SHREWSBURY CANTATA CHOIR
2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021
Saturday 29th June 2024
Shrewsbury Festival Chorus presented
Edward Elgar - THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS
Soloists - Will Smith (Gerontius)
Kate Trethewey (The Angel)
Peter Edge (Priest and Angel of the Agony)
Conducted by Anthony Coupe
Leader - Anne Tupling
Shrewsbury Cantata Choir and Shrewsbury Choral came together in The Abbey as Shrewsbury Festival Chorus.
THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS
What a fantastic evening.
The Abbey was packed out with an appreciative audience who were rewarded by soloists, choir and orchestra delivering a moving and top class performance under the inspired direction and baton of Tony Coupe. The performers were rewarded by a standing ovation. Thank you supporters.
"The soloists were stunning, the orchestra were superb and the choir expressive and dramatic."
Saