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Founded a decade ago by the vision of its artistic director Nigel Short and the generosity of Barbara Pollock, Tenebrae is one of Great Britain’s leading chamber choirs. Adaptable to many spaces ranging from concert halls to churches all the way through to the world’s largest Cathedrals, Tenebrae concerts create an atmosphere of spiritual and musical reflection. The choir’s unique sound is further enhanced by movement through the full scope of the performing space and is usually seen by candlelight allowing each and every member of the audience to experience the power and intimacy of the human voice.

The word ‘Tenebrae’ comes from the Latin word for ‘shadows’ and is also the name given to the ritual extinguishing of candles at the ancient monastic services of Matins and Lauds in the last three days of Holy Week.

Passion and Precision is Tenebrae’s motto and its members are drawn from musical backgrounds reflecting these qualities, including the choirs of Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral and King’s College, Cambridge. Many of Tenebrae’s singers also work with a diverse range of the UK’s other leading specialist vocal ensembles including i Fagiolini , The Tallis Scholars, The Swingle Singers and The King’s Singers .

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CONTACT INFORMATIONAoife Daly General Manager

email aoife@tenebrae-choir.comweb www.tenebrae-choir.comtel +44 (0)20 3384 0368facebook www.facebook.com/tenebraechoirtwitter www.twitter.com/tenebraechoir

Tenebrae is a working name of The Tenebrae Choir, Registered in England and Wales, Company No. 7549890 (Limited by Guarantee), Registered Charity No. 1142138. Tenebrae Choir Trading Limited, Registered in England and Wales, Company

No. 7549484. Registered Office: 84 Weymouth Avenue, London, W5 4SB

Hailed as “one of the country’s most outstanding vocal ensembles” (Evening Standard), Tenebrae has established itself as the chamber choir of choice for critics and audiences in the UK and around the world. Founded and directed by Nigel Short, the group blends the passion of a large Cathedral choir with the precision of a chamber ensemble to create a unique and enchanting sound, one which is dazzlingly effective in mediaeval chant as it is in contemporary works. With every performance exploiting the unique acoustic and atmosphere of each venue in which they perform with movement and light, often using candlelight as the sole means of illumination, the carefully chosen team of singers enable the audience to experience the power and intimacy of the human voice at its very best.

Formed in 2001, the group was launched to critical acclaim with a performance of Nigel Short’s own composition, The Dream of Herod. Since then they have collaborated with Sir John Tavener, Karl Jenkins, Pierre Thilloy, Alexander Levine, Will todd and Joby Talbot. Their dedication to the music of today is complemented by a commitment to the music of the past; from medieval chant to Romantic masterworks, they respond to the demands inherent in whatever they sing with equal passion and musicality.

The group has toured all over the world, extensively throughout Europe, the USA and Bermuda, performing in many renowned festivals (BBC Proms, Montreux Choral Festival, Edinburgh Festival) and tailoring their distinctive performances to many venues (Royal Albert Hall, King’s College Chapel, Lausanne Cathedral). Working with the LSO under Sir Colin Davis, the English Concert, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The English Chamber Orchestra, the Scottish Ensemble, and the Endymion ensemble, the choir have proved themselves as adept at larger orchestral works as the a cappella repertoire for which they are so well known.

Recording on the Signum, LSO Live, Warner Classics, EMI Classics, Deutsche Grammophon and Decca labels, the group has so far released eighteen albums; from Christmas carols to solemn vespers, with their recent Victoria Requiem disc winning the ‘Choral’ category of the 2012 BBC Music Magazine Awards. These revelatory performances have thrilled listeners across the world and ensured their continued position as one of the world’s favourite choirs.

Recent projects for Tenebrae include a recording of Fauré Requiem with the London Symphony Orchestra, appearances at Mayfield and Sounds New Festival in Canterbury Cathedral, a concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, an appearance at the BBC Proms, and a seven concert tour of the USA. Forthcoming engagements include a concert with the English Chamber Orchestra at Cadogan Hall and a performance in Gloucester Cathedral featuring Sarah Connolly and Bryn Terfel.

