Charter Choir

Well, what a year.

The Charter Choir’s first two performances of the academic year took place in October 2020 – it wasn’t until May 2021 that the third happened. Easter Term was, across the board, the most ‘normal’ term that we at Homerton have experienced since Lent Term 2020. For the choir, part of this was due to being able to sing live again, in a regular Tuesday Evensong setting at St John the Evangelist, Hills Road.

After the disruption of Michaelmas Term (a Homerton mass-isolation followed immediately by the second national lockdown), and with Lent Term being a non-starter with almost all students studying remotely during the third national lockdown, Douglas Coombes generously led weekly choir rehearsals online from January until March. However, the relief of returning to live music-making in May was evident. I would like it put on record how incredibly impressed by – and grateful for – our choir members’ unshakingly positive attitude I have been. Singing in smaller groups, we avoided the need to be spread too far across the church aisles, making communication between conductor, organist, and singers at the back a bit more effective than it otherwise would have been if we’d been at full strength but scattered across a larger area. Despite smaller numbers, we worked our way up to some challenging repertoire, including a littleknown five-part Renaissance motet and Howells’s Evening Service in B minor.

Looking ahead, we intend to have a short domestic tour to the south and southwest of England at the end of August. We’ll be singing Evensong in three cathedrals: Portsmouth (23 August), Truro (24 August) and Wells (26 August). Keep any eye on our website or Facebook page for further information – it would be lovely to have support from any Homerton friends or alumni in those parts of the country. Given that our 2020 tour to Italy had to be cancelled, I’m delighted that we’re going to be joined by all five of last year’s choir leavers. So long as everyone remains healthy, it should be a low-pressure way to ease back into regular choral singing.

As far as music-making goes, bring on the return to ‘normality’!

Director of Music