Background

The Fairhaven Singers was founded in 1980, under the patronage of Lord Fairhaven of Anglesey Abbey

Baron Fairhaven

Baron Fairhaven, of Anglesey Abbey in the County of Cambridge, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1961 for Urban Huttleston Broughton, 1st Baron Fairhaven, with remainder to his younger brother Henry Broughton. He had already been created Baron Fairhaven, of Lode in...

, and is conducted by Ralph Woodward

Ralph Woodward

Ralph Woodward is an English classical conductor, arranger andorganist. His main focus is on conducting choirs.-Education:...

.
The choir, a mixed ensemble of approximately 48 amateur singers, performs choral repertoire from the 15th century to the present. Among the major works it has performed are Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

's St John Passion, Mozart's Requiem

Requiem (Mozart)

The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...

, Brahms' Requiem, and James MacMillan's Seven Last Words from the Cross. It regularly commissions and premieres new works, most recently Will Todd

Will Todd

Will Todd is an English classical composer and pianist.- Biography :Todd was born in County Durham, attended Durham School and studied music at the University of Bristol...

's Requiem (2009) and Bob Chilcott

Bob Chilcott

Robert "Bob" Chilcott is a British choral composer, conductor, and singer, based in Oxford, England.Born in Plymouth, Chilcott sang in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, both as a boy and as a university student. He performed the Pie Jesu of Fauré's Requiem on the 1967 recording. In 1985 he...

's Ave Maria (2010).

The choir performs mainly in Cambridge but has also appeared several times at Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Suffolk, including concerts at the Aldeburgh Festival

Aldeburgh Festival

The Aldeburgh Festival is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on the main concert hall at Snape Maltings...

 and Britten

Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

’s War Requiem

War Requiem

The War Requiem, Op. 66 is a large-scale, non-liturgical setting of the Requiem Mass composed by Benjamin Britten mostly in 1961 and completed January 1962. Interspersed with the traditional Latin texts, in telling juxtaposition, are settings of Wilfred Owen poems...

 at the Britten Festival; at major venues in London, including St Martin-in-the-Fields

St Martin-in-the-Fields

St Martin-in-the-Fields is an Anglican church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. Its patron is Saint Martin of Tours.-Roman era:Excavations at the site in 2006 led to the discovery of a grave dated about 410...

 and St John’s Smith Square; and at various concert venues in Europe. It has also been featured on BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

 , BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...

, BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

, and Classic FM

Classic FM

Classic FM may refer to:*Classic FM , a British classical music radio station**Classic FM TV, a British classical music television channel*ABC Classic FM, an Australian classical music radio station run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...

.

Discography

The Blue Skies that Sparkle (2007)

Will Todd, Requiem (2009) - awarded five stars by Choir and Organ magazine

Full of Grace: Songs to the Virgin (2011) - in production

External links

Official website

Conductor Ralph Woodward