Electronic Banking & Direct Payment

In response to requests from members, and as part of our ongoing review of membership, we are

now providing the facility to pay membership electronically; either via standing order or direct

payment. To encourage members to set up recurring payments, the annual rate for electronic

payments will be held in line with the existing £25 five year membership scheme at £5 per year.

Additional donations can be made on top of this, and we encourage all of our members to help the

Association support the Cathedral Choir in their fund raising. Membership and donations can still

be paid by cheque. When setting up an electronic payment please use your name as the

reference, with the following sort code and account number: 40-39-06 51366319

Due to the pressures of work the Secretary is unable to

stand for re-election for a further four year term. He

will however be remaining on committee. We therefore

invite nominations for the following offices prior to, or at

this year’s AGM:

Chairman, Secretary, Federation Secretary

I am pleased once more to update the Association on our activities this year and to look ahead to our Concert and Reunion on the 16th and 17th September.

Your Committee has met on three occasions since the AGM and I would like to thank all members for their support and encouragement during the year. John Heywood, who has served us wonderfully as Secretary, sadly is standing down this autumn from this position, but I am pleased that he will remain a Committee member. Thank you John, from all members of the Association. Thanks too, to Elvin Young for keeping us solvent and to Adrian and Jonathan for their ideas and input this year, particularly leading up to our concert on the 16th.

We are delighted that we can return to the more traditional evening Dinner this year and that our guest speaker will be Dr Roy Massey, former Organist and Master of the Choristers at Hereford Cathedral. We received much positive feedback on last year’s carvery, so we have retained that menu idea for this year’s dinner. On the Friday night, there will be a concert for the Old Choristers, with the Cathedral and the Youth Choirs. I am very excited about this as it will be the first time Old Choristers will be able to sing with the Youth Choir which itself includes a number of young OCs - bravo! Adrian has put together an exciting and lovely programme for us and OCs are invited, not just to take part in the big items, but also to start off the concert and to perform a solo item during the hour-long event. I cannot stress how important it is for OCs to support both the Concert and the Dinner. In recent years, the numbers for both events have declined, but judging by conversations I have been having, I am very optimistic about this year. Please do make every effort to support your Association!

This year’s reunion will be somewhat emotional for Mandy and for me as I shall be standing down as Chairman at the AGM. Mandy and I are planning a new life, most probably abroad and with my increasing recording commitments, I will just not be able to be on hand as much as I have been in the past. So, with John’s standing down as Secretary, it is now so critical that people come forward to manage the affairs of the Association. Please do get in touch with any Committee member if you can offer your services and you’d like to know what is involved. I dearly hope that younger OCs will come forward and create for us new horizons and achievements which we will only be too pleased to support.

I look forward to seeing you at the Concert, the Old Choristers’ Evensong and at Dinner.

With kindest wishes. John Balsdon: Cathedral Chorister 1960-1964

From the Chairman: John Balsdon

August 2016 Annual Newsletter 2016

From the Chairman John Balsdon

1

Electronic Banking & Direct Payment

1

Election of Officers: Chairman, Secretary & Federation Secretary

1

FCOCA Magazine: Once A Chorister

1

FCOCA Festival—Wells 2016

2

Choir News Adrian Partington

3

REUNION INFORMATION 4

Reunion Booking Form

Enclosed and on web.

Ins ide th is issue:

http://www.gcoca.co.uk secretary@gcoca.co.uk 01635 600880

Chairman: John Balsdon

Treasurer: Elvin Young

Secretary: John Heywood

Membership: Vacant

Federation: Vacant

School Liaison: Vacant

Andrew Douglas

Alan Iles

Stephen Power

Your Committee:

Gloucester Cathedral

Old Choris ters ’

Associat ion

Election of Officers

The Federation has unfortunately notified us that due to unforeseen

circumstances there will be no printed copies of Once A Chorister in

2016. The FCOCA assure us that it will be published on their

website (http://www.onceachorister.org) as soon as it has been

completed. If you ordered a magazine on last years booking form

and would like a refund please contact the Secretary, otherwise,

orders will be carried forward to 2017.

