Your Cart is Empty
DCD34097-CD
£24.99
This ‘songbook’ is unique to the choristers of Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum, now housed at Dean Close Preparatory School. ‘Essentially, it’s a showcase for the Abbey trebles,’ explains Director of Music Benjamin Nicholas. ‘I’ve always been keen to build each boy up as a soloist, not with the express idea of them singing lots of solos, but so that they can learn to sing in a soloistic way.’ This is evident above all in the already highly distinctive singing of 11-year-old Laurence Kilsby, whose gifts won him the BBC Chorister of the Year competition in 2009 and who features here in two Shelley settings by Roger Quilter, the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria and John Ireland’s sincerely felt Passiontide motet Ex ore innocentium.
"Throughout, the trebles of the Tewkesbury Abbey Schola Cantorum give excellent performances of impressive consistency under the leadership of their director, Benjamin Nicholas. They have an uninhibited, fresh sound, coupled with the skill to sustain lengthy phrases with even tone...[Kilsby] displays tremendous maturity both in vocal timbre and in his musicianship...I can foresee a glittering future for him."
"One thing seems evident from the results that we can hear on this disc: the boys love singing. Throughout the programme enthusiasm and commitment are abundantly in evidence"