Goldsmiths Choral Union POETRY IN MOTION
Gjeilo: The Rose
Shearing: Songs and Sonnets
Palmeri: Misa a Buenos Aires - Misatango
Goldsmiths Choral Union
Jack Apperley Conductor
Mercè Bruguera Abelló Mezzo-soprano
Alex Dixon Tenor
Allora Ensemble
Stephen Jones Piano
Holy Trinity Church
146 Sloane Street, London SW1X 9BZ
16th June 2026 at 7.30 pm
You will find more information about Goldsmiths Choral Union on the website via this QR code.
WELCOME TO THIS EVENING’S CONCERT
Poetry In Motion includes texts from William Shakespeare and Christina Rossetti in dynamic, musical settings. The sense of movement in George Shearing’s Songs and Sonnets, gently pushing and nudging, as if floating on a stream, suddenly shifts direction with the stronger outbursts in Fie on sinful fantasy. Gjeilo’s The Rose and Palmeri’s Misatango are relentless, with a feeling of perpetual motion. Palmeri allows for moments of reflection, typically with the mezzo-soprano soloist, but there is great drive and passion in this music that is typical of Argentine tango. This concert is light in mood but engaging in character.
Jack Apperley Music Director
Jack Apperley has been GCU’s Music Director since 2022, he is also the Associate Chorus Director of the London Symphony Chorus, Assistant Conductor of the NFM Choir in Wroclaw, Poland, Music Director of Concordia Voices and Conductor of the Epsom Chamber Choir. Having studied music with Simon Halsey CBE at Birmingham University, Jack completed a master’s at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Patrick Russill, graduating with distinction, and winning the Sir Thomas Armstrong Leadership Prize. He is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.
Mercè Bruguera Abelló is a Catalan mezzo-soprano based in London, building an international career across the UK and Europe. Equally at home in opera and song, her roles include Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice), Cornelia (Giulio Cesare), Dido and Sorceress (Dido & Aeneas), and Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus). Her awards include third prize at Concurs Palet (2021), semi-finalist in the Tenor Viñas Competition (2023), and runnerup in the 2024 London Bach Singers Prize. A frequent performer in Spain, she debuted at the Palau de la Música Catalana through the Primer Palau 2023 scheme, receiving the Critics’ Award. Active on Europe’s early music scene, she collaborates with leading ensembles, with recent highlights including Bach’s St Matthew Passion under Christoph Prégardien and a touring production of The Fairy Queen with the London Handel Players.
Alex Dixon is a student from the University of Birmingham, where he held a choral scholarship. His musical training began at the age of six as a chorister at Norwich Cathedral. More recently, Alex has sung with the National Youth Training Choir under Greg Beardsell and with the Rodolfus Foundation under Ralph Allwood. As a soloist, he performed the role of Basilio in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro in 2022, gave a recital at the Southwold Arts Festival, and sang the tenor solo in Schubert’s Mass in G with the Ipswich Bach Choir. At university, Alex performed the tenor solo in Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Birmingham University Chorus and sang
regularly with both the University Liturgical Choir and the University Singers. He was also an Ex Cathedra Student Scholar for two years, working under Jeffrey Skidmore and performing a wide range of repertoire. He is a GCU choral scholar.
Allora Ensemble has been performing together from late 2022 after its members met studying at the Royal Academy of Music. During the first period of their inception, Allora performed in public masterclasses to Ksenija Sidorova and Martynas Levickis - both world renowned accordionists - and have worked closely with Owen Murray (head of accordion at the Academy) along with Jim Sleigh, Jon Thorne, Neil Hyde and Dominic Seldis, all distinguished chamber musicians. Since then, the group have made their Royal Festival Hall debut opening a sold out concert for Alexis Ffrench. They have made professional recordings at the VOCES8 studio in London in conjunction with the Royal Academy of Music’s Young Artist Recording Scheme supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and as of this year are one of three prize winners of The Tunnell Trust, being awarded a tour across Scotland visiting music hubs and venues during 2027.
Stephen Jones has been Accompanist of GCU since 1978, Founder Director and Conductor of City Chamber Choir, and Musical Director of the Aeolian Singers. He sang in London’s cathedrals, and was a member of the Queen’s Parish Church and a founder member of the close harmony quartet Original Blend. Stephen was a pianist, scriptwriter and presenter for BBC Schools Radio, and a sought-after animateur working for the British Federation of Young Choirs.
