At the cultural heart of Cambridge University's 800th birthday celebrations will be Cambridge Cantat 800, a week-long festival of choral and organ music showcasing the very best that the Cambridge choral tradition has to offer, running from 11 to 19 April 2009.
The festival includes a vast array of events: concerts and evensongs; the world-famous choirs of King's, St John's, Clare, Trinity, and Caius Colleges; workshops; Come and Sing events; and a late-night cabaret. The Haydn anniversary is marked in several programmes, while Cambridge composers and manuscripts feature in others. Current and former stars of Cambridge music will be involved, and Cambridge Cantat 800 is particularly pleased to welcome back three distinguished former Cambridge music directors: David Hill will conduct a massed choir in a Festal Evensong to be broadcast by BBC Radio 3 (15 April); Christopher Robinson will give a conducting masterclass (17 April); and John Rutter will host a Come and Sing event (18 April).
Cambridge buildings are another star attraction, including a rare opportunity to hear a concert in the University's Senate-House (see below).
Cambridge Cantat 800 presents Music for Degrees, on Thursday, 16 April 2009, performed by the Cambridge University Chamber Choir and the Cambridge University Collegium Musicum (led by David Irving). The programme will be:
Leo Tomita: alto
Sam Furness: tenor
Gareth John: bass
David Lowe: conductor
Geoffrey Webber: conductor
Christopher Tye: Missa Euge bone
Coded Motet Ave Regina Caelorum, introduced by David Skinner (decoded from UL manuscript Nn.6.46)
Maurice Greene: Ode on St Cecilia's Day (composed for the opening of the Senate-House in 1730)
The concert will take place at 7.30 p.m. at Great St Mary's Church. (The second half of the concert will take place in the Senate-House.)
A pre-concert talk by Roger Bowers will take place at 6.30 p.m., in the Lower Library, Caius College Library (Senate-House Passage), preceded by a display of the Caius choirbook from 5.30 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. Entry will be by presentation of ticket for the evening concert. Places are limited and advance reservation is advised (email cantat800@gmail.com).
Tickets cost £15, £10 (concessions £13, £8). Tickets for the first half only (due to restricted space in the Senate-House) cost £5 (available on the door only).
Tickets for all events, including Music for Degrees, are available from Cambridge Corn Exchange Box Office, Wheeler Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QB (tel. 01223 357851, fax 01223 329074).
For further information, visit http://www.800.cam.ac.uk/cantat800/ or email cantat800@gmail.com.