St. Andrews Renaissance Singers

Il coro St. Andrews Renaissance Singers è uno dei cori dell’Università di St. Andrews in Scozia: composto da studenti, personale e coristi provenienti anche da fuori l’università e ha come sede la bellissima St. Salvator Chapel all’interno dell’Ateneo. Il coro, noto precedentemente come Renaissance group, fu fondato da Douglas Gifford nel 1955, professore di Lingua spagnola, che ha costituito una formidabile biblioteca corale contente opere di Guerrero, Victoria e Lobo. Il coro ha tenuto diverse tournèe in Europa e ha eseguito spesso gli Evensong nelle cattedrali inglesi. Il gruppo musicale scozzese si dedica principalmente alla musica a cappella rinascimentale ma da alcuni anni sta collaborando con la St. Andrews Baroque Orchestra con la quale ha allestito nel dicembre 2012 un programma dedicato a Buxtehude e Bach: il prossimo anno il coro e l’orchestra terranno un concerto nella prestigiosa cattedrale di Perth. L’attuale tour è il primo sotto la direzione di Claire Luxford che guida il coro dal 2010. 

St. Andrews Renaissance Singers

Direttore Claire Luxford

Soprani: Ceridwen Ash, Sara Doel, Maria Giulia Franzoni, Hannah Holmes, Justine Nanson, Cara Mahoney,

Lucie Ware

Alti: Madeleine Allen, Jennifer Bernstein, Chera Cole, Emma Herman, Ingrid Ivarsen, Lizzy Wilson

Tenori: Robin Bell, David Gascoigne, Todd Shively

Bassi: Dave Evans, Felix Pinkert, Charles Warren, Tom Wilkinson

[luglio 2013]

The St Andrews Renaissance Singers are one of the choirs run by the University of St Andrews in Scotland. We are a mixture of people of different ages and backgrounds: students, staff and singers from outside the university. We rehearse each week in the university chapel, St Salvator’s Chapel, and sing evensongs in there several times a year, as well as putting on concerts in St Andrews and further afield. We were formerly known as the Renaissance Group and were founded in 1955 by Douglas Gifford, Professor of Spanish. He built up a magnificent choir library containing many works by Spanish composers in particular, such as Francisco Guerrero, Tomas Luis de Victoria and Alonso Lobo. He also took the choir on annual tours in Britain and Europe and had the choir sing for week-long residencies at English Cathedrals, doing evensong each evening. Nowadays we still sing mainly Renaissance music, without accompaniment, but we are also building up a relationship with the St Andrews Baroque Orchestra, with whom we performed a concert featuring Buxtehude and Bach in December 2012. Next year we will perform a concert in St Ninian’s Cathedral in Perth with the St Andrews Baroque Orchestra. We are delighted to be coming to Italy; this is our first tour under the directorship of Claire Luxford, who took over the choir in 2010.