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City Chamber Choir is a highly professional amateur
group with a membership of around 25–30 people from various backgrounds,
some living or working in central London and others commuting in from much
further afield for the weekly rehearsals.
The
choir was founded by Stephen Jones in 1987 to explore
neglected repertoire, especially British twentieth century works. Since that
time CCC has given many performances of little known, but beautiful and
impressive music. As a result, the choir has been awarded PRS Choral Enterprise
Awards on six occasions and has been invited to record by the British Music
Society. In 1996, the choir won the Choir of the Day award in the regional
heats and reached the semi-finals of the Sainsbury's Choir of the Year
competition, appearing on BBC television.
Since its inception, the choir's repertoire
has included many masterpieces from the last five hundred years, but there has
been an emphasis on the twentieth century. CCC has performed at a number
of prestigious events, including:
- the Tudeley Festival, where it gave the final
concert, dedicated to the music of E J Moeran
- Trinity House in the presence of HRH the Duke of
Edinburgh
- the Spitalfields Winter Festival
- William Walton centenary concert in the presence
of Lady Walton and the Rt Hon. Sir Edward Heath.
- Concert featuring music by William Lloyd Webber
with cellist Julian Lloyd Webber; the concert included two first
performances
- performance of the Duruflé Requiem
in Paris in the presence of Mme Duruflé
- workshop with Bob Chilcott, the choir's
President, under the auspices of the City of London Festival.
CCC has recorded Songs of
Springtime a CD of British twentieth century music, which includes several
world première recordings. In the centenary year of Leslie Heward, CCC's
performance of The Witches' Sabbath was heard on BBC Radio 3. In 1999
the choir made another CD, entitled The Morley
Collection
To mark its tenth anniversary,
CCC began the 1997/8 season with a performance of South of the Line by
John Joubert in the presence of the composer, and to mark his 70th birthday.
The season ended with the first London performance of Beautiful Days by
Peter McGarr and the world première of Pensive by David Horne.
The choir's commitment to new music has resulted in a number of performances
over the years of works by composers as diverse as Colin Arenstein, Andrew
Peggie, Peter Skellern, and Stephen Johns. The choir has also made
première recordings of works by established composers including Peter
Wishart, Edgar Bainton, E J Moeran, Arthur Benjamin and Leslie Heward.
Meanwhile the quest for unjustly neglected repertoire from any age continues.
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