About Us: Formed by Peter Leech in 2009, specifically for the performance of late-Renaissance and early-Baroque music to the highest standards, Harmonia Sacra received critical acclaim at their inaugural Advent Reflections concert at the church of St Thomas the Mar... moreFormed by Peter Leech in 2009, specifically for the performance of late-Renaissance and early-Baroque music to the highest standards, Harmonia Sacra received critical acclaim at their inaugural Advent Reflections concert at the church of St Thomas the Martyr, Bristol.
Described as ‘a fine body of singers’ by John Packwood in the Bristol Evening Post, they have delighted audiences with their fresh, inspiring interpretations of choral repertory from many centuries.
Members of the choir come from many parts of the UK for intensive weekends of music-making, culminating in concerts acclaimed for their invigorating choral sound, clarity of tone and texture, and innovative programming.
In June 2010 Harmonia Sacra were invited to perform a programme of music by early seventeenth-century English Recusant musicians (including William Byrd, Richard Dering and Peter Philips) for a Swansea University History conference at Oystermouth. The concert featured a unique and rare exhibition of seventeenth-century books and music associated with the British Isles Recusant community, including the Selosse Manuscript.
This was followed by a highly successful concert of Summer Choral Classics at St Thomas the Martyr in July 2010 which raised funds for an inaugural collaboration with leading period instrument ensemble, Canzona, led by Theresa Caudle, for the November 2010 Advent Reflections concert.
Advent Reflections 2010 featured the Bristol (and possibly UK) premiére performances of excerpts from the Conductus Funebris by Polish baroque composer Grzegorz Gorczycki and Lawrence Whitehead’s Creator alme siderum, composed specially for Harmonia Sacra.
In November 2010 the choir also had the great honour to be invited to sing for the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales at the opening of the new Bristol Civil Justice Centre at St Thomas the Martyr. A highlight of their recent activity was a concert at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, featuring music by Alessandro Scarlatti, Tommaso Bai, Baldassare Galuppi and Giuseppe Pitoni. The choir’s first CD, Cherubim & Seraphim, was released on the Nimbus Alliance label in 2012, receiving critical acclaim for ‘skilful and stylish’ performances of Russian Orthodox choral works. The choir’s BBC Radio 3 debut took place in October 2011 when they featured in a programme about music at the Court of Empress Catherine the Great. less
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