Music
Music for all at St. Eth’s
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 Music List for services September-October 2018 Music List for Services November 2018 Y.E.S! – Young Eth’s Singers!
Y.E.S! 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. The young people in Y.E.S! have performed at Hatfield House, Wyllyotts Theatre (Potters Bar) and St. Mary’s, North Mymms. They feature in the Stableyard Nativity at Hatfield House Rare Breeds Farm in December and have sung in the Chapel and the Armoury of Hatfield House, at the invitation of Lord and Lady Salisbury. YES! has made recordings of several anthems which they regularly sing at weddings: Y.E.S! singing "The Gift of Love" by Hal Hopson in April 2017 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. This year’s choral scholarship auditions were 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 2018-August 2019. This year, we have appointed four choral scholars: Catriona Stewart, and Cheryl Jeyakumar will be St. Etheldreda’s Choral Scholars, Lewis Gower will hold the Garland Choral Scholarship, (donated by Judy Bird in memory of her sister), and Evie Harding will hold the Stratton Choral Scholarship, donated by Chris Stratton in memory of his father. Through the kind generosity of the Salisbury family, we have also appointed William Douglas as the Salisbury Organ Scholar for 2018-19 and have awarded an organ bursary to Catriona Stewart to support her in learning to play the organ. These awards will be presented at St. Eth’s during our next “All-Age service” on Sunday 16th September at 9.30am. 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.
As part of its support for training all the Young Eth's Singers, the Choral Scholarship Fund paid for our visit to King's College, Cambridge in January, where we were very fortunate to take part in a choral workshop with The King’s Men, (the choral scholars from the King’s College Choir). Part of the session involved working in detail on some of the music we sing at our own choral evensong services. We had a short tour of the chapel and were invited to sit in on the service rehearsal and watch the full choir prepare for evensong, directed by Stephen Cleobury. After a warming hot chocolate at the cafe across the street from King’s and some free fudge samples, we were ready for choral evensong. It was a beautiful service and in the words of one of our choral scholars, Cheryl “The choir sounded like angels”. We returned to Hatfield by bus and train, tired but exhilarated by our awesome day together.
As well as singing, we have lots of fun together. This term we enjoyed a Training morning at the home of our Curate, Penny followed by an Activity afternoon at Phasels Wood Activity Camp.
Y.E.S! Newsletter 25 and Calendar Autumn term 2018 Y.E.S! Newsletter 25 and Calendar Autumn term 2018 pdf We have recently appointed a Head Chorister and two Deputy Head Choristers from Y.E.S! Head Chorister - Catriona Stewart Deputy Head Choristers - Lewis Gower, Cheryl Jeyakumar
Our adult choir at St. Eth's 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 had an away-day on Sunday 13th May, travelling north up the A10 to St. Margaret's of Antioch Church in the parish of our former Rector's wife, Rev. Ruth Pyke. We all had a wonderful time singing choral evensong in this beautiful, village church and catching up with Richard and Ruth. One of the highlights was afternoon tea in the beautiful garden of one of the churchwardens, where Y.E.S! especially enjoyed discovering lots of secret corners and dropping stones down a 50' well to hear them splash 5 seconds later. After such excitement, concentration for Choral Evensong was a challenge, but the choir sang well and the service was much appreciated by everyone. 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 the Autumn term. 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 |
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.
