parks nearby. Street parking nearby is very limited.

  • by bus

    By Bus

    It’s a short (but steep) 10-minute walk from Newport Bus Station up Stow Hill to the Cathedral.

  • by rail

    By Rail

    Newport is well served by Rail transport, with regular trains to Cardiff, Swansea, Bristol and beyond. It’s a short but steep 10-minute walk from Newport Railway Station up Stow Hill to the Cathedral.

St Woolos Cathedral
St Woolos Cathedral
St Woolos Cathedral
St Woolos Cathedral

Newport Cathedral images © David Balaam. Used by kind permission.

The performers
Matthew Coleridge

Matthew Coleridge

Composer and conductor Matthew Coleridge (b.1980) is an exciting voice in the British choral music scene. His first choral composition - the Corpus Christi Carol - was recorded by a cappella group The Queen's Six, appearing on the cover CD of BBC Music Magazine's Christmas edition in 2015.

His highly melodic and very approachable compositional style often blends elements of plainsong and medieval music with shimmering modern harmonies - weaving simple melodic lines into rich tapestries of sound.

Requiem (composed 2014-15) was hailed by the late Sir Neville Marriner as "a valuable addition to the 21st century choral repertoire". Is is regularly performed by choirs across the UK, and overseas.

Matthew's 'Requiem in a Day' choral workshops are very popular amongst choral singers, giving them the opportunity to sing this wonderful piece in some of the UK's most prestigious church buildings.

St Woolos Sinfonia

St Woolos Sinfonia

St Woolos Sinfonia – the professional standard orchestra in the city of Newport and Orchestra -in-Residence resident in its cathedral – strives to bring the joy of fine classical music, not just to music lovers, but also to people and communities who may not have had the opportunity to discover it for themselves.

Since 2014, the exceptionally gifted New Zealand conductor, Tianyi Lu (2017/18 Gustavo Dudamel Fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Assistant Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and since August 2019 Welsh National Opera’s “Female Conductor in Residence“) has taken the St Woolos Sinfonia as Guest, and lately as Principal Conductor, to highly acclaimed concert performances, to the utmost delight of the audiences and musicians, such as the wonderful 2018 Spring concert.

Supported by its Patrons & Friends, the orchestra always takes pride to support talented young musicians giving them the opportunity to play in the orchestra, supervised by its enthusiastic and experienced professional musicians. Testimony for this is a happy collaboration with undergraduate and postgraduate students of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, over many years.

Whilst busy with mainly symphonic and chamber music portfolios, St Woolos Sinfonia is very experienced in working with choirs and would be very happy to collaborate with choirs and choral societies to provide enthusiastic and high quality, yet affordable orchestral support for their concerts.

Choral workshops

Requiem in a Day workshops

Come and sing Matthew Coleridge's Requiem in some of the country's most inspiring cathedrals, abbeys and churches. All events are directed by the composer.

St Wilfrid's Harrogate

Harrogate - St Wilfrid's
Apr 17th 2021

Come and sing Requiem in one of Yorkshire's most spectacular churches, the vast Gothic Revival church of St Wilfrid. With organist Anthony Gray.



All Saints Clifton © Chris Guy

Bristol - All Saints, Clifton
May 22nd 2021

[Rescheduled event from May 9th 2020]

Come and sing Matthew Coleridge's Requiem in the excellent acoustics of one of Britain's most striking modernist churches - the spectacular All Saints, Clifton.



Blackburn Cathedral © David Iliff

Blackburn Cathedral
Jul 10th 2021

One of the best places to sing in the North West, Blackburn Cathedral possesses one of the best pipe organs in the country, and a six-second reverb. Come and join in the fun!



Milton Abbey © flickr/johnelamper

Milton Abbey
Aug 12th 2021

New music workshop on Matthew's latest major choral work. There are few better places to be in August than this spectacular Abbey set amongst Dorset's rolling hills.



Dorchester Abbey © Peter Chapman

Dorchester Abbey
Aug 19th 2021

Come and sing Matthew Coleridge's Requiem in the picture postcard village of Dorchester-on-Thames, with an evening performance conducted by the composer. Bring a picnic and enjoy the sunshine!



Romsey Abbey © Jack Pease

Romsey Abbey
Sept 4th 2021

Come and sing Matthew Coleridge's Requiem in the Romsey's spectacular Norman abbey, near Southampton.



Exeter Cathedral © Jack Pease

Exeter Cathedral
Sept 25th 2021

[Rescheduled event from Sept 19th 2020]

Come and sing Matthew Coleridge's Requiem with over 200 singers in one of Europe's most spectacular Medieval cathedrals.



St Mary's Warwick © flickr/jpguffogg

Warwick - St Mary's
Oct 2nd 2021

Come and sing in one of England's finest parish churches - the Collegiate Church of St Mary in Warwick. With Oliver Hancock (organ)



Newport Cathedral

Newport Cathedral
October 9th 2021

Join Matthew and professional orchestra the St Woolos Sinfonia, for the Welsh premiere of Requiem, in the wonderful Cathderal of St Woolos Newport, South Wales.



Pershore Abbey © J. Hannan-Briggs

Pershore Abbey
June 18th 2022

[Rescheduled event from June 20th 2020]

Come and sing Matthew Coleridge's Requiem in the glorious acoustic of Pershore's superlative Abbey church.



StBarnabas Ealing © Roger Green

London

Originally scheduled for March 2020; awaiting a rescheduled date



Testimonials

A valuable addition to the 21st century choral repertoire
Sir Neville Marriner

This was no ordinary 'come and sing'! A work of exquisite beauty
Music in Portsmouth review, 2020

You are a true tunesmith - well-crafted and inspiring music!
Dr David Price - Master of the Chorister, Portsmouth Cathedral

Beautiful... I find myself entranced by the openness of this music.
Paul Carr - composer

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

A singular voice - and that is an exceedingly rare thing!
Michael McGlynn - Anúna

A joy and privilege to sing this most beautiful piece of music under the direction of the composer himself
Heather Harvey - Buckfast Abbey workshop 2019

Thank you for a wonderful day. You were so encouraging and patient. I can't imagine not singing your Requiem again. I absolutely loved the day!
Monica Kent - Louth workshop 2019

We were enthralled by the pure beauty of your Requiem. Parts of it were quite exquisite and we loved the fact that you, the composer, were directing us with such skill and clarity of conducting. Thank you so very much for a phenomenal day
Jeanne Apsland - Buckfast Abbey workshop 2019