Holst Singers

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Holst Singers
Origin	London, UK
Genre(s)	Choral
Occupation(s)	Choir
Website	www.holstsingers.com
Members
Conductor Stephen Layton

The Holst Singers are an amateur choir based in London, United Kingdom. The choir is named after the composer Gustav Holst, whose choral works are popular in British choral repertoire.^[1]

The musical director is the English conductor Stephen Layton. The countertenor James Bowman is the president of the choir.

Contents 1 Repertoire 2 Performances 3 Recordings 3.1 Selected discography 4 References

[edit] Repertoire

The Holst Singers devote much of their attention to performing and recording new works by living composers such as the British composer John Tavener, and Estonian composers Arvo Pärt and Veljo Tormis. The choir also focuses on works by Alexander Gretchaninov, Alfred Schnittke, and Russian Orthodox music, as well as the core choral repertoire of part-songs by Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten, and works such as Bach's Mass in B minor and Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis.^[2]

[edit] Performances

The Holst Singers perform regularly in London venues such as the Temple Church and St John's Smith Square. In June 2003 the Holst singers premièred Tavener's epic 26-hour work, The Veil of the Temple at the Temple Church.^[3] They performed an abridged concert version in the BBC Proms in 2004. The choir has previously performed with the with the Hilliard Ensemble, The Academy of Ancient Music and soloists such as James Bowman and Ian Bostridge.

[edit] Recordings

The Holst Singers have made a number of recordings with Hyperion Records as well as with RCA and Decca. CD releases include The Tavener Collection (Decca), Schnittke's Choir Concerto (Hyperion), Gretchaninov's Vespers, settings of Three Shakespeare Songs and English folk songs by Vaughan Williams, and music by Pärt, Sviridov, Górecki and Tchaikovsky.

[edit] Selected discography

[edit] References