City of Glasgow Chorus
Encyclopedia
The City of Glasgow Chorus was founded in Glasgow
, Scotland
in 1983 by Graham Taylor, who is still its Director of Music. Since then, it has established its position as the biggest independent choral group in the west of Scotland and a significant player in Scotland’s arts environment. It has achieved this in spite of, or perhaps because of, a policy of performing less familiar pieces in the mainstream choral repertoire. The Chorus presents a series of self-promoted concerts each season, which have included in recent years performances of a string of lesser-known works by very well known composers, for example, Andrew Lloyd Webber
's Requiem, Verdi
's Four Sacred Pieces, Holst
's Choral Symphony, Puccini
's Messa di Gloria, Malcolm Arnold
's The Return of Odysseus, Ralph Vaughan Williams
' A Sea Symphony, and Mahler
's Symphony No. 8 (The Symphony of a Thousand)
, as well as some of the more demanding parts of the repertoire including Walton
's Belshazzar's Feast, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts.
In addition, the Chorus is very much in demand by other promoters, appearing regularly with West End International (accompanying top west end soloists with all the hits from the London shows) and taking part in several BBC Friday Night is Music Night broadcasts. The Chorus has also accompanied Russell Watson
and performed with Lesley Garrett
at the Eurovision Dance Contest
in Glasgow (broadcast live on BBC1). More recently, the Chorus performed with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchetra for the Glasgow dates of the Star Wars: In Concert
World Tour.
No less important for building the Chorus's reputation has been a string of collaborations with leading orchestras and performers. Some particular highlights include a joint performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Philharmonia Chorus, and participation in a large-scale performance of Carl Orff
’s Carmina Burana for the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. Other past collaborations include performances with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, the Orchestra of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the Paragon Ensemble, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Individual singers who have graced Chorus performances include Lesley Garrett
, Sarah Brightman
, Willard White
, Maria Ewing
and José Carreras
.
The Chorus has recently adopted a policy of, wherever possible, using students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as soloists in our own promoted concerts, giving them a chance to sing major choral works with professional orchestras outwith their studies.
The City of Glasgow Chorus has also gained popularity with overseas audiences. Notable performances include concerts in Notre Dame Cathedral in Chartres, and a tour of the Czech Republic in 1996, where the Chorus performed the Prague premiere of William Walton
’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the Karlovy Vary
Symphony Orchestra.
Recordings
In the studio, the Chorus has recorded the CD albums Flower of Scotland with the City of Glasgow Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Iain Sutherland) and The Pilgrim, a Celtic Suite by Shaun Davey. It has also recorded two highly successful collections of Choral Classics, directed by Graham Taylor and featuring John Langdon on organ. In October 2005 the Chorus, together with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, made the world première recording of Sir Malcolm Arnold's humorous dramatic cantata The Return of Odysseus. The CD also features a performance of Vaughan Williams' choral work Toward the Unknown Region and Milhaud
's Suite Française.
Graham Taylor was made an MBE in the 2010 New Year's Honours List for services to music.
The City of Glasgow Chorus Trust is a Company limited by guarantee, with charitable status. It is registered in Scotland (113563), and its Registered Charity number is SC 004791.
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in 1983 by Graham Taylor, who is still its Director of Music. Since then, it has established its position as the biggest independent choral group in the west of Scotland and a significant player in Scotland’s arts environment. It has achieved this in spite of, or perhaps because of, a policy of performing less familiar pieces in the mainstream choral repertoire. The Chorus presents a series of self-promoted concerts each season, which have included in recent years performances of a string of lesser-known works by very well known composers, for example, Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
's Requiem, Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Four Sacred Pieces, Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
's Choral Symphony, Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Messa di Gloria, Malcolm Arnold
Malcolm Arnold
Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold, CBE was an English composer and symphonist.Malcolm Arnold began his career playing trumpet professionally, but by age thirty his life was devoted to composition. He was ranked with Benjamin Britten as one of the most sought-after composers in Britain...
's The Return of Odysseus, Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
' A Sea Symphony, and Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's Symphony No. 8 (The Symphony of a Thousand)
Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major by Gustav Mahler is one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire. Because it requires huge instrumental and vocal forces it is frequently called the "Symphony of a Thousand", although the work is often performed with fewer than a...
, as well as some of the more demanding parts of the repertoire including Walton
Walton
-People:* Walton family, connected to Wal-Mart* The Waltons, an American television series centered on the fictitious eponymous family* The Walton sextuplets, the world's first all-female surviving sextuplets, born in 1983-United Kingdom:*Walton, Aylesbury...
