Zoom Choral Workshop
Time & Date:
10 – 11.30am, Saturday 19 June 2021
Venue:
Zoom – link and scores will be emailed to you after checkout
Who:
Rory McCleery | Dunster Festival Artistic Co-Director and Director of The Marian Consort
Ticket Prices:
Name your price – we suggest a minimum donation of £10/person participating, but any extra will help us enormously as we plan with confidence and creativity for our 2022 Festival, including our work in the community with local schools and care homes. We also understand that the past year has been difficult for many of us, so we understand if you are unable to spare much or anything right now.
Running Time:
An hour and a half
Programme Info:
Join Rory McCleery, Artistic Director of The Marian Consort, for an online workshop exploring some of the music from our digital concert which premieres the previous evening.
Rory will delve inside the history of beautiful sacred Tudor polyphony including Robert Parsons’ famous Ave Maria and works by Thomas Tallis and Philip van Wilder, ‘Master of the King’s Musick’ to Henry VIII. Rory will also be chatting to composer Ben Rowarth about his brand-new piece written for Dunster festival, Ave Maris Stella. Participants will be led in a gentle choral warm-up and will have the opportunity to sing the pieces together from home, with scores circulated in advance as pdfs.
Artist Biographies
Rory McCleery
‘McCleery elicits performances that glow with golden purity and soul’ (The Scotsman)
Rory McCleery, ‘a countertenor and academic as well as conductor … combining boyish geniality with quite startling erudition’ (The Sunday Times), is the founder and director of Gramophone Award-nominated vocal ensemble The Marian Consort, with whom he performs across the UK, Europe, North America and the Far East. Under his direction, The Marian Consort has recorded eleven CDs with Delphian Records and has become renowned for its compelling interpretations of a wide range of repertoire, particularly the choral music of the Renaissance and early Baroque, but also works by contemporary British composers. Recent and upcoming performances include The Marian Consort’s Wigmore Hall debut, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3; a televised concert tour of Japan; and recitals in Finland, Croatia and in the Bascule chamber underneath Tower Bridge.
Rory began his musical career as a chorister in the choir of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh. He gained a double first in Music and an MSt in Musicology with Distinction from Oxford University, where he was organ scholar of St Peter’s College. As a countertenor, he greatly enjoys performing as a soloist and consort singer in concert and recording with other ensembles including The Dunedin Consort, Contrapunctus, The Monteverdi Choir, The Sixteen, The Gabrieli Consort, Le Concert d’Astrée, The Academy of Ancient Music, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and The Cardinall’s Musick.
Recent solo performances have included Bach St John and St Matthew Passions; Handel Messiah, Dixit Dominus and Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne; Pärt Passio; Purcell Come ye Sons of Art, Ode to St Cecilia and Welcome to All the Pleasures; Monteverdi Vespers of 1610; Rameau Grands Motets; and Britten Abraham and Isaac in venues including the Concertgebouw Bruges, the Royal Chapel of the Palace of Versailles and Edinburgh’s Usher Hall. Rory has appeared as a soloist and commentator for broadcasts on ARTE, Radio France, BBC Radio 3 and German, Italian and Polish national radio.
Rory is much in demand as a guest conductor and workshop leader, and has led singing courses, study days and choral workshops across the UK, Germany, Spain and the USA. He is a passionate believer in the importance of music education and singing for young people and is director of choral music at City, University of London.