Music
Music for all at St. Eth’s
From a wealth of choral music in our weekly services, festivals and weddings, to professional choral and orchestral concerts and recitals and also more informal concerts from some of our choir and congregation, music is alive and thriving at St. Eth’s – please read on to find out more. St. Eth's Concert Brochure Jan-July 2020 - unfortunately most of these concerts had to be cancelled due to Covid-19, but we look forward to a return to music at St. Eth's in 2021. Listen to our choir sing "Be thou my vision" by Bob Chilcott at the Confirmation Service led by Bishop Michael on Sunday 3rd February 2019: St. Eth's Choir - "Be thou my vision" by Bob Chilcott We have two choirs at St. Etheldreda's - an adult choir and a junior choir (Y.E.S! - Young Eth's Singers) - as well as many talented, professional and amateur instrumentalists who occasionally play at services and concerts in the church. The Director of Music is Jill Knight - Choir Director, Organist, teacher and composer:Jill Knight Music UPDATE ON SINGING IN CHURCH DUE TO COVID-19 SAFETY RESTRICTIONS - OCTOBER 2020 We are starting to return to some gentle singing in church with a small group of socially distanced choristers in the Salisbury Chapel on Sunday mornings. At the moment the congregation is not allowed to join in the hymn singing, but can follow the words in our weekly information sheet, Look! Our junior choir, Y.E.S! will be returning in November and we are planning a separate Family Carol Service for them on Saturday 19th December. Our adult choir will be singing at the Choral Evensong for the Burghley Sermon in October and for the Advent Carol Service at the end of November.Please see our music lists and newsletter for further details. Y.E.S! – Young Eth’s Singers! Y.E.S! normally meets on Wednesdays during term time from 6.00pm-7.00pm at St. Etheldreda’s Church, Fore Street, Old Hatfield. The group is directed by Jill Knight, the Organist and Choir Director, who has extensive experience in training children’s voices in schools and churches. The young people in Y.E.S! are taught how to sing well together and use their voices correctly to achieve a good quality sound. They receive basic musical training and vocal coaching. There is also the opportunity to train for the RSCM (Royal School of Church Music) award scheme, and eventually become a Dean’s or Bishop’s Chorister. Y.E.S! are sometimes requested to sing at weddings in the church, for which each singer receives a small payment based on their experience and commitment. Y.E.S! sings at family services at St. Eth’s on the third Sunday of each month, as well as at weddings and other special services and events. This photo was taken in the Armoury of Hatfield House on the Friday before Christmas, when Y.E.S! were invited to sing for our patron, Lady Salisbury - followed by a wonderful tea party.
Y.E.S! singing "The Lord is my shepherd" by Howard Goodall in April 2017 In 2017, after a generous response from the congregation and local community, we established a Choral Scholarship Fund which will support up to four young choristers each year for several years. The fund supports individually selected choristers with an award of £200 per annum, to be put towards a musical enterprise of his or her choosing. It will also provide for further training and workshops for all the young people in Y.E.S! so that we can raise standards and support choral development and team work. Choral scholarship auditions are held at St. Eth’s in July for choristers who are RSCM dark blue award or above level and will be 12-18 years of age in the school year September - August. This year, we did not hold auditions due to Covid-19 and have extended the appointment of our four choral scholars into the current academic year: Cheryl Jeyakumar is awarded the Garland Choral Scholarship (donated by Judy Bird in memory of her sister), Evie Harding, the Snowdon Choral Scholarship, (donated by the Snowdon family in memory of John Snowdon), Sophie Garwood, the Stratton Choral Scholarship, (donated by Chris Stratton in memory of his father) and Emmanuel Nehme, the Sailisbury Choral Scholarship (donated by the Lord Salisbury and his family). We have also awarded a two-year internship to Catriona Stewart to assist in her training as a Choral Director. All of our choristers receive RSCM training and the funds provided by the congregation and community at St. Eth's help us to provide this. We would like to thank everyone who has donated to our fund to inspire, encourage and support our young choristers and organists and secure the future of music in our services at St. Eth’s for many generations to come. Here we are singing with St. Albans Cathedral Choir in a concert at St. Eth's in February, sponsored by the Cathedral Music Trust.
As well as singing, we have lots of fun together. Last sumer we enjoyed a picnic and team raft-building afternoon at Stanborough Lakes, as well as a training day with team games at St. Mary's, North Mymms.
Our current Head Chorister is Cheryl Jeyakumar and the deputies are Evie Harding and Emmanuel Nehme
Our adult choir at St. Eth's normally rehearses from 7.30pm-8.30pm on Wednesdays, and sings at the Eucharist each Sunday and occasional Choral Evensongs and other special services.The repertoire ranges from traditional Tudor and Renaissance choral music to more contemporary pieces by Archer, Rutter and Chilcott. The choir occasionally sings elsewhere and in 2015 sang two special 1662 prayer book services in the chapel at Hatfield House.
St. Eth's Choir singing at the wedding of Rebekah Knight and Richard Gill, November 2019 St. Eth's Choir singing "Evening Hymn" by Balfour Gardiner Further information about the organ at St. Etheldreda's can be found here: The organ at St. Eth's There is also a small two manual, Norman and Beard organ at St. Luke's which has recently been cleaned and re-tuned. We are aiming to provide an organist there for a service at least once each month, and some of these services are being covered by young people in the congregation who are learning to play the organ. We are now starting to plan and rehearse our programme of music and activities for Advent and Christmas 2020! If you are interested in singing with one of our choirs, (adults or Y.E.S!), or know someone who would like to, we would love to hear from you.
Jill Knight, Director of Music |
Y. E.S! has made recordings of several anthems which they regularly sing at weddings: 