FCOCA Magazine: Once A Chorister

Glouces ter Cathedral Old Chor is ters ’ Associa t ion Page 2

The Wells Cathedral Choir Association hosted the Festival at relatively short notice

and I joined the more than eighty FCOCA members and guests from twenty-one

OC associations who attended. It was an opportunity to re-visit the smallest city in

England, population just over 10,000, with undoubtedly one of Britain’s most

imposing Cathedrals and one of the foremost choirs in the country. Boys first sang there in 909 and the full choral

tradition dates back over 800 years. Today the choir consists of 18 boys and 18 girl choristers (two separate choirs), and

12 Vicars Choral.

FCOCA registration was conveniently at The Swan hotel, where I, along with many of the delegates attending, had

booked to stay. All events were within very easy walking distance and I had opted to start the weekend with a tour of the

Cathedral, leaving the adjacent Bishops Palace and gardens for the following day. The iconic view of the 12c Cathedral

is of the magnificent early 13c West Front with its galleries of medieval sculpture. Inside, ones attention is immediately

drawn the strikingly massive modern looking Scissor Arches, they are in fact a mid 14c solution to sinking tower

foundations. The medieval clock in the North transept, the Jesse window in the east end of the Quire, and the climb up

the well-worn steps to the stunning Chapter House. So much to take in on a short tour.

Back to the hotel for Tea and a formal Welcome, and then to the Cathedral for Choral Evensong sung by the Girl

Choristers and Vicars Choral under the direction of Matthew Owens, Organist and Master of the Choristers. The service

featured music by Gabriel Jackson, the Preces and Responses, his Canticles: Truro Service and the Anthem: Justore

animae, which was commissioned to celebrate the 1100 th foundation of the Diocese of Bath and Wells. Evensong was

followed by a Chapter Reception and Welcome in the N- transept by the Vice-Dean, interrupted on the ‘Quarters’ by the

Wells Clock and its jousting knights tournament.

We moved back to the hotel for Dinner before returning to the Cathedral Lady Chapel for Compline with Festival

delegates invited to join the singing of plainsong and the Vicars Choral, directed by Matthew Owens, singing the Nunc

Dimittis by Richard Gough and an Anthem by Franz Bielb.

The following morning I joined a tour of the Wells Cathedral School, founded 909, one of only four specialist music

schools in the country. The 700 girls and boys are evenly integrated from Nursery through to Sixth Form. Students

attend as Day students or as Boarders, with Cathedral Choristers receiving bursaries. The highlight of the tour was to go

inside what will be the new world-class music and arts venue. A £9.4m purpose built concert hall featuring a 350

retractable-seat auditorium with exceptional acoustic properties, state of the art visual and sound recording facilities,

teaching and observation rooms, and an ability to link performances and classes with other venues word-wide. A

resource that will benefit many primary age children through the School’s community outreach programme.

Before lunch a group Year 10 students provided us with a Showcase Concert in the current Concert Hall. Piano, cello

and flute soloists performed St Francis walking on the wave – Liszt, Cello Suite No 2 and a Prelude – Bach, Danse de la

chevre – Honegger. The cellist and the flautist, sisters, then combined to play three short compositions of their own, the

concert finishing with a young mezzo soprano singing three pieces from Frauenliebe und –leben, Op. 42 by Schumann.

Amazingly talented and confident students illustrating the benefits of a specialist teaching environment.

In the afternoon we were treated to an Organ Recital by Jonathan Vaughn, the Assistant Organist who played

compositions by Christopher Tambling, Hubert Parry, Herbert Howells, Percy Whitlock Cuthbert Harris and Edward

Elgar. Then back to the Concert Hall for Tea.

Evensong was to be sung by the combined Boy and Girl Choristers Choirs, the Vicars Choral and Old Choristers from

Wells and visiting Associations. There was a closed rehearsal in the Quire before the Service which featured the Preces

and Responses – Richard Ayleward, the appointed Psalms for the day with chants by John Bertalot, Christopher

Robinson and C. V. Stanford, Canticles: Stanford in C and the Anthem: Hallelujah (from ‘Messiah’) – G. F. Handel. A

mighty sound under the masterly control of Matthew Owens. The retiring Voluntary was Fantasia and Fugue in G –

Hubert Parry.

