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DIVINE OFFICE Choral Music in Oxford

CELEBRATING MUSIC AND PLACE 27 SEPTEMBER– 1 OCTOBER 2027

Plainchant to the present day, in Oxford’s greatest buildings

Martin Randall Festivals

BEETHOVEN ALONG THE RHINE 5–12 MAY 2027 MUSIC IN PALLADIAN VILLAS 7–12 JUNE 2027 MUSIC ALONG THE DANUBE 8–15 JULY 2027 MUSIC IN TOLEDO 16–21 OCTOBER 2027 OPERA IN SICILY 4–9 NOVEMBER 2027

Contents

4. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE FESTIVAL

13. MEET THE MUSICIANS

20. ACCOMMODATION There is a choice of five hotels and two colleges in Oxford.

International musicians of the highest calibre.

THE DIVINE OFFICE DAY Read more about the Monastic Office Hours - the centrepiece of this festival.

23. PRACTICALITIES

18.

Further information and how to book a place.

DISCOVER THE PLACE Oxford: a beautiful and suitable city.

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24. PRE-FESTIVAL TOUR Extend your stay in the region with a tour that has been designed to link with the festival.

THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME The day-by-day itinerary including concert details. Published: August 2026

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Introduction

THE DIVINE OFFICE IN OXFORD AN INTRODUCTION FROM OUR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, LIZZIE WATSON

Sixteen concerts, including the complete Divine Office: this choral festival is a remarkable musical, architectural and spiritual experience. Of all our Martin Randall Festivals, this is the one I always turn to when explaining why they are unique and genuinely ground-breaking in concept. The heart of this festival is the Divine Office – the eight services of the monastic day, performed at the intended times, beginning at 1.00am and ending at about 10.00pm. The offices in the small hours are some of the rarest and most memorable musical experiences that exist – it is something extraordinary to enter the hushed, candlelit chapel of a historic Oxford college, closed to all others, to hear some of the top professional choirs in the world perform a sequence of chant and polyphony, interspersed with readings. Each office represents a different Christian feast or period (Advent, Easter and so on), and as you travel through the day, you also travel musically through the year. But this is only one part of a choral festival of the highest order. We not only have the top college choirs perform for us in their own colleges (New, Merton, Magdalen, Queen’s), but the professional ensembles who appear are a roll call of some of the most prestigious names in the choral and early-music worlds: Gesualdo Six, Tenebrae, The Tallis Scholars, Academy of Ancient Music, Gabrieli Consort & Players, The Marian Consort and Carice Singers all take part. Musicologist and conductor Jeremy Summerly gives daily talks placing the music and the Divine Office itself in context.

Taverner, Parry); New College interweaves music relating to the Feast of St Michael and All Angels, just the day before it takes place; and concerts such as Tenebrae’s Path of Miracles and The Carice Singers’ Love Divine could not be more appropriate counterparts to the Divine Office day. Masterpieces such as Bach’s Magnif icat, Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Duruflé’s Requiem bring splendour and great emotion, and Gabrieli Consort & Players close the festival with A Venetian Coronation, with fitting pomp and majesty. Oxford is just as much a part of the festival as the music and the performers. Its historic colleges are architecturally magnificent, and deeply connected with both monastic and musical traditions, and other landmarks include the Sheldonian Theatre and the Bodleian Library. This is a festival that lets you experience Oxford in a way rarely available to the public. Lizzie Watson Artistic Director

The music spans from plainchant to the present day, with wonderful connections to time or place: Magdalen Choir presents ‘The Oxford Tradition’, a celebration of the many connections between key composers and the city (Sheppard,

Introduction

THE SPEAKER

MARTIN RANDALL FESTIVALS

THE FESTIVAL PACKAGE

Jeremy Summerly is Director of Studies in Music at Caius College, Cambridge, having previously been Director of Music at St Peter’s College, Oxford, and Head of Academic Studies at the Royal Academy of Music. He has conducted over 40 recordings spanning nine centuries of music, and given concert tours across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa, including a performance of Britten’s Hymn to the Virgin sung across the River Jordan. He is Director of Music at St Luke’s, Chelsea, a Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music, and a familiar voice on Radio 3 since the 1990s. Alongside conducting, he plays harpsichord, Baroque viola, and Renaissance and medieval instruments.

This festival follows the format that Martin Randall established 30 years ago with our first Danube Music Festival, of sitespecific concerts for a private audience. Since then we have organised festivals along the Rhine, Loire and Seine rivers, in Suffolk, York, Lincoln, the Cotswolds, to Seville, Toledo, Santiago, Venice, Florence, Rome, Bologna, the Veneto, Sicily, to St Petersburg, Prague and through Thuringia. This is the sixth iteration of our Divine Off ice festival.

The price includes: All 16 concerts, including the eight monastic hours of the Divine Office. Accommodation for four nights – choose between five hotels and two colleges. See pages 20–23. reakfasts and three dinners (wine is B included). Talks on the music by Jeremy Summerly. oach transfers for some of the events, C and for those staying at the Old Parsonage Hotel. All tips and taxes.

Meet the musicians. See pages 14–17 for their biographies.

The assistance of festival staff and a detailed programme booklet. Optional extras: Chapel and library walks, led by architectural historians. Details to be sent at a later date.

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Introduction

THE DIVINE OFFICE MATINS • LAUDS • PRIME • TERCE • SEXT • NONE • VESPERS • COMPLINE

The heart of this festival is the performance of the complete Divine Office in the course of a single day, at the times each Hour would traditionally have been sung. The eight Hours – Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline – each centre on the chanting of psalms with their antiphons, the singing of hymns and canticles, and scriptural readings with sung responsories. The tradition has changed little in nearly 1,500 years, and some elements may go back further still: some scholars believe the roots of plainchant (‘Gregorian’ chant) lie in earlier Jewish liturgical practice.

heard in late-medieval or Renaissance Britain and continental Europe, but there are some departures from strict liturgical practice. Rather than reproducing exactly what would have been sung on the day itself, each office represents a different Christian feast or period of the church year (Advent, Easter and so on), so that as you travel through the day you also travel musically through the year, with music and readings appropriate to each. Not only does this add another dimension to the progression through the offices, but it also provides a more varied soundworld, drawing on some of the most remarkable music written for each season.

Were you to attend all eight Hours, you would join a very small number of people alive today to have done so – the opportunity is now extremely rare. Even if you attend only those at more agreeable hours, you will hear one of the most This ‘performance’ of the Divine Office (these are concerts, not services) comes as complete musical realisations of the Divine Office to be found anywhere today. close as possible to what might have been

As the capacity of the chapels is limited, most of the eight offices are performed simultaneously in two of them: The Tallis Scholars and Collegium Gregorianum in one, The Marian Consort in the other. Participants are assigned to one of two streams, moving between venues through the day so that each stream hears every choir, each in a different sequence of Oxford’s chapels. Apart from sleep deprivation, choirs wishing to perform the complete Divine Office face two challenges: vocal stamina, and the quantity of plainchant, the singing of which is a specialist skill. The Marian Consort take on both the polyphony and the chant for all of their Hours; The Tallis Scholars and Collegium Gregorianum divide theirs, performing the polyphony and the chant respectively.

the programme

THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

Day 1 Monday 27th September

Getting to Oxford: There are regular direct trains from London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bournemouth and various other places, and there are frequent coach services from London. Arriving by car: All Oxford authorities discourage the use of cars. Parking is available at some hotels (see pages 20 –23), but not at the colleges. The festival begins for all participants at 2.30pm with a talk by Jeremy Summerly. Optional walks will be available late morning for those who arrive earlier, details sent at a later stage. The ambitions and endowment of Magdalen exceeded those of all previous foundations when established by Bishop Waynflete in 1458 and though Reformation iconoclasm was made good only by 19th-century restoration, the shell of the glorious chapel is little changed since 1474–80. Waynflete made provision for eight clerks, four chaplains, 16 choristers and an Informator Choristarum. John Sheppard was among the many distinguished holders of this post (1543– 48). Concert, 4.00pm on Monday or 11.30am on Tuesday: Magdalen College Chapel Magdalen College Choir Mark Williams director

The Oxford Tradition A celebration of choral music by composers associated with the University of Oxford. To include works by John Sheppard, John Taverner, Thomas Weelkes, Thomas Tomkins, Hubert Parry, William Walton, and Judith Weir.

reworking pieces again and again. This programme pairs the Requiem with his Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens, four exquisitely crafted miniatures inspired by Gregorian chant, including the muchloved Ubi caritas.

There are earlier foundations, but by the generosity of its endowment and by the prescriptions of its 1264 statutes, Merton qualifies as the first fully-fledged college in either Oxford or Cambridge. The chapel is also Oxford’s earliest, and many hold it to be the most beautiful. From the outset, there was provision for vocal music to accompany the liturgy. Concert, 4.00pm on Monday or 2.15pm on Tuesday: Merton College Chapel Merton College Choir Benjamin Nicholas director Duruflé’s Requiem 2027 marks the 80th anniversary of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, a work of extraordinary meditative and spiritual power. Duruflé first encountered chant as a choirboy in Rouen, and it remained central to his musical imagination throughout his life. In the Requiem, plainsong provides the foundation for a richly coloured musical landscape, encompassing quiet contemplation and remarkable intensity. A meticulous and highly self-critical composer, Duruflé left behind only a small body of works, often

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the programme

THE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

Day 1

Day 2

Monday 27th September Tuesday 28th September continued

Concert, 6.45pm or 9.00pm: All Souls College Chapel Gesualdo Six Owain Park director The Wishing Tree Birdsong, chirping crickets, and nostalgia for seemingly endless childhood summers weave through this exploration of nature and memory. Byrd’s joyful This sweet and merry month of May and Gibbons’s evocative The Silver Swan imagine a natural world entwined with human emotion. Moving between past and present, Vaughan Williams’s Bushes and Briars and Stanford’s The Blue Bird meet Alison Willis’s haunting The Wind’s Warning, while fresh arrangements of folksongs make familiar tunes new again. Across centuries of a cappella music, the pastoral landscape and reminiscence become inseparable, capturing our innately human longing for the natural world. Dinner is provided, either before or after the evening performance (depending on the time you attend), in one of the colleges or in hotel restaurants.

Meals

The day begins with a talk on the music, some free time or an optional walk with one of our architectural experts. Concert, 4.00pm on Monday or 11.30am on Tuesday: Magdalen College Chapel Magdalen College Choir Mark Williams director See Day 1. Concert, 4.00pm on Monday or 2.15pm on Tuesday: Merton College Chapel Merton College Choir Benjamin Nicholas director See Day 1. New College enjoyed unprecedented munificence when founded by William of Wykeham in 1379, and its chapel is the biggest of the medieval new-builds in Oxford. The college was the first to be planned around a large quadrangle, and the first in which there were lodgings for undergraduates as well as for fellows. From the outset there was provision for ten chaplains, three clerks and 16 choristers.

Three dinners are provided, some of which are in college halls. The food provided in college halls is of high quality and such as one might expect of a good restaurant. It is of a standard provided for high table on special occasions and not for students.

Concert, 6.00pm: New College Chapel New College Choir Robert Quinney director The Feast of St Michael and All Angels Michaelmas marks a turn towards autumn, the end of harvest, and St Michael’s protection against the gathering darkness. Music has always offered a way of approaching the divine: giving voice to experiences that lie beyond earthly knowledge. Guerrero’s Maria Magdalena offers jubilant articulation to the discovery of Christ’s empty tomb, while Victoria’s sumptuous Ave Maria surrounds listeners in richly woven antiphony. Howells’s formidable A Sequence for St Michael invokes the Archangel while recalling his own son Michael, whose early death resonated throughout his music. In MacMillan’s mystical From the hand of the angel, angelic voices swirl around declamatory plainsong. Together, these works give sound to revelation. Dinner for all participants in New College Hall.

The programme

“

This was one of the most sublime experiences of my life – to hear such wonderful music, exquisitely performed in the huge range of beautiful settings was just such a privilege. The programme was superb.

Concert, 9.00pm: New College Chapel Tenebrae Nigel Short director Path of Miracles For centuries, pilgrims have followed the Camino de Santiago in search of transcendence. Protean British composer Joby Talbot transforms this physical and spiritual journey into an intensely immersive – almost cinematic – a cappella experience. Written for Tenebrae in 2005, Path of Miracles follows the four great staging posts on the Camino Francés, drawing the listener into a soundworld at once haunting, exhilarating, and a touch unsettling. Medieval texts and pilgrims’ songs collide with extraordinary vocal effects, demanding acute intensity from the singers and traversing extremes of emotion. The result is a compelling musical tour de force.

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The programme

“

...So many special moments that I will carry with me for years to come.

Day 3 Wed. 29th September

Morning talk on the music, and free time or optional walks. Though founded in 1341, no trace of the medieval buildings of Queen’s College survives as it was entirely rebuilt in the decades around 1700. The result is a pleasing version of English Baroque with a screen to the High Street which constitutes the finest stretch of Classicism in Oxford. The chapel is marked by its restrained beauty and excellent acoustics. Concert, 12.00 noon or 2.15pm: Queen’s College Chapel Carice Singers George Parris director Love Divine Pomegranates and honey, milk and wine, fragrant spices and perfumed skin: the Song of Songs indulges in the sensuality of human desire. Its poetry has captivated composers for centuries, its language of earthly love entwined with that of the divine. Palestrina demonstrates remarkable expressive range, from the boldness of Quae est ista to the delicacy of Sicut lilium, presented alongside Jean L’Héritier’s Nigra sum sed formosa and Clemens non Papa’s Ego f los campi. Four centuries later, French composer and organist Daniel-Lesur returned to this ancient poetry in Le Cantique des Cantiques, a virtuosic work for twelve solo voices that interweaves Latin and New Testament texts in an alluring tapestry of vocal colour.

Built in 1664–69, the Sheldonian was Christopher Wren’s first substantial commission, an attempt to recreate the open-air theatres of antiquity for the ceremonies of the university. Roman precedent yields to English ingenuity in the timber roof, which spans the auditorium without columns beneath a ceiling painted by Robert Streater. The screen of herms to Broad Street is justly celebrated. Concert, 6.00pm: Sheldonian Theatre Queen’s College Choir Owen Rees director Academy of Ancient Music Baroque Splendour: Magnif icat & Dixit Dominus Bach and Handel were born just weeks apart in 1685, yet never met – despite Bach trying at least twice. Their careers took strikingly different paths. Bach

remained rooted in Germany, absorbing international influences largely through the music that reached him, while Handel travelled across Europe soaking up international celebrity. The youthful Dixit Dominus, written during Handel’s time in Italy, fizzes with the vivacious theatricality of the Italian Baroque; Bach’s triumphant Magnif icat matches it in virtuosity and brilliance. Both pieces make thrilling use of their vocal forces, moving between dazzling full choruses and intimate solo combinations: two patently different individuals united by masterful command of voice and instrument. Dinner this evening is independent.

The programme

“

The Divine Office was an exquisite experience, unique and almost ethereal.

Day 4 Thu. 30th September DIVINE OFFICE DAY The Tallis Scholars and Collegium Gregorianum perform in one venue and The Marian Consort in the other, for all but two of the offices. The two audience streams move between them, so hear each in equal measure. MATINS, 1.00am Merton College Chapel or Magdalen College Chapel The liturgical day starts with the Night Office. Traditionally built from two or three “nocturns” of psalms, readings and responsories, it was historically sung by monastic communities in the depths of the night, long before later centuries moved it to a more convenient hour.

PRIME, 6.30am Queen’s College Chapel or Merton College Chapel

NONE, 3.30pm Magdalen College Chapel or Exeter College Chapel

A short service is the first of the ‘Little Hours’, timed so that the congregations enter the chapels before dawn and leave in daylight. It was in fact the last of the Little Hours to be introduced historically, added to give monastic communities a formal start to the working day, and was later suppressed in the Roman rite’s 20th-century reforms as an unnecessary duplication of Lauds.

The last of the ‘Little Hours’, with a duration of about half an hour. Its name comes from ‘nona hora’, the ninth hour of the Roman day, traditionally held to be the hour of Christ’s death on the cross.

TERCE & MASS, 9.15am New College Chapel

This office takes its name from the Latin vesper (roughly meaning ‘evening’), and its rite grew out of the ancient lucernarium, the lighting of lamps at dusk that marked the close of the working day in the earliest Christian communities. At its heart lies the Magnificat, the canticle of the Virgin Mary, sung daily at Vespers since antiquity and set to music by, among many others, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Mozart and Bruckner – making this one of the most musically celebrated of all the Offices.

