City Chamber Choir Christmas Concert 4th December, 7.30 p.m.

Another date for your diaries!

“London’s award-winning City Chamber Choir return to Potters Bar United Reformed Church with one of their acclaimed Christmas programmes.

‘O Magnum Mysterium’ will feature old favourites alongside little known but beautiful pieces by some of today’s most celebrated choral composers, including Bob Chilcott, Cecilia McDowall, Alan Bullard as well as composers from previous centuries including JS Bach and Heinrich Schütz. There will be plenty of opportunities for audience participation including a new piece for everyone to sing by our composer in residence Samuel Wilson.

Come and join us!

Lunchtime Concert on Friday 9th November at 12.15 at Potters Bar United Reformed Church

Alla Kravchuk, an internationally acclaimed opera and concert singer will be singing for us music by Robert Schumann, including his song cycle Frauenliebe un Leben. She will be accompanied by Simon Townley.

The concert will be followed (for all who wish to join us) by our monthly Charity Lunch at around 13.30.

If you’d like to hear Anna singing, please click on the triangle below.

Some more information about Anna and Simon is provided below:

Alla Kravchuk is an internationally acclaimed opera and concert singer and is now also an established singing teacher based in St Albans. She trained at the Kiev Conservatory in her native Ukraine, finishing her studies in London with the famous Hungarian teacher Vera Rosza. She was a prize winner at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod, the Grimsby Internationalsingers competition and was part of the winning production at the Moscow Golden Mask festival. In 2001 she became the principal lyric soprano at the Hannover Opera, Germany.
During her ten years with the company, Alla sang a variety of roles including Pamina, Susanna, Cleopatra, Mimi, Michaela, Antonia, Despina, Nedda, Hanna Glavary, Ilia, Liu and Euridice as well as the title role in Debussy’s “Pelléas et Mélisande”. The production was taken to both the Vienna Festival and later the Edinburgh Festival before transferring to the Staatsoper Stuttgart. Alla remained with the production throughout. In 2008 Alla made her debut as Susanna in “Le nozze di Figaro” at the famous Semperoper In Dresden and has appeared as a guest in opera houses all over Germany.
She performed a concert series of music by Antonio Vivaldi with the German Baroque Orchestra Musica Alta Ripa, touring Northern Germany and concluding in the Philharmonie Luxembourg.
Alla has maintained her passion for recital and oratorio performance, enjoying challenges like Edison Denisov’s 1960‘s cycle ‘Fire on Ice’ alongside the more traditional German lieder and art song from England, France, Russia and Ukraine. She has recorded songs by Nicolai Medtner as well as a CD of music by Glinka, Tchaikovsky and Schumann’s “Frauenliebe und Leben”.
Her most recent recording was the world premier of a new song cycle ‘Einzige Tage’ by the acclaimed English composer Francis Pott, which was the recording of the month with the musicweb-international website.

Simon Townley read Music at Oxford, since when he has worked extensively as composer arranger and musical director. He has written music for films shows and TV programmes including Jane Goldman Investigates for LivingTV and Dirty Tricks for Channel Four. Since 1992 he has been the piano player with the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, performing concerts all over the world, from Helsinki to Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi to Berlin, including two major tours of the USA, and recording several excellent CDs. As arranger and Musical Director Simon has worked with the Puppini Sistersand the Berlin Comedian Harmonists, as well as touring productions including Masters Of The Musical, Absolute Swing, and A Night At The Opera. For BBC Radio 4 Simon has written and presented several documentaries on music, including programmes on Glenn Miller, Palm Court orchestras, musical trains, and finding out Who Wrote Bach’s Toccata? Simon can also been heard now and then giving the interval talk during concerts and operas on Radio 3. He is conductor of several choirs, has three children, and lives in Bedfordshire.