TENEBRA

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Nigel began his musical life as a chorister at Solihull Parish Church going on to study singing and piano at the Royal College of Music in London. He was a member of The Tallis Scholars, Westminster Abbey and Cathedral choirs and The King’s Consort before going on to concentrate on work as a soloist in Oratorio and Opera. He sang many roles in opera productions all over Europe and for ENO and Opera North here in the UK.

In 1993, Nigel joined the world-renowned vocal ensemble the King’s Singers. Whilst touring the world with them Nigel began to seriously consider the possibility of starting up a new choral group which would combine a larger force of singers with movement around the performance venue as well as considerations of lighting, ambience, time and space. It would not only mean that the singers were more physically involved in the performance but also that the audiences could become caught up in the experience. This would be a team that had all the discipline and precision of a world-class ensemble yet with the dynamic power

and range of a large choral group. Such a team would be able to use ecclesiastical buildings as a performance space, combining his love of traditional choral repertoire with a more “theatrical” style of performing. Like many such ideas, the realisation of the dream eventually came about through discussions with like-minded musicians, singers and friends, who together realised the formation of TENEBRAE – a combination of talented composers and arrangers, pianists and organists, specialists of jazz and renaissance, instrumentalists and singers.

In 2001 Nigel started working with writer Richard McDonald in Switzerland to create a work that could be the vehicle with which to launch TENEBRAE. The result was Nigel’s own composition The Dream of Herod, a production that captured not only the sound of Tenebrae but also incorporated strong visual images, movement and lighting effects in beautiful performance spaces. A CD recording and a DVD of the work were made and the group gave its debut performance and the world première of piece at St Bartholomew the Great in London (the church featured in films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare in Love, Elizabeth the Golden Age and most recently Sherlock Holmes). Since then, Nigel has continued the touring life with TENEBRAE as they perform in many of the worlds most prestigious music festivals. USA, Bermuda, Spain, Switzerland, France, Germany and the UK are countries where the group has enjoyed particular success and the list of destinations continues to grow.

Nigel has now conducted several of the world’s finest orchestras alongside Tenebrae both in concert and in recordings including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra and in Baroque repertoire the English Concert. He has also made recordings with many of the world’s major Record labels including EMI Classics, Warner Classics, Decca Records, LSO Live and the fast-emerging independent label Signum Records with whom Nigel has worked closely on many projects right from the start of Tenebrae’s existence with Signum’s director Steve Long.

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In the decade since the choir was founded, Tenebrae has released 14 albums and featured on two major motion picture soundtracks (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Children of Men), reaching millions of listeners around the world, and proving the adaptability of their radiant sound with music from the mediaeval to the twentyfirstcentury.

Beginning with The Dream of Herod in 2001, the choir has released the majority of its catalogue on the Signum label: from Sir John Tavener (Mother and Child) to John Rutter (What Sweeter Music); Joby Talbot (Path of Miracles) to Gregorio Allegri (Miserere); and Sergei Rachmaninov (Vespers) to Karl Jenkins (Gaudete), the choir has explored a huge range of music in discs which have become firm favourites with all kinds of listeners. The discs also represent the first recordings of works by Tavener, Jenkins and Talbot, as well as Francis Pott, Nigel Short, and Peter Wishart.

Two albums featuring the choir have also been released on the LSO Live label, both with Sir Colin Davis conducting the London Symphony Orchestra: Berlioz: L’Enfance du Christ was released in 2006 and was chosen as The Independent’s ‘CD of the Week’; Handel: Messiah was released in 2007 and features Susan Gritton, Mark Padmore and Alastair miles in a performance described as ‘jaw-droppingly beautiful’ by The Guardian.