Good music and good food and good company are always major features of a Festival so now is was off to change for

the Pre-Banquet drinks and Civic Reception at the Town Hall. After being directed by the Town Crier we were warmly

welcomed by the Mayor of Wells and then suitably entertained by the Senior Choristers, boys and girls, directed by

Matthew Owens. We then enjoyed an excellent dinner, locally sourced and generously served. Two verses of the

National Anthem were then sung following the Toast to HM The Queen. The guest speaker, Dr Barry Rose OBE

admitted to having passed the age of 80yrs and proceeded to humorously relate his progress from a church organist

and choir member to a Choirmaster and Cathedral Organist. His experiences leading to Guildford, St Paul ’s, the BBC

FCOCA Festival - Wells 2016

Friday 29 April – Sunday 1 May

A report by Colin Charter.

Annual Newslet ter 2016 Page 3

The academic year 2015-2016 will go down in the records as one of the busiest and most successful in the Cathedral Choir’s history. A concert in Buckingham Palace, a rewarding foreign tour, the making of history at the Bishop’s enthronement, and the introduction of a choir of Girl Choristers to the Cathedral’s family of choirs, all combine to make the year an outstanding one; and at the time of writing, the 2016 Gloucester Three Choirs Festival is still to take place- and this should be a vintage year! A “home” Festival dominates the Cathedral Choir’s year from January to July, and this year’s promises to be one of the most successful ever, judging by the advanced ticket sales, which are the highest on record.

The highlight of the past twelve months was undoubtedly the Cathedral Choir’s trip to sing at Buckingham Palace. The invitation to perform this concert came personally from H.R.H. Prince Charles, and was extended also to the Cathedral Choirs of Hereford and Worcester, to honour the fact that the Three Choirs Festival had, earlier in the year, celebrated its 300th birthday. It is Europe’s oldest music festival, and it is honoured to have Prince Charles as its patron, who takes an active interest in it. The Choristers played a leading rȏle in the concert, and were thrilled to be able to chat informally afterwards with a very relaxed and friendly Prince.

Just prior to that once-in-a-lifetime concert in Buckingham Palace, the Cathedral Choir travelled to Canada to give concerts, sing in services, and join in choral workshops with local choirs. The tour was based around the two beautiful cities of Toronto and Ottawa. The Choir sang to huge and appreciative audiences; and the boys distinguished themselves by performing several difficult programmes from memory.

In September, the Cathedral Choir shared in an historical event, that of the enthronement as Bishop of Gloucester of the Right Reverend Rachel Treweek. She became the first female Diocesan Bishop in England, at a majestic service in the Cathedral, which was witnessed by an enormous and excited congregation .

In the spring of this year, the Cathedral Chapter decided to form a choir of Girl Choristers to supplement the work of the Boy Choristers in the Cathedral Choir. Almost every Cathedral in the U.K. has formed a team of Girl Choristers in the past few years, taking the lead from Salisbury Cathedral, where a choir of Girl Choristers has operated in parallel with a team of Boy Choristers for some twenty years. After much thought, discussion and planning, followed by advertising, recruitment and auditioning, Gloucester Cathedral’s first team of twenty Girl Choristers sang together for the first time on Trinity Sunday, 2016. The Girl Choristers will mirror the ancient choir of Boy Choristers in the sense that their age range will be from 8-13. (At Worcester Cathedral, for example, the Girl Choristers are of the 14-18 age range.). Many of the girls are pupils at the King’s School, helping further to strengthen the historic and indissoluble link between the school and the cathedral. From November, the girls will sing Evensong on Mondays. The normal term time routine of the Boy Choristers and Lay Clerks will be unaffected. The intention is that the Boy and Girl Choristers will sing together at certain major events in the cathedral, such as the Cathedral Carol Services.

The other principal activities in the Cathedral Choir’s year include a broadcast of Evensong on BBC Radio 3 for Advent; the annual singing of a motet on top of the Cathedral tower at 8 a.m. on Ascension Day; (this year, the choir was filmed by BBC Radio Gloucestershire, and the video put on the BBC’s main website!); the performance of a sparkling St. John Passion by J.S.Bach on Good Friday; a performance with Gloucester Choral Society and the Philharmonia Orchestra of

Choir News: Adrian Partington, Director of Music

and St Albans kept us, an appreciative audience, well entertained.