The second of the ‘Little Hours’ is followed immediately by Morning LAUDS, 4.00am Mass, the principal service of the Queen’s College Chapel Catholic Church. Both streams come or together for this office. Terce is Magdalen College Chapel traditionally linked to the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which the Acts of Also called Morning Prayer, in high summer the Apostles records as having taken place Lauds might take place at daybreak. Its ‘at the third hour of the day’. psalms of praise and the Benedictus canticle are threaded through with images SEXT, 12.00 noon of light and dawn, making it a natural University College Chapel companion to the sunrise it anticipates. or Exeter College Chapel

Getting there. MRT staff lead from hotels for the night Offices and a coach is provided for those staying at the Old Parsonage.

The third of the ‘Little Hours’ is at the ‘sixth’ hour, according to the system by which twelve hours are counted from dawn to sundown. It also recalls the vision granted to St Peter on a rooftop in Jaffa, which the Acts of the Apostles places ‘about the sixth hour’.

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VESPERS, 6.45pm Magdalen College Chapel or University College Chapel

Dinner follows, in the Bodleian Library for some and a historic college hall for others. COMPLINE, 9.15pm New College Chapel The last Office of the day features the singing of the votive antiphon of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Traditionally sung by candlelight, it also includes Psalm 91, with its prayer for protection through the night, bringing the day’s cycle of prayer to a hushed and reflective close. Both streams once again come together for this office.

The programme

Day 5 Friday 1st October

The parish church of Oxford, University Church of St Mary, was also the place where all university ceremonies took place before the Sheldonian Theatre was opened in 1669, where the governing body gathered and where the embryonic library was first kept. Even after the 17th century it continued to be used for university and public functions and concerts. It is exceptionally capacious for an English parish church but architecturally is no barn, ranking with the finest churches in the country.

MORE ABOUT THE CONCERTS Private. All the performances are planned and administered by us, and the audience consists exclusively of those who have taken the festival package. Secular. All performances are concerts rather than religious services. Duration. Most are around one hour, some a little more, some a little less. None of the concerts has an interval.

Concert, 10.15am: University Church of St Mary

Seating. Specific seats are not reserved. You sit where you want. Most seating is in stalls or pews.

Gabrieli Consort & Players Paul McCreesh director

Not obligatory. You don’t have to attend them all! 16 concerts is a lot to absorb in five days.

A Venetian Coronation The year is 1595. Step inside St Mark’s Basilica as the city of Venice celebrates the coronation of Doge Marino Grimani with instrumental and choral music on a spectacular scale. A Venetian Coronation recreates the splendour and ceremony of the occasion, drawing on the exuberant polychoral music of Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli. Voices, cornetts, shawms, and sackbuts resound in compositions designed for the magnificent architecture of the Venetian Republic. First recorded in 1990, this celebrated reconstruction has since been transformed by the latest research into instruments and performance practice, bringing the pageantry of Renaissance Venice thrillingly to life.

Audience size. There will be up to 220 participants on the festival. Six of our nine venues cannot hold this number, so at these, the performance will be repeated. Acoustics. This festival is more concerned with locale and authenticity than with acoustic perfection. The venues may have idiosyncrasies or reverberations of the sort not found in modern concert halls. Changes. Musicians fall ill, venues may close for repairs: there are many circumstances which could necessitate changes to the programme. We ask you to be understanding should they occur.

Immediately after the concert, coaches will be available to take you to the railway and coach stations.

The Musicians

MEET THE MUSICIANS

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The musicians

Photographs, clockwise from top left: Tenebrae at our Divine Office Festival, 2024; Gesualdo 6 ©Andrew Wilkinson; Academy of Ancient Music ©Benjamin Ealovega; Nigel Short © Sim Canetty-Clarke

TENEBRAE

GESUALDO SIX

ACADEMY OF ANCIENT MUSIC

Described as “phenomenal” (The Times) and “devastatingly beautiful” (Gramophone magazine), award-winning choir Tenebrae is one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles, renowned for its passion and precision.

The Gesualdo Six is an award-winning British vocal ensemble directed by Owain Park. Through imaginative programming, exceptional musicianship and a spirit of curiosity, the group has established itself as one of the world’s foremost vocal ensembles. Recent performance highlights include appearances at the Edinburgh International Festival, Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan, the Sydney Opera House and more. Following its BBC Proms debut in 2023, the group returns to the Royal Albert Hall in the 2026 season and holds a five-year residency as Wigmore Hall Associate Artists.

AAM is an orchestra with a worldwide reputation for excellence in Baroque and Classical music, using historically informed techniques, period-specific instruments and original sources to bring music vividly to life in committed, vibrant performances.

Under the direction of Nigel Short, Tenebrae performs at major festivals and venues across the globe, including the BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Rheingau Musik Festival and Sydney Festival. The choir has earned international acclaim for its interpretations of choral works from the Renaissance through to contemporary masterpieces, and it regularly commissions new music. It has enjoyed collaborations with some of the UK’s leading orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music and Britten Sinfonia. Tenebrae has won three BBC Music Magazine Choral Awards, a BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Year Award, an Edison Classical Music Award, an Opus Klassik Award and earned a Grammy nomination. Alongside its performance and recording schedule, Tenebrae runs a thriving Learning & Connection programme, through which it works with hundreds of children, young people and amateur singers each year.

Collaboration is central to The Gesualdo Six’s artistic identity. Alongside performances with Fretwork, Chelys Consort and the Brodsky Quartet, the ensemble tours two acclaimed concerttheatre productions created with Concert Theatre Works and director Bill Barclay: Secret Byrd and Death of Gesualdo. The ensemble has cultivated a substantial international online audience, reaching millions of listeners through performances filmed in remarkable locations around the world. These films have introduced new audiences to choral music and reflect the group’s belief that great vocal music can be both artistically uncompromising and widely shared.