At the end of this concert, Stephen is retiring as the GCU Accompanist.
Ola Gjeilo (1978 - present)
The Rose (2017)
The Rose was commissioned by Chorus Angelicus & Gaudeamus in celebration of their 25th Anniversary and featured on Gjeilo’s album ‘Winter Songs’.
Growing up in a little Norwegian village near Oslo, Gjeilo’s father played lots of records and improvised on the saxophone, so there was always music in the house. In between playing soccer and skiing, at an early age Gjeilo experimented on the piano and learnt to read music and improvise tunes. He has wide-ranging tastes. During his teen years he played a Keith Jarrett CD over and over again, where the jazz pianist improvised for an hour. He developed his love of composing and arranging on a Yamaha synthesiser.
He studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music, the Julliard School in New York, and the Royal College of Music in London. He studied film music at USC in Los Angeles.
His composing process is to ‘record lots of improvisation, whittle it down and develop anything exciting that has a spark to it.’ He loves writing for choirs.
He is very fond of Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms, but Bach is the classical composer he enjoys playing the most. As he says, ’It is also a great way to keep my fingers in shape.’
George Shearing (1919 - 2011)
Songs and Sonnets (1999)
The youngest of nine children, he was born blind to working class parents living in Battersea, London. His father delivered coal and his mother cleaned trains in the evening. He started to learn piano at the age of three and began formal training at Linden Lodge School for the Blind. Over the years he played piano in many jazz bands, touring around England and recording with the BBC.
Shearing emigrated to the United States, where his harmonically complex style mixing
swing, bop and modern classical influences gained popularity. In 1949 he formed the George Shearing Quintet, and often played in a style he called ‘locked hands’.
He was awarded two Grammys (1983 and 1984) and an Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. He and his second wife, singer Ellie Geffert, divided their time between New York and Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire, often touring in concerts with Mel Tourmé backed by the BBC Big Band. He was appointed an OBE in 1996 and knighted in 2007. He died in 2011 aged 91.
Martín Palmeri (1965 - present)
Misa a Buenos Aires - Misatango (1996)
Born in Buenos Aires, Palmeri trained in orchestral conducting, choral direction, composition, piano, and singing.
Misatango is perhaps his best known work, and daringly fuses together two central aspects of Buenos Aires’ cultural history, blending the text of the Catholic mass with the rhythmic intensity, passion and harmonic language of the Argentinian tango, the country’s national music and dance. Originally composed for a bandoneón, tonight we are featuring an accordion, which produces a slightly warmer, more rounded tone - both similar instruments highlight the characteristics of the tango.
In 2013 the mass came to the attention of the world when it was chosen to pay homage to the enthronement of Pope Francis, formerly the Cardinal of Buenos Aires, and a keen tango dancer in his youth.
CONCERT
Ola Gjeilo The Rose
Christina Rossetti
The lily has a smooth stalk, Will never hurt your hand; But the rose upon her brier Is lady of the land.
There’s sweetness in an apple tree, And profit in the corn; But lady of all beauty Is a rose upon a thorn.
When with moss and honey She tips her bending brier, And half unfolds her glowing heart, She sets the world on fire.
Tenor Solo
Performed by Alex Dixon
Gorka Hermosa Anantango
Performed by the Allora Ensemble
George Shearing Songs and Sonnets 1, 2, 3, 4
William Shakespeare
1. Live with me and be my love (from Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music)
Live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That hills and valleys, dales and fields, And all the craggy mountains yields. There will we sit upon the rocks, And see the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers, by whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals. There will I make thee a bed of roses, With a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroider’d all with leaves of myrtle. A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs; And if these pleasures may thee move, Then live with me and be my love. If that the world and love were young, And truth in ev’ry shepherd’s tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move, To live with thee and be thy love.
2. When daffodils begin to peer (The Winter’s Tale)
When daffodils begin to peer, With heigh! The doxy, over the dale, Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year; For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale.
The white sheet bleaching on the hedge, With heigh! The sweet birds, O how they sing!
Doth set my pugging tooth on edge; For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.
The lark, that tir-ra-lir-ra chants, With heigh! With heigh! The thrush and the jay, Are summer songs for me and my aunts, While we lie tumbling in the hay.
3. It was a lover and his lass (As You Like It)
It was a lover and his lass, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey non-i-no, That o’er the green cornfield did pass, In the spring time, in the spring time, The only pretty ring time.
When birds do sing, hey ding-a-ding-ding; Sweet lovers love the spring.
