Jesu, Meine Freude
Tickets are now on sale for Choral Discoveries: Jesu, Meine Freude - our concert on 18th March in St. Albans Cathedral. A gorgeous programme of Bach, Tavener, Bortniansky and Nystedt. Watch the trailer and get your tickets.
Happy New Year
2023 is looking like a fabulous year for the Lea Singers. March sees our second Choral Discoveries concert, in the Lady Chapel of St Albans Cathedral (tickets are on sale now). Then in July we make our first ever visit to the Palladian Church in Ayot St Lawrence for some Rachmaninov and later that month are off to Wales to sing a weekend's services at St David's Cathedral. We are already planning our 2023/24 season, and will share our autumn and Christmas plans as soon as we can.
Our raffle at December's FestiveLea concert in the EMC raised an amazing £960 for the Harpenden Trust. Thank you so much to our audience for being so generous and well done to the lucky winners of the hampers.
If you would like to audition for the Lea Singers, we currently have vacancies for lower voices and interns. More information
Choral Discoveries
Next March sees the second of our Choral Discoveries concerts, this time in the beautiful Lady Chapel of St Albans Cathedral. With works by Bach, Bortniansky, Nystedt and Tavener this is an hour of music to take you somewhere new. Find out more
If you are thinking of joining us for our Charity Christmas Concert in Harpenden on 22nd December, please don't delay booking your tickets - this is proving very popular. Come and support the Harpenden Trust.
Finally, thank you to our generous audience at Our Lady of Lourdes in November. The retiring collection raised a magnificent £370 for Harpenden Child Contact Centre.
We’re recruiting!
We are looking forward to rebuilding and refreshing the choir with our new musical director, Ben Kirk. In particular, under Ben’s leadership, we are on a mission to sing beautiful music from beyond the standard UK choral tradition, as well as some of our audience’s favourite pieces. We start the new season with Brahms Fünf Gesänge, Clara Schumann Drei Gemischte Chöre and Arvo Pärt La Dopo Vittoria.
We are on the lookout for new full-time singers for all parts: perhaps people who have moved to the area and are looking for a high-quality chamber choir, or singers who want to sing interesting music with a small, friendly ensemble.
In particular, we are looking for our next intake of interns. Our interns scheme gives talented young singers the chance to sing with us for a year free of charge, to build their musical experience. Previous interns have joined us during their sixth forms, and before going on to university or music college.
If you are interested in joining The Lea Singers, please email [email protected]. You will be invited to join a couple of rehearsals to see if you like us, before auditioning with our musical director. We rehearse on Wednesday evenings at St George’s School, Harpenden.
Announcing our new conductor
We are delighted to announce that we have appointed our thirteenth conductor, Ben Kirk.
Brahms Requiem on sale
Tickets for our next concert on 21 May are now on sale. We will be performing Brahms Requiem, conducted by the wonderful Quintin Beer. This version of the Requiem has a piano duo accompaniment arranged by Brahms himself for its London premiere.
Last night’s concert, and Brahms Requiem
Last night's concert of Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil at St Albans Cathedral was a very special occasion for us - our first serious concert in two years, set against the awful background of the current conflict. This is a performance that will linger in the memory for a long time. The retiring collection raised just over £1000 for British-Ukrainian Aid - thank you for your generosity towards this important cause.
Our next concert will be Brahms Requiem in St Nicholas Church, Harpenden - postponed from last year due to Covid. This is on 21 May - tickets to go on sale shortly.
Rachmaninov Vespers in the Lady Chapel
Tickets are now on sale for our next concert, which is only a few weeks away - Saturday 12 March - in the Lady Chapel of St Albans Cathedral. We are working hard on our Church-Slavonic pronunciation... Many thanks to Frank Althaus of The Russian Language Centre for coming to Harpenden to coach us.
We are looking for a new Musical Director
The Lea Singers are looking to appoint a new Musical Director later in 2022. Information on the role and how to apply are in the job description. The deadline for applications is 11 February.