Established more than 50 years ago by Christopher Hogwood, AAM has released more than 300 albums to date, collecting countless accolades including Classic BRIT, Gramophone and Edison awards. AAM is the most listened-to period-instrument orchestra online, with over one million monthly listeners on streaming platforms, and recently celebrated the orchestra’s Golden Anniversary with the completion of a landmark project to record Mozart’s complete works for keyboard and orchestra. AAM works with music colleges and universities across the UK to engage the next generation of period instrumentalists with side-by-side sessions, masterclasses and other opportunities designed to bridge the gap between the conservatoire and the profession, safeguarding the future of historical performance. AAM proudly holds the position of Associate Ensemble at London’s Barbican Centre and the Teatro San Cassiano, Venice, and Orchestra-in-Residence at the University of Cambridge, Milton Abbey International Summer Music Festival and The Apex, Bury St Edmunds.

The musicians

Photographs, from left: The Tallis Scholars ©Hugo Glendinning; The Marian Consort ©Frances Marshall; Greg Skidmore at our Divine Office Festival, 2024

THE DIVINE OFFICE DAY THE TALLIS SCHOLARS

THE MARIAN CONSORT

COLLEGIUM GREGORIANUM

The Tallis Scholars were founded in 1973 by their director, Peter Phillips. Through their recordings and concert performances, they have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music throughout the world. The ensemble has worked to create the purity and clarity of sound which best serves the Renaissance repertoire. It is the resulting beauty of sound for which The Tallis Scholars have become so widely renowned.

The Marian Consort (TMC) is an awardwinning British vocal ensemble that presents bold and thrilling performances of music from across the centuries.

Collegium Gregorianum is made up of some of the UK’s finest professional singers. Dedicated to thoughtful and musically engaging performances of liturgical music, it explores the fascinating possibilities to be found at the intersection of religious ritual and concert experience. The group is led from within by Greg Skidmore, a veteran of the UK Early Music choral and vocal consort scene. Greg appears around the world with The Tallis Scholars, I Fagiolini, Contrapunctus, and many other groups and directs his own choirs in the UK. In his native Canada, Greg is Founder and Artistic Director of The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools.

They have now performed nearly 2,750 concerts. 2025/26 season highlights include performances in Japan, the USA and a number of appearances in London as well as their usual touring schedule. The group’s 2020 release including Missa Hercules dux Ferrarie was the last of nine albums in The Tallis Scholars’ project to record and release all Josquin’s masses before the 500th anniversary of the composer’s death. It was the winner of the BBC Music Magazine’s much coveted Recording of the Year Award in 2021 and the 2021 Gramophone Early Music Award. 2026 sees the release of their first recording on Linn Records, which showcases a body of work written for the group by US composer Nico Muhly. The disc has been selected as Gramophone magazine’s Editor’s Choice April 2026.

Led by founder and director Rory McCleery, TMC is distinguished by its flexible, intimate approach, with a clarity of texture and subtlety of interpretation that illuminates the music for performer and audience alike. TMC features regularly on UK and international television and radio (including BBC Two’s 2022 flagship documentary series ‘Art That Made Us’), and has released fourteen recordings to critical acclaim, garnering a variety of accolades and awards including the Diapason d’Or, Presto Classical Album of the Year and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Recent highlights of TMC’s live performance schedule include appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall, the BBC Proms, Festival Europäische Kirchenmusik Schwäbisch Gmünd (broadcast on German national radio), the Miller Theatre series at Columbia University in New York and Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan Recital Hall. Noted for ‘performances that glow with golden purity and soul’, The Marian Consort performs music from the twelfth century to the present day, with a focus on bringing to light and championing marginalised and lesser-known Renaissance composers.

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The musicians

THE CARICE SINGERS

GABRIELI CONSORT & PLAYERS

THE CHOIR OF MERTON COLLEGE

Described as “one of the UK’s most adventurous and accomplished choirs” (The Guardian, 2025), The Carice Singers is fast becoming one of the UK’s most exciting choral ensembles. Founded by its Artistic Director George Parris in 2011 and named after Sir Edward Elgar’s daughter, the group focuses on new music and repertoire from Great Britain, but leaves nothing out of bounds. In 2026 it was shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Ensemble Award for the quality of its performances and the bold imagination of its concert programmes.

For over 40 years, the Gabrieli Consort & Players, under the artistic direction of Paul McCreesh, has cultivated an international reputation for excellence, innovation and wide-ranging ambition.

Described by Gramophone magazine as ‘one of the UK’s finest choral ensembles’, Merton College Choir is a mixed-voice choir which came to the fore when it won the BBC Music Magazine Choral Award. It has performed recently in the USA, Japan, Germany and in April 2023 made its debut at London’s Barbican in Bach’s St John Passion. During term-time the choir sings the services in Merton College Chapel, and it has made a highly acclaimed series of recordings on the Delphian label. The current Director of Music is Benjamin Nicholas, a former Oxford organ scholar who has worked at, inter alia, St Paul’s Cathedral and Tewkesbury Abbey. He is Music Director of the Oxford Bach Choir.

Recently The Carice Singers have appeared at London’s Barbican Centre, Kings Place, Spitalfields Music Festival and St Martinin-the-Fields, along with performances at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Snape Maltings, and Oxford’s University Church. The Carice Singers’ commitment to new music has resulted in commissions from Daniel Kidane, Aníbal Vidal, Alex Groves, Luke Lewis and Evelin Seppar. The group is also in demand for its workshops with early-career composers, collaborating in summer composer academies at Cheltenham Music Festival and the Three Choirs Festival, and joining residencies run by Britten Pears Arts.