's Belshazzar's Feast, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts.
In addition, the Chorus is very much in demand by other promoters, appearing regularly with West End International (accompanying top west end soloists with all the hits from the London shows) and taking part in several BBC Friday Night is Music Night broadcasts. The Chorus has also accompanied Russell Watson
Russell Watson
Russell Watson is an English tenor who has released singles and albums of both operatic-style and pop songs. The self-styled "People's Tenor" had been singing since he was a child, and became known after performing at a working men's club...
and performed with Lesley Garrett
Lesley Garrett
Lesley Garrett CBE is an English musician, broadcaster and media personality.- Early life :Garrett was born in the town of Thorne near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, into a musical family. She attended Thorne Grammar School, where she performed in school plays and musicals. As she grew up she...
at the Eurovision Dance Contest
Eurovision Dance Contest
The Eurovision Dance Contest was an international dancing competition that was held for the first time in the United Kingdom on Saturday 1 September 2007....
in Glasgow (broadcast live on BBC1). More recently, the Chorus performed with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchetra for the Glasgow dates of the Star Wars: In Concert
Star Wars: In Concert
Star Wars: In Concert, previously called Star Wars: A Musical Journey, is a series of concerts featuring a symphony orchestra and choir, along with footage from the Star Wars saga films displayed on a large LED screen at three stories tall. The screen is set to live performances of the Star Wars...
World Tour.
No less important for building the Chorus's reputation has been a string of collaborations with leading orchestras and performers. Some particular highlights include a joint performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Philharmonia Chorus, and participation in a large-scale performance of Carl Orff
Carl Orff
Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...
’s Carmina Burana for the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. Other past collaborations include performances with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, the Orchestra of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the Paragon Ensemble, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Individual singers who have graced Chorus performances include Lesley Garrett
Lesley Garrett
Lesley Garrett CBE is an English musician, broadcaster and media personality.- Early life :Garrett was born in the town of Thorne near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, into a musical family. She attended Thorne Grammar School, where she performed in school plays and musicals. As she grew up she...
, Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman is an English classical crossover soprano, actress, songwriter and dancer. She is famous for possessing a vocal range of over 3 octaves and singing in the whistle register...
, Willard White
Willard White
Sir Willard Wentworth White, OM, CBE is a Jamaican-born British bass-baritone.-Early life:He was born into a poor but supportive Jamaican family in Kingston. His father was a dockworker, his mother a housewife. White first began to learn music by listening to the radio and singing Nat King Cole...
, Maria Ewing
Maria Ewing
Maria Louise Ewing is an American opera singer who has sung both soprano and mezzo soprano roles. She is noted as much for her acting as her singing.-Life and career:...
and José Carreras
José Carreras
Josep Maria Carreras i Coll , better known as José Carreras , is a Spanish Catalan tenor particularly known for his performances in the operas of Verdi and Puccini...
.
The Chorus has recently adopted a policy of, wherever possible, using students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as soloists in our own promoted concerts, giving them a chance to sing major choral works with professional orchestras outwith their studies.
The City of Glasgow Chorus has also gained popularity with overseas audiences. Notable performances include concerts in Notre Dame Cathedral in Chartres, and a tour of the Czech Republic in 1996, where the Chorus performed the Prague premiere of William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the Karlovy Vary
Karlovy Vary
Karlovy Vary is a spa city situated in western Bohemia, Czech Republic, on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá, approximately west of Prague . It is named after King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, who founded the city in 1370...
Symphony Orchestra.
Recordings
In the studio, the Chorus has recorded the CD albums Flower of Scotland with the City of Glasgow Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Iain Sutherland) and The Pilgrim, a Celtic Suite by Shaun Davey. It has also recorded two highly successful collections of Choral Classics, directed by Graham Taylor and featuring John Langdon on organ. In October 2005 the Chorus, together with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, made the world première recording of Sir Malcolm Arnold's humorous dramatic cantata The Return of Odysseus. The CD also features a performance of Vaughan Williams' choral work Toward the Unknown Region and Milhaud
Milhaud
Milhaud is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.-Population:-References:*...
's Suite Française.
Graham Taylor was made an MBE in the 2010 New Year's Honours List for services to music.
The City of Glasgow Chorus Trust is a Company limited by guarantee, with charitable status. It is registered in Scotland (113563), and its Registered Charity number is SC 004791.