Between the acres of the rye, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey non-i-no, These pretty country folks would lie, In the spring time, in the spring time, The only pretty ring time. When birds do sing, hey ding-a-ding-ding; Sweet lovers love the spring.
(Continued on page 8)
GOODBYE AND THANK YOU TO STEVE!
Memories of 48 glorious years. From all the past and present members of GCU.
• The most accomplished accompanist I’ve encountered, singing in a variety of different groups. You expect him to be able to handle Bach, Mozart etc, but it’s when you hear him at the piano with something very different, eg Constant Lambert’s Rio Grande, that you understand there’s much more to this modest man than you ever realised.
I’ve always thought we were privileged to keep him, alongside his other roles as conductor elsewhere, not to mention a beautiful tenor voice. He had an almost telepathic relationship with Brian Wright when he would so often anticipate which bar Brian wanted us to sing next.
• When I had my first audition, in 1982, Steve, of course, provided the piano accompaniment: I sang Antonio’s For the Merriest Fellows are we from The Gondoliers’ (Gilbert & Sullivan), and Steve actually sang the chorus’s “Tra-la, tra-la- tra-la” in between my lines.
• Thank you Steve! What a wonderful contribution he has made to the choir.
• Whenever I’ve turned to Steve for advice or to share my thoughts, he has always been incredibly generous and forthcoming, offering insightful suggestions and ideas with genuine warmth. His relationship with GCU spans over 48 years, and his invaluable contributions have been instrumental in helping me shape the ensemble during my time with the choir. Jack Apperley
• He has been a rock supporting the singers at the piano through umpteen GCU rehearsals, as well as offering a different angle on tackling awkward moments in the music when conducting us.
• Steve’s ability to whistle and hum the national anthem in two part harmony never ceased to amaze me.
• As a new undergraduate in London, at my first audition I failed to realise that I needed to prepare a piece to sing, and Steve chose a hymn and accompanied me - what a reassuring presence.
• I remember in a rehearsal Steve teaching us to listen for the overtones.
• It’s a cliché, but Steve is simply “the best of the best”. I think it’s 50 years since we met when he accompanied for a Summer School choral course. We did Monteverdi’s Vespers and Steve also sang one of the tenor solo parts. I feel myself blessed over all the years that we worked together - rather brilliantly I think - with GCU. A happy retirement, Steve, although I know you won’t be putting your feet up too far.
Brian Wright
• For half the 94 years of GCU’s existence, the choir has had the privilege of being accompanied superbly by Steve Jones, both at rehearsals, in concerts as well as occasional conducting. I have known him all that time too and much enjoyed his presence, especially when discussing steam railways!
• Steve offered to give singing lessons to choir members during a summer holiday break. I found it a tremendous help in understanding the mechanics of the ‘vocal folds’, breathing, intonation and voice production.
• I will sorely miss Steve when he retires at the end of this season, having been with GCU for so many years, he is like one of the family.
• Steve has that skilled accompanist’s ability to become inconspicuous during rehearsals, but he can also surprise and entertain us by spotting obscure connections between what we are practising and an apparently unrelated work, sometimes through just a few notes or a single chord. His genuine enthusiasm for a wide variety of genres and his indefatigable good humour will be much missed.
• I rejoined GCU in 1994 and in all that time to date Steve has been a rock of support to the choir, to Brian and now Jack.
• Steve ranks as one of the most widelytalented musicians I’ve encountered in a long choral singing career. His skills embrace playing all types of keyboard (piano, harpsichord, organ, etc) - as accompanist, continuo-player or piano soloist – choir trainer, conductor, tenor soloist, singing teacher, as well as being a mine of information.
• His naturally friendly, modest and supportive personality has made him an invaluable assistant conductor.
• I shall miss his piano-playing at rehearsals and wish him well in his remaining musical activities.
• A memorable example of Steve’s musicianship occurred at the end of our Handel Day at Pamoja Hall in Sevenoaks, when he accompanied our specially-imported Swedish mezzo singing trainer in a Handel aria, demonstrating great sensitivity. The performance was subsequently described by some choir members as ‘Steve’s Magic Moment’!
We’ll miss you Steve! All good wishes for the future.
This carol they began that hour, With a hey, and a ho, and a hey non-i-no, How that life was but a flow’r In the spring time, in the spring time, The only pretty ring time, When birds do sing, hey ding-a-ding-ding; Sweet lovers love the spring.