Gabrieli are known for historically informed interpretations of repertoire from across the centuries. Driven by a desire to recreate the original performances of musical works as far as possible, they believe that historical performance ideals and knowledge of the old world are essential for creating music anew. Gabrieli’s deep commitment to music education is highly regarded. Gabrieli Roar is a unique and exciting partnership with a network of diverse British youth choirs. Significant recent projects include Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Verdi’s Requiem and Haydn’s The Seasons. Building on an extensive Deutsche Grammophon catalogue, since 2010 Gabrieli has released award-winning recordings on its own record label, Winged Lion Records, including A New Venetian Coronation, Purcell Fairy Queen and King Arthur, Mendelssohn Elijah and Britten War Requiem. Accolades include Gramophone Awards, BBC Music Magazine Awards and the Diapason d’Or de l’Année.

Photographs, clockwise left to right: The Carice Singers ©Matt Jolly; Paul McCreesh; Gabrieli Consort & Players ©Andy Staples

The musicians

Photographs, clockwise from top left: Mark Williams; Robert Quinney ©Ian Wall; The Choir of The Queen’s College ©John Cairns; The Choir of Magdalen College. Bottom of page: The Choir of Merton College ©Hugh Warwick

THE CHOIR OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE THE CHOIR OF NEW COLLEGE Magdalen’s famous choir has changed little since its foundation in 1480, still being composed of 16 boys from Magdalen College School and 12 undergraduates (including, since 2019, female students), studying a range of subjects, known as ‘Academical Clerks’. As well as singing daily services, the Choir performs around the world, records and broadcasts regularly, and sings to thousands of revellers from the top of Magdalen’s iconic tower each year at 6.00am on 1st May, in a tradition dating back more than five hundred years. The current Informator Choristarum (Director of Music) is Mark Williams, formerly of Jesus College, Cambridge, who is also a Fellow of the College and Lecturer in the Faculty of Music.

Established in the late 14th century in accordance with William of Wykeham’s statutes for the college, it remains a group of 16 choristers and 14 adult clerks; the latter a mixture of professional singers and undergraduate members of the college. It is now one of the most lauded choral groups in Britain and is well respected internationally. They perform in concerts in the UK and regularly tour abroad, and have made over 100 recordings. The choir is directed by Robert Quinney who was previously sub-organist at Westminster Abbey and Director of Music at Peterborough Cathedral.

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THE CHOIR OF THE QUEEN’S COLLEGE The Choir of The Queen’s College, directed by Owen Rees, is among the finest university choirs in the UK. Its repertory includes a rich array of music from the Renaissance to the present day. During term the choir sings for services in the college’s splendid Baroque chapel. It performs in many parts of the UK and abroad and broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio. It records for the Signum label and appears on the Grammynominated soundtrack of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

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OXFORD: A BEAUTIFUL AND SUITABLE CITY

The city’s other landmarks match the Oxford is one of England’s ambition of its colleges. The Sheldonian Theatre and the Bodleian Library, both great architectural visited during the festival, are among the palimpsests: a dense grandest buildings in England rarely open to accumulation of buildings the public in this way. in every style from the 12th In each of the chapels used for this festival, the audience sits alongside or opposite the to the 21st centuries, its choir rather than facing it from a distance – a proximity that gives even a first-time visitor greatness embedded in a something of the collegiality the choristers web of picturesque streets themselves have always known. and alleys, and dappled with lawns, veteran trees and riverside meadows. But the city is not merely a beautiful setting borrowed for this festival. Many of its colleges were founded not as secular institutions with chapels attached, but as quasi-monastic communities with choral worship built into their original statutes, centuries before this festival existed. Merton’s 13th-century foundation, Magdalen’s 15th-century choral establishment, New College’s 14thcentury provision for its own chaplains and choristers – choral worship was written into the fabric of these colleges from the start, and in each case it has continued, with only occasional interruption, ever since. That kind of continuity is rare in England outside a handful of cathedral and collegiate foundations, and Oxford has several examples of it standing within walking distance of each other.

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Accommodation

ACCOMMODATION

There is a choice of five hotels and two colleges in Oxford. Your choice of hotel or college accommodation is the sole determinant of the different prices. There is also the option of arriving in your hotel a day before the festival begins (Sunday 26th September 2027). We are happy to book extra hotel nights or a room upgrade, for which we charge an administration fee. However, it is often the case that you will find a better rate for extra nights by booking directly with the hotel rather than through us. Please note that there are not likely to be any rooms available at Christ Church College or New College before or after the festival. Driving to Oxford: Please take note of restrictions on driving within Oxford. The city’s current £5 congestion charge is set to be replaced by traffic filters, through which cars may only travel with a permit. The County Council website states that ‘with Botley Road open, everywhere in Oxford will be accessible by car without having to drive through a traffic filter’ (Aug 26). However, this situation is in flux, so we advise that you check your travel plans closer to the time. Parking is available at some hotels, but is often limited. City centre car parks tend to be expensive and few allow long stay parking. Long stay parking is allowed at some, but not all, Park and Ride car parks.

Accommodation

THE OLD BANK HOTEL (5*)

THE STORE (5*)

A former 19th-century bank, this boutique hotel (43 rooms) has a library and an Italianate courtyard garden among its public spaces. Rooms have modern décor, many with views of spires and rooftops; those at the front overlook the High Street, though windows are noise-proofed.

Suite: Size: 40m 2 . King bed. Lounge seating area. Walk-in rainfall shower and bath. Stunning view of the University Church and Radcliffe Camera.

Situated in the heart of the city, The Store is a haven of calm. The sleek, modern décor and soft lighting give the public areas a relaxed but luxurious feel.

Venues are within 600m (0.4 miles) on foot.