2010 saw the release of Figure Humaine, a recording of music by Francis Poulenc that was nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award that year, and Prayers for Mankind, a world premiere recording of a new work by Alexander Levine. 2011 releases included a new recording of Tomas Luis de Victoria’s Requiem and works by Alonso Lobo, followed by a disc of C.H.H. Parry’s Songs of Farewell alongside music by Elgar, Holst and Vaughan Williams - both of which were nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award, as well as an album of music by emerging composer, Paul Mealor entitled ‘A Tender Light’.

Forthcoming recordings include The Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostomos, another collaboration with Alexander Levine and Fauré Requiem with LSO Live!

Concert Reviews“Unaccompanied choral music may not be everybody’s idea of heaven but when the music is as imaginatively selected as this, and the choir as egregiously flawless as Tenebrae, the repertoire ought to win over the stoniest hearts.” - Evening Standard

“the enthusiasm of the large crowd that packed into the Church of St. Mary the Virgin for Tenebrae’s concert on Sunday evening that there is a hunger for what this finely polished group has to offer.” - The New York Times

“Combined with the fearlessly virtuosic singing of the 19 voices of Tenebrae, for whom the piece was written a couple of years ago, it was an accomplished and entirely engaging performance.” - The Scottish Herald

“Tenebrae has flawless intonation, exquisitely sculpted phrases and perfectly trimmed attacks and releases. The voices have just a touch of vibrato, adding a richness to the vocal texture without intruding on the seamless blend. A program note states that the goal of the choir is to create “an atmosphere of spiritual and musical reflection.” Certainly that mission was accomplished.” - St Louis Post-Dispatch

“It is a very special choir that can sing Machaut and Pérotin as convincingly as it tackles Duruflé and Poulenc. But Tenebrae are special. Directed by Nigel Short, these were exemplary performances, lucid, and so commanding it seemed as if singing perfectly in tune was the most natural thing in the world.” - The Guardian

“There was wonder, too, from Tenebrae, the beautifully modulated chamber choir. To hear them in ‘The Shepherds’ Farewell’ – the sound so poised, so even, the harmonies so balanced, the distinctions in colour and dynamics so subtly varied between verses – was transporting.” - The Independent

CD Reviews“...the highly impressive Tenebrae directed by Nigel Short pull out all the vocal stops at the right moments” - Gramophone Magazine on A Tender Light

“Brilliantly executed by Nigel Short’s singers” - BBC Music Magazine on A Tender Light

“Of this programme’s type, I can’t envisage hearing anything better.” - BBC Music Magazine – Choral and Song Choice on Songs of Farewell

“Precision, spot-on intonation and sensitive phrasing inform Tenebrae’s affectionate performances of these settings” - Editor’s Choice, Classic FM Magazine on Songs of Farewell

“Tenebrae’s performance, directed by Nigel Short, is gently sustained, immaculately balanced and wrapped in a luminous acoustic … If you ever developed a resistance to Renaissance polyphony, this could be the disc to make you think again.” - The Financial Times on Victoria Requiem Mass

“It’s hard to imagine them being done better: Tenebrae’s tone, balance and intonation are superb.” - Classic FM Magazine on Figure Humaine

“The choir Tenebrae is unbeatable. Tenebrae is current master of the Russian Sound.” - Classic FM on Prayers for Mankind

“Here, the chamber choir Tenebrae excel themselves: wonder radiates from every securely focused, cleanly voiced chord. They’re the performance’s rock.” - The London Times on L’Enfance du Christ

“Tenebrae reveals itself as one of those exceptional choirs whose individual singers have been moulded into a single superbly sensitive and responsive musical instrument.” - The Telegraph on Miserere

“This a cappella work is very demanding of its singers and Tenebrae answer every question asked of them. It is a tour de force and absolutely stunning.” - Choir and Organ on Path of Miracles

“It’s a fabulous disc I can’t stop listening to it at the moment, it’s practically cemented itself to my CD player, it’s beautiful.” - Radio 3 CD Review on Figure Humaine

‘The choir of 20 mixed voices is rather more than well drilled; more polished choral singing would be hard to find anywhere.’ - BBC Music Magazine on The Dream of Herod

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