Somerville College Choir is made up of 32 singers from Somerville College and the wider Oxford community. Consisting of choral scholars and volunteers, the choir meets twice weekly and is the only Oxford College Choir that sings primarily secular events. The focal point of each week is Choral Contemplation which takes place every Sunday evening in term and plays a central role in College life. They are thrilled to be back in the USA for the first time in nearly 10 years.
 
Members of the Choir also sing in the National Youth Choir, the Rodolfus Choir, Gabrieli Roar, Genesis Sixteen, and Schola Cantorum of Oxford, and former members can be found at various music colleges, and as part of VOCES8. Recent highlights include workshops with Ben Parry (Former director of the National Youth Choir), the King’s Singers, Giles Underwood, Dame Emma Kirkby (an alumna of the college), and Rachel Nicholls, performances of Bach St John Passion and Mozart Requiem with the Instruments of Time and Truth, as well as a concert for refugees from Afghanistan with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, a gig with the Basin St Brawlers, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle, and Handel Solomon with Imperial College Chamber Choir and the Oxford Baroque Players. The choir was the first Oxford College Choir to tour to India engaging in outreach with multiple charities and performing three concerts to capacity audiences in Mumbai and Goa in 2018, revisiting the country in 2023. The choir’s recent album ‘The Dawn of Grace’ featuring music for Christmas by women composers has received wide ranging acclaim from around the world, and was named as Christmas Choice Album by BBC Music Magazine, 2022. The choir’s next Album ‘Divine Light’, choral music associated with India will be released in May 2025, and they’ll record an album of the works of upcoming UK composer Christopher Churcher in June 2025.

The acclaimed Choir of Our Saviour & Sacred Hearts presents a concert of works for the Advent and Christmas seasons, paired with beloved traditional carols.

 Doori Na (violin) and Miles Walter (piano) bring an exciting  program of Clara Schumann, Olivier Messiaen, Henryk Wieniawski,  and Gabriel Fauré to the Church of Our Saviour's undercroft. The  pair has played together as a duo across the United States and  Germany in New Chamber Ballet and in Argento Ensemble, as  well as collaborating frequently in intimate chamber settings. Now  they  return to within a few blocks of where they first met with a  whirlwind program featuring intimate melody (Schumann),  ecstatic illumination (Messiaen), and pyrotechnic abandon  (Wieniawski), culminating in the abundant, unending tapestry of  song that is Faure's first violin sonata. 

From November 11 to 15, acclaimed clarinetist and composer Stuart Bogie will join forces with organist Buck McDaniel to present "November Variations", a free series of daily musical improvisations at Church of Our Saviour on Park Avenue. Each performances begins at 9 AM, offering a rare, spontaneous collaboration that invites audiences to experience live music as a form of meditation. 

Hear the Choir of 5th Avenue Presbyterian Church in the stunning acoustics of Church of Our Saviour as they present an evening of music by legendary Canadian composer Ruth Watson Henderson. Internationally celebrated for her choral writing, Watson Henderson’s work is characterized by an enthralling blend of immediate appeal and musical sophistication. Featuring sweeping melodies, lush harmonies, and rhythmic vitality, her choral works demonstrate a rare gift to capture the emotional depth of a text through music.

Dr. Ryan Jackson conductor
Dr. Patrick Kreeger organ 

www.FAPC.org/Tickets

50% Discount Code: OURSAVIOUR
 

Sunday, 6 August 2023
6:00 p.m. following 5:00 p.m. Mass

In celebration of the Church of Our Saviour's patronal feast, the Feast of the Transfiguration, Director of Music Buck McDaniel performs on the landmark Schantz organ, Op. 2259. 

The 30 minute concert immediately follows the Sunday 5:00 p.m. Mass at Our Saviour. 

PROGRAM

The Transfiguration of Christ: the Cloud of Knowing 
from The Lent Gospels
Nico Muhly (b. 1981) 

Psalm Preludes
Buck McDaniel (b. 1994) 

Fantasia in G
William Byrd (c. 1540-1623)
commemorating the 400th anniversary of his death

Fuga sopra il magnificat, BWV 733
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Buck McDaniel, born in 1994, is an American composer who writes orchestral music, works for the stage, chamber music, and sacred music. His varied career includes work with recording artists Sam Smith, Nico Muhly, Elvis Depressedly, and Mourning [A] BLKstar. His work has been performed internationally in venues ranging from the Belfast Pipeworks Festival (Ireland), the Tanglewood Music Festival (USA), and Lincoln Cathedral (UK). His chamber work Memory Ground, commissioned by the The Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11, was featured in The New York Times, Time Out New York, and WNYC. A sampling of recent projects include a one-act adaptation of Edith Wharton’s short story ‘Afterward’ for narrator and organ and an evening-length suite for cello and harp commissioned by The General Theological Seminary.  

        As a conductor, McDaniel has appeared on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, WRUW’s Live from Cleveland, and his evening length multi-media collaboration with director Raymond Bobgan, Fire on the Water, ran at Cleveland Public Theatre for 5 weeks. A frequent collaborator with producer Jacob Kirkwood, his sound installation Landscape Piece debuted at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in 2019. He serves as Director of Music at both the Roman Catholic Church of Our Saviour and Chapel of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus & Mary, Director of Chapel Music at The General Theological Seminary, and lives in New York City.

More information at www.BuckMcDaniel.com