The Quod Restaurant & Bar is open every day 7.00am to 11.00pm and an à la carte breakfast is served here.

www.oldbankhotel.co.uk

Bedrooms are bright, with high ceilings. All bathrooms have a walk-in shower, and some also have a bathtub. Standard hotel amenities are available in all rooms, while the higher categories are generally differentiated by room size, bed size, and the view. There is generally plenty of natural light and a number of rooms have views onto the surrounding, historic buildings. All rooms have air conditioning.

Tea and coffee, air conditioning and a safe are provided in all rooms, and all en-suites have underfloor heating and a hairdryer. Parking in the hotel car park is free, but reserving in advance is recommended.

The Treadwell restaurant serves breakfast (continental buffet with à la carte options), lunch and dinner every day except Sunday evenings.

Room types available: Classic: Size: c. 16m 2 . Double bed. Shower, or bath on request. Some views are restricted (wall-facing).

The hotel does not have a car park.

Deluxe: Size: c. 22m 2 . King bed. Shower, or bath on request. Rooms still include a desk and small seating area.

Superior Terrace: Size: c. 20m 2 . King or Super King bed. Private terrace with stunning views. Floor-to-ceiling windows. Rainfall shower.

Room types available:

Superior Deluxe: Size: c. 24m 2 . King bed. Shower, or bath on request. A spacious room with a seating area.

Super King: Size: c.22–26m 2 . Super King bed. Rainfall shower (some have freestanding baths).

Junior Suite: Size: 29m 2 . King bed. Rainfall shower and bath. Excellent view of the city.

Venues are within 1km (0.6 miles) on foot. thestoreoxford.com

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Accommodation

“

What a wondrous week of outstanding groups and singing. Never to be forgotten.

THE RANDOLPH (5*)

THE OLD PARSONAGE (5*)

The most famous hotel in Oxford, the venerable Randolph (151 rooms) is housed in a Gothic Revival building in Beaumont Street. The bedrooms are well decorated in a fairly traditional way and are very comfortable. Almost all have a shower – bathtubs are very limited. Bathrobe and slippers, espresso machine, iron and ironing board and a hairdryer are among the amenities provided in all rooms.

A very attractive hotel (35 rooms), at whose core is a lovely 17th-century rectory. The public areas in this part are delightful – colourful, comfortable and idiosyncratic. A remarkable collection of 20th-century paintings covers the walls. The restaurant is good. The bedrooms in the new block to the rear are slightly more functional, though they are equipped with all the usual mod cons.

Public rooms include a ‘Morse’ bar, a bright and airy lounge and a fine restaurant. Service is more comparable to that of a 4-star hotel. Rooms with a street view may hear some traffic noise.

Transport by private coach will be arranged for some of the concerts, but many journeys will be on foot and could be up to 30 minutes. Taxis are easily obtained.

The hotel restaurant, The Alice, serves breakfast (full buffet), lunch and dinner every day.

The Parsonage Grill serves breakfast (à la carte and a continental selection), lunch and dinner every day.

Parking at the hotel is very limited and must be booked in advance. It costs c. £48 per vehicle per night.

Parking is free but very limited, so cannot be guaranteed unless reserved in advance. Room types available:

Room types available: Standard: Size: from c.20m . Double bed. All standard amenities. 2

Junior Suite: Size: from c.29m 2 . King bed. All standard amenities. Living area and historical views. Venues are within 1.3km (0.75 miles) on foot.

Classic: Size: 14m 2 . Queen bed. Walkin rainfall shower. Some have a Juliette balcony overlooking the courtyard garden or their own private terrace. Deluxe King: Size: 16m 2 . King bed. Walk-in rainfall shower or bath on request. Superior Deluxe: Size: 19m 2 . King bed. Walk-in rainfall shower or bath on request. Rooms with original features that exude

www.hilton.com 22

character. Some overlook the terrace at the front of the building. Venues are within 1.5km (0.9 miles) on foot. Taxis are easily obtained. www.oldparsonagehotel.co.uk

Accommodation

EASTGATE HOTEL (4*)

CHRIST CHURCH COLLEGE

Built on the site of a former coaching inn, the Eastgate is a Mercure hotel (81 rooms). Bedrooms have little character but are very comfortable with all mod cons. Public rooms are agreeable. Bathtubs or showers are available in both room categories, on request.

Rooms at Christ Church are not on the main campus but across St Aldate’s, in a modern block a few minutes’ walk away. This means new, comfortable rooms with lift access, though without the college’s historic atmosphere. A cooked and continental breakfast buffet is served each morning in the Great Hall, reached via Its location in narrow Merton Street makes Tom Quad; other meals must be taken it one of the quietest of our selection of elsewhere. hotels though some rooms overlook the High Street. St Aldate’s is a busy road with bus stops on both sides. Request a room at the back of A buffet breakfast is served daily. The the building if you think that the road noise restaurant is currently closed, but we may bother you. Note that rooms at the anticipate that it will reopen by the time back of the building do not have a view. of the festival. If not, you may need to eat elsewhere for independent meals. Bedrooms are all student rooms with small double beds and en-suite bathrooms Parking is available on a first-come, firstwith showers (no baths). All have fridges, served basis and cannot be guaranteed. It hairdryers, tea and coffee facilities, free costs c. £30 per night. Wi-Fi and a toiletry welcome pack. Adjacent rooms can be requested for Room types available: couples, dependent on availability. Porterage is not provided. Classic (sole use): Room sizes vary. Double bed. Tea and coffee facilities. Parking is not available.

