Gabriel Fauré, Requiem – conducted by Caius Lee

Bob Chilcott, Songs my Heart has Taught Me – conducted by Bob Chilcott

Join internationally acclaimed Bob Chilcott and Worcester's Director of College Music for this brilliant day of singing, including Bob’s Songs my Heart has Taught Me, and Fauré’s magnificent Requiem.

Singers of all ages and abilities are welcome. Under-18s must be accompanied by their parent or guardian, who must remain present at all times to act as a chaperone.

At 4pm, there will be an informal concert for friends and family at which all are welcome. Tickets for the concert will not be sold; however, a collection will be taken, with proceeds from this event going towards supporting Music at Worcester, including the Jericho Youth Choir, our Instrumental Scheme, and the College Choir's upcoming tour to Barcelona.

We expect tickets for this event to be extremely popular, so we advise booking early to avoid disappointment.

We warmly welcome groups and choirs! If you would like to bring a large group, please contact us directly for a group rate: music@worc.ox.ac.uk

Timetable

• 09:30 Registration
• 10:00 Session 1
• 11:30 Break
• 12:00 Session 2
• 13:00 Lunch break (please bring your own lunch; tea and coffee will be provided)
• 14:00 Session 3
• 15:30 Break (tea and coffee will be provided)
• 16:00 Informal concert for family and friends

Refreshments

Lunch is not provided (please bring your own packed lunch). There are many local food options in Jericho and Oxford city centre, but cafés and restaurants are busy on Saturdays, so we recommend booking in advance if you plan to eat out. Tea and coffee will be provided in the church.

About this event

Venue

St Barnabas Jericho (affectionately known as ‘Oxford’s Basilica’), will surely strike you by how vast, broad, tall and spacious the building is, with its large arches, its majestic sanctuary and altar and its striking Venetian bell tower or campanile. Here is a place of history, prayer, inspiration and encounter, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2019.

Musical directors

Bob Chilcott has enjoyed a lifelong association with choral music, as a chorister and choral scholar in the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and as a member of The King’s Singers. He became a full-time composer and conductor in 1997 and has composed a large catalogue of choral music published by Oxford University Press. His most frequently performed pieces include Can You Hear Me?, A Little Jazz Mass, Requiem, and the St John Passion.

Bob has directed choirs in more than 30 countries worldwide and conducts many thousands of amateur singers in a continuing series of Singing Days. Since 2002, he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Singers, and since 2019, Principal Conductor of Birmingham University Singers.

His music has been widely recorded by leading British choirs and groups including The King’s Singers, King’s College, Cambridge, Wells Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, The Sixteen, Tenebrae, The BBC Singers, The Bach Choir, Commotio, and ORA. Circlesong, recorded by the Houston Chamber Choir and Treble Choir of Houston, was released by Signum in January 2022, and his second disc with NFM Wrocław, Canticles of Light, in January 2023. November 2023 saw the release of Christmas Oratorio, recorded by The Choir of Merton College, Oxford on Delphian, and Mary, Mother by St Martin’s Voices on Resonus.

Caius Lee has been Director of College Music at Worcester College since September 2022, having previously been Choral Director for the National Schools Singing Programme at Leeds Cathedral.

He began as a chorister at Bradford Cathedral aged 11, becoming Cathedral Organ Scholar at 15. At 17, he joined Leeds Cathedral, holding both the Idlewild Conducting Scholarship and Organ Scholarship, and was appointed Assistant Organist a year later. He studied Music at Cambridge as the Neville Burston Organ Scholar at St Catharine's College, where he served as the first alumni trustee of Young Sounds UK.

Caius is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Associate of the Royal College of Organists.

Music at Worcester

Music lies at the heart of life at Worcester, combining musical excellence with inclusive opportunity through fully funded initiatives like the Instrumental Scholarship Scheme (enabling pupils to learn for the first time) and the Oxford Choral Experience, an outreach initiative offering state-school pupils the chance to explore singing and choral scholarships. Worcester prides itself on being home to four choirs: the College Choir, the Choristers, All Sorts (a non-auditioned adult community choir), and the Jericho Youth Choir, a free, secular children’s choir. This summer, our choirs recorded Bob Chilcott’s The Rainbow with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra alongside seven newly commissioned works by premier composers including Chilcott himself, Cecilia McDowall, and Paul Mealor.