And therefore take the present time, With a hey and a ho, and a hey non-i-no, For love is crown-ed with the prime In the spring time, in the spring time, The only pretty ring time, When birds do sing, hey ding-a-ding-ding; Sweet lovers love the spring.
4. Spring
(Love’s Labour’s Lost)
When daisies pied and violets blue And lady smocks all silver white And cuckoo buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on ev’ry tree, Mocks married men; for thus sings he, Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo; O, word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear!
When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks, When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws, And maidens bleach their summer smocks,
The cuckoo then, on ev’ry tree, (etc.)
INTERVAL
George Shearing
Songs and Sonnets 5, 6, 7
William Shakespeare
5. Who is Silvia?
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Who is Silvia? what is she, That all our swains commend her? Holy, fair, and wise is she; The heav’n such grace did lend her. That she might admired be, That she might admired be.
Is she kind as she is fair? For beauty lives with kindness: Love doth to her eyes repair, To help him of his blindness; And, being helped, inhabits there, Being helped, inhabits there.
Then to Silvia let us sing, That Silvia is excelling; She excels each mortal thing Upon the dull earth dwelling; To her let us garlands bring, To her let us garlands bring.
6. Fie on sinful fantasy (The Merry Wives of Windsor)
Fie on sinful fantasy! Fie on lust and luxury! Lust is but a bloody fire, Kindled with unchaste desire, Fed in heart, whose flames aspire, As thoughts do blow them higher and higher. Pinch him, fairies, mutually; Pinch him for his villainy; Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about, Till candles and starlight and moonshine be out.
7. Hey, ho, the wind and the rain (Twelfth Night)
When that I was and a little tiny boy, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain; A foolish thing was but a toy, For the rain it raineth ev’ry day.
But when I came to man’s estate, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain ‘Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gates, For the rain it raineth ev’ry day.
But when I came, alas! to wive, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain; By swaggering could I never thrive, For the rain it raineth ev’ry day.
But when I came unto my beds, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain; With tosspots still had drunken heads, For the rain it raineth ev’ry day.
A great while ago the world begun, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain; But that’s all one, our play is done, And we’ll strive to please you ev’ry day.
Sergey Voitenko Revelation
Performed by Alise Salina, accordio
Martín Palmeri
Misa a Buenos Aires - Misatango
1. Kyrie
Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison.
2. Gloria
Gloria in excelsis Deo Et in terra pax hominibus Bonae voluntatis, Laudamus te, Benedicimus te, Adoramus te, Glorificamus te. Gratias agimus tibi
Propter magnam gloriam tuam, Domine Deus, Rex caelestis
Deus Pater omnipotens.
Domine Fili unigenite Jesu Christe, Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris. Qui tollis peccata mundi, Miserere nobis
Suscipe deprecationem nostram, Quoniam, tu solus sanctus, Tu solus Dominus tu solus Altissimus, Jesu Christe.
Cum sancto Spiritu, In gloria Dei Patris. Amen.
3. Credo
Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, Factorem caeli et terrae, Visibilium omnium, Et invisibilium, Et unum Dominum Jesum Christum,
Filium Dei unigenitum,
Et ex Patre Natum ante omnia saecula. Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine.
Deum verum de Deo vero, Genitum, non factum,
Consubstantialem Patri:
Per quem omnia facta sunt.
Qui propter nos homines
Et propter nostram salutem
Descendit de coelis, Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto, Ex Maria virgine: Et homo factus est.
Crucifixus, crucifixus, Etiam pro nobis:
Sub Pontio Pilato
Passus, et sepultus est.
Et resurrexit tertia die secundum scripturas
Et ascendit in coelum.
Sedet ad dexteram Patris; Et iterum venturus est venturus est cum gloria
Judicare vivos et mortuos
Cujus regni non erit finis
Credo in spiritum sanctum, Dominum, et vivificantem
Qui ex Patre Filio que procedit,
Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur
Et con glorificatur, qui locutus est per prophetas.
Credo in unum deum, Patrem omnipotentem.
Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum
Et vitam venturi saeculi amen.
4. Sanctus
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua.
Hosanna in excelsis.
5. Benedictus
Benedictus, qui venit in nomine Domini.
Hosanna in excelsis.
6. Agnus Dei
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Miserere nobis.
Dona nobis pacem.
