Celebrating Durham Music Service

The Durham Music Service Showcase event at Sage Gateshead was a wonderful opportunity for young musicians to perform, and showed just how lucky we are here in County Durham when it comes to music education.

Durham Vocal Festival

The first Durham Vocal Festival starts at the end of January with a week of choral music of all shapes and sizes, from the exquisite close harmony of the King’s Singers to a large scale project from Durham Choral Society, and a chance to hear the recently crowned BBC Choir of the Year, North East Voices of Hope.

Durham Choral Society: Heaven and earth

Durham Choral Society and Northern Spirit Singers, with soloists Andrew Slater and Rowan Pierce perform Fauré’s heavenly Requiem and Walton’s very earthy Belshazzar’s Feast.

DUCS: Fauré & Duruflé Requiem

Durham University Choral Society conducted by Mike Summers bring out the differences between the Requiem settings by Fauré and Duruflé, with ravishing solos from James Quitmann and Sophie Kidwell.

Ben Rowarth’s Christus

Durham University Choral Society will give the first performance of “Christus: A Passiontide sequence”, a major new work written for them by Ben Rowarth, at a concert in Durham Cathedral on 15 March. I spoke to Ben, and to Mike Summers, Musical Director of DUCS, to find out more about it.