NEW COLLEGE These are student rooms, with single beds – basic but smart and comfortable, with en-suite shower rooms (no baths). All have free Wi-Fi, a hospitality tray with kettle, fridge, linen, towels and toiletries; hairdryers are not provided. What you sacrifice in comfort, you gain in the historic, cloistered setting of an ancient college. (There is no access to indoor common areas.) A few double rooms are available; otherwise couples can request adjacent or nearby rooms, subject to availability. There are no lifts and all floors require you to navigate at least one set of stairs. Porterage is not provided. A full English or continental breakfast is served each morning in the medieval Hall. Any independent meals must be taken elsewhere. Parking is not available. Room types available:

Privilege (double use): Room sizes vary. Double bed. Nespresso coffee machine. Robe and slippers.

Room types available:

Venues are within 1km (0.6 miles) on foot.

mercure.accor.com

www.chch.ox.ac.uk

En-suite room (sole use): Double bed.

En-suite room (sole use): Single bed. Amenities as listed above. En-suite room (double use, for 2 people): Double bed. Amenities as listed above. Venues are within 900m (0.56 miles) on foot. www.new.ox.ac.uk

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PRACTICALITIES

FURTHER PRACTICALITIES

FITNESS FOR THE FESTIVAL

MAKING A BOOKING

OUR FESTIVALS

There is a lot of walking involved in this festival, and some of the concerts and hotel rooms can only be reached via flights of stairs. You will need to be able to walk unaided for up to 1km (c. 0.6 miles), multiple times in one day. Festival staff will not have the resources to assist individuals.

1. Booking option. We recommend that you contact us first, or visit our website, to make a booking option which we will hold for 72 hours. To confirm it, please send the deposit within this period – 15% of your total booking price. Alternatively, make a definite booking straight away via our website.

Participation on our festivals is a very different experience from conventional group travel:

If you have a medical condition or a disability which may affect your holiday or necessitate special arrangements being made for you, please discuss these with us before booking – or, if the condition develops or changes subsequently, as soon as possible before departure.

2. Definite booking. Full payment is required if you are booking within 12 weeks of the date the festival begins. 3. Our confirmation. Upon receipt of the deposit we shall send you confirmation of your booking. After this your deposit is non-returnable except in the special circumstances mentioned in our Booking Conditions. Further details about the festival may also be sent at this stage, or will follow shortly afterwards.

No repetitive or redundant announcements, no herding by elevated umbrella, no unnecessary roll calls, little hanging around. We work on the assumption that you are adults, and our staff cultivate the virtue of unobtrusiveness. Though there will be up to 220 participants, you will often find yourself in smaller groups – the audience is divided between five hotels and two colleges, and into different restaurants for some of the dinners. For those who are not averse to group activities there are extra walks and visits to sign up to. You choose the level of participation that suits you. We provide sufficient information to enable you to navigate the festival events without needing to be led. However, festival staff are also stationed around the events to direct you if needed.

Pre-festival tour

ARTS & CRAFTS IN THE COTSWOLDS ART AND ARTEFACTS IN THE BUILDINGS THEY WERE DESIGNED FOR Pre-festival tour 22–27 September 2027 (M485) 6 days • Speaker: Janet Sinclair

Honey-stone villages from Oxford to the Severn Valley, birthplace of Arts & Crafts Private houses rarely open to the public, including Rodmarton and Owlpen Kelmscott, William Morris’s own spiritual home, sits at the heart of the itinerary Between Oxford and the Severn Valley lies honey-stone country that gave the Arts and Crafts movement its second life – and this tour begins and ends at Oxford railway station, making it a natural prelude for those attending the Divine Off ice festival. Participants arrive in Oxford on Monday 27th September in time for the first talk, which begins at 2.30pm. Around 1900, a circle of architects and craftsmen came to believe that good design was a moral question, not only an aesthetic one. From their workshops at Sapperton, Ernest Barnsley and his circle built and furnished Rodmarton Manor entirely by hand, using timber and stone from the estate itself. In 1902, C.R. Ashbee transplanted his entire Guild of Handicraft from London’s East End to Chipping Campden. A decade earlier, C.F. Voysey had already taken the movement in a leaner direction at Perrycroft, his earliest large country house. Many of these houses remain in private hands, seen only by arrangement with the families and trusts who still hold them. Included: hotel accommodation; private coach throughout; breakfasts, 1 lunch and 4 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all tips; the services of the lecturer and tour manager. Accommodation: The Lygon Arms, Broadway (lygonarmshotel.co.uk): 16th-century coaching inn, situated in the high street of Broadway. Single rooms are doubles for sole use. How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking on this tour and it would not be suitable for anyone with difficulties with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Coaches can rarely park near the houses, and gardens are extensive. Average distance by coach per day: c. 64 miles. Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL LTD 10 Barley Mow Passage London W4 4PH United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)20 8742 3355 info@martinrandall.co.uk www.martinrandall.com From North America: Tel: 1 888-422-9935 (toll-free) northamerica@martinrandall.co.uk Martin Randall Australasia 5 Moorak Street Taringa QLD 4068 Australia Tel (in Australia): 1300 01 39 76 (toll-free) From New Zealand: 0800 001 632 anz@martinrandall.com

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL… is Britain’s leading specialist in cultural travel and one of the most respected tour operators in the world. MRT aims to produce the best planned, best led and altogether the most fulfilling and enjoyable cultural tours and events available. They focus on art, architecture, archaeology, history, music and gastronomy, and are spread across Britain, continental Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, India, Japan and the Americas. For 2027 we have planned around 200 expert-led tours for small groups (usually 10 –20 participants), six music festivals of our own devising such as The Divine Off ice: Choral Music in Oxford, several short history and music breaks, an extensive programme of online talks, and single days in London. For nearly 40 years the company has led the field through incessant innovation and improvement, setting the benchmarks for itinerary planning, operational systems and service standards. To see our full range of cultural tours and events, please visit www.martinrandall.com

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