Goldsmiths Choral Union
SOPRANOS
Emily BAILEY
Margaret BEELS
Catherine COOKE
Jane CORKILL
Helen CRISP
Camille DU BUISSON
Elizabeth EDWARDS
Adrienne FRESKO
Julie HOLT
Tanya HUEHNS
Paula JONES
Olivia MEARS
Frosso MILTIADOU
Margaret MOORES
Michiyo NAGOSHI
Sarah NYAKAZINGO
Freya PETTY
Corinne PIGNARD
Anne RANDALL
Jennifer RUHLE
Sarah SAYSELL
Celia SIMPSON
Ruth STEPHENS
Jill TYLER
Katherine TYRRELL
Nancy WOOD
Jenny WU
Alex YOUNG
CONTRALTOS
Mary BOSWORTH-SMITH
Rosemary BURKE
Irene CLUGSTON
Hester COLEY
Liz ELLAWAY
Hazel ELLIS
Mariana FARAH
Jane HOULDSWORTH
Sherry HUTCHINSON
Irene ILIAS
Elin JONES
Jenny LEACH
Sue LUSH
Sue MILLAR
Kelly MORGAN
Betty NEWBURY
Sharon PIERSON
Heather RAYNER
Silvia RESEGHETTI
Jess REYNOLD
Judith SIMPSON
Arabella STUART
Margaret THOMAS
Anna WALTON
Victoria WARE
Polly WATTS
Naomi WEBER
Rowena WINKLER
Jenny YOUNG
TENORS
Sam CLIFTON
Alex DIXON*
Clive HALL
David WILLINGHAM
Michael WOODS
* denotes Tenor
Choral Scholar
BASSES
John ALLINSON
Charles DU BUISSON
Lewis DAVIES
Mike DAY
Gabriel DIAZ-EMPARANZA
Stephen LAI
Mark PAKIANATHAN
James PIERCY
Clive RICHARDS
David ROE
Chris WATTS
Can you ever have too many friends? We don’t think so. At GCU we have Honorary Life Friends, Gold Friends, Silver Friends and Friends. To be supported by these generous people means a lot to the choirthank you!
Honorary Life Friends
Sarah Dorin, William Gould, David Hayes, Dinah Nichols, Mike Lock, Jan Lowy, Ian Stephenson.
Gold Friends, Silver Friends, Friends
Hamish Donaldson, Caroline Green, Joanna Kenny, Margaret Kingsley, Julian KirwanTaylor, Carole Lewis, Rebecca Rawlings, The Late Godfrey Rock, Jane Sawyer, Marylin Smith, Arabella Stuart, Leonore Stuart, Deb Tanner, Charles Thomson, Frances Walton and all those who wish to remain anonymous.
Annual donations of a minimum of £50 (Friend), £130 (Silver Friend), £260 (Gold Friend)
In return, Friends receive a free programme, a Newsletter, and their name (if wished) in programmes for all four GCU-promoted concerts. Silver Friends’ additional benefits are one free ticket for every GCU-promoted concert, Gold Friends’ additional benefits are two free tickets per GCU-promoted concert and access to a rehearsal once a term.
For details about how to become a Friend of GCU, please visit our website goldsmithschoralunion.org or contact the Friends Membership Secretary email: gcufriends@btopenworld.com
TWO FUTURE EVENTS
All are welcome!
SUMMER SING at Queen’s Gate House
Haydn The Creation
Wednesday 1 July 2026
6.30 - 9.00 pm
SUMMER SING at Queen’s Gate House
MOZART Requiem (Süssmayr edition)
Wednesday 8 July 2026
6.30 - 9.00 pm
Conducted by our Music Director Jack Apperley, and accompanied by Stephen Jones
65-67 Queen’s Gate, SW7 5JS
Tickets available on the door, or via Eventbrite (booking fees apply)
FUTURE CONCERTS
MOZART REQUIEM
MOZART Requiem (Levin edition)
MOZART Regina Coeli K276
SCHUBERT Stabat Mater D175
HAYDN Arianna a Naxos
Smith Square Hall, Westminster
Sunday 8 November 2026 at 5.00 pm
Tickets available from choir members, or from Smith Square Hall (booking fees apply)
GOLDSMITHS CHRISTMAS
CELEBRATION - Christmas music and carols with audience participation
Holy Trinity Sloane Square
Friday 18 December 2026 at 7.30 pm
Tickets available from choir members, ordered from tickets.gcu@gmail.com on the door, or via Eventbrite (booking fees apply)
Registered Charity Number 1044507 goldsmithschoralunion.org