Corvus Consort: Welcome Joy + A Ceremony of Carols
26 November @ 7.30pm to 9.30pm
About Corvus Consort: Welcome Joy + A Ceremony of Carols
Corvus Consort’s upper voices with Louise Thomson (harp), directed by Freddie Crowley
Corvus Consort’s upper voices join with harpist Louise Thomson to present a festive concert, featuring music celebrating women’s voices from their acclaimed album ‘Welcome Joy’ alongside Benjamin Britten’s iconic Ceremony of Carols.
The first half of the programme comprises a selection of music from ‘Welcome Joy’, which was released in 2024 on Chandos Records. A celebration of women’s voices, both as singers and composers, the album received five stars from BBC Music Magazine, who also named it one of their ’13 best classical albums of 2024’.
Imogen Holst’s characterful Keats setting Welcome Joy and Welcome Sorrow opens the programme, before a set of beautiful works by living composers Judith Weir, Olivia Sparkhall and Hilary Campbell, all commissioned by Multitude of Voyces to mark International Women’s Day in 2019.
Then comes Elizabeth Poston’s remarkable An English Day-Book, a cycle of eleven short movements charting the course of a day in the English countryside, packed with strikingly vivid depictions of bells, clocks, songbirds, owls, and a mischievous bumblebee.
The second half is where things get festive, opening with a selection of a cappella Christmas pieces by Elizabeth Poston, Howard Skempton and Peter Maxwell Davies, as well as the medieval carol Ther is no rose of swych vertu. Harp and voices will also sound together in the magical Peace on Earth by current Master of the King’s Music Errollyn Wallen.
Finally, Corvus and Louise will perform Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, undoubtedly the most famous composition that exists for women’s voices and harp.
Mirroring Poston’s cycle at the end of the first half, the Ceremony of Carols also consists of eleven movements, in this case setting a series of medieval carol texts, with perfectly judged musical moods shifting between the lyrical, poignant, and joyful.
It is one of the best-loved works in the English Christmas repertory, and will bring the concert to a fabulous festive close.
Reviews
“Dazzling … under its founder-director Freddie Crowley, Corvus Consort is always full of fresh thinking.”
BBC Music Magazine
“Clean, clear voices, impeccable intonation and a direct, engaged way with the texts.”
Limelight Magazine
“An innovative and top-drawer ensemble.”
The Arts Desk
“The 12 superb sopranos and altos of the Corvus Consort sing the complex, close-knit textures of these works with delicacy and pinpoint accuracy. Louise Thomson’s immaculate, virtuosic harp playing conjures scenes that take us from scented gardens to sun-baked landscapes and haunted moonlit forests.”
BBC Music Magazine
Tickets
Please see important booking information below.
Booking information
Ticket prices:
Full price – £20.00
Ages 18 to 25 and disability – £15.00
Under 18 – £8.00
All orders will be subject to a per transaction booking fee of £1.50
Dates & times:
Thursday 26 November 2026 at 7.30pm
Doors open at 7.00pm
Running time:
2 hours, including an interval