Those Old Choristers who had offered to sing the challenging Messe solennelle – Charles-Marie Widor with the Boy

Choristers and Vicars Choral at Sunday morning Eucharist had an early start, Rehearsal in the Nave at 9.00am. The

service, at 9.45am was very well attended and included the Motet: Surrexit a mortuis – Widor , and the Voluntary: March

on a theme of Handel by Felix-Alexandre Guilmant.

After the Nave service refreshments for the entire congregation were served in the transept. Thanks to the host

Association were extended and farewells exchanged. A small number of Old Choristers, including myself, who had a

relatively short journey home, stayed for Matins in the Quire sung by the Girl Choristers and Vicars Choral. The music

included the Gabriel Jackson- Preces and Responses, and The Festival Te Deum in E and Jubilate Deo in E flat by

Benjamin Britten with the Anthem: Easter (from ‘Five Mystical Songs’) – Vaughan Williams.

And so my Festival experience came to an end, it was all that I had expected and much more. We were fed a feast of

good music from the superbly balanced and blended voices of the Wells Choirs and the talented performing students

from the School where in such a well-founded environment all the musicians have access to exceptional opportunities

and experiences. The fellowship enjoyed with old choristers from a variety of choral foundations coupled with the

English choral tradition being maintained at a level that could only be admired will encourage me to go to the Festival in

Norwich in 2017. (9th – 11th June)

W. Colin Charter : Chorister 1948-1954

AGM & Annual Reunion

Saturday 17th September 2016

14:00 Annual General Meeting

Kings School Hall

16:30 Evensong with Admission

of Old Choristers

Followed by Tea in the

Chapter House

18:30 Reunion Dinner

for 19:00 Kings School Hall

Dinner

Guest Speaker: Dr Roy Massey

Choice of two Carvery options

Choice of two Dessert Options

Tea & Coffee

The Booking Form is available on the website:

http://www.gcoca.co.uk

It is with real sadness that we learned that John Bowdler, friend and fellow Gloucester Old

Chorister, passed away on the 18th August. 2015. John devoted so much of his life to the work

of the Gloucester Association – he was Secretary for many years, and to the National

Federation, which he served as Secretary and Vice President. Many of us will have our own

wonderful memories of John and he will be very sadly missed. Our thoughts and prayers are

with Betty, his wife, and his family.

John Bowdler. 1929-2015

Elgar’s rarely-performed Oratorio “The Apostles”, which attracted national interest; a special Evensong for the annual meeting of the Friends of Cathedral Music, where the boys again sang from memory. (The Choir is hugely grateful to the FCM for the recent grant of £49,000, which will go towards the enormous costs of running a Cathedral Choir.). Other notable events in the past year include: three orchestral Sung Eucharists, two performances of Britten’s Ceremony of Carols by candlelight, two joint events with the Royal School of Church Music, two concerts in the diocese, (in Cheltenham and South Cerney); the Duruflé Requiem on All Souls’ Day; and a special ceremony for the dedication of the new window in the Lady Chapel in memory of the English, twentieth century composer, Gerald Finzi, who lived for many years in the county. The Cathedral Choir has certainly been busy in the past few months, and the 2016 Three Choirs Festival, at which the Choir will play the most important part, is yet to come….

In June 2015, I had to report on the sad departure of a large number of experienced Choristers, owing to prematurely-broken voices. The average age of the Choristers through this significant year has thus been lower than in previous years, and their magnificent work is thus even more to be commended. Since so many boys left last year, I am happy to report that we have got through the entire year with no further departures, until the end of this term. We are now to lose just two boys: Ivan Barritt, who is moving to a new school, and our Head Chorister, Crispin Burton, who has come to the end of Year 9, and must now move on. I would like to mention two things about Crispin: first that he was privileged to sing, as the cathedral’s representative, in the Friends of Cathedral Music 70th Birthday concert in St. Paul’s Cathedral earlier this year; and secondly, he will become the only Chorister, as far as we know, ever to sing at three Gloucester Three Choirs Festivals. He sang as a seven year old at the 2010 Festival, and also at the 2013 Festival, and will shortly sing at the 2016 Festival. This record is unlikely ever to be broken! We wish him well for the future.

Adrian Partington June 2016

Gloucester Cathedral Old Choristers’ Association

Old Choristers’ Concert with the Cathedral and Youth Choirs

Friday 16th September 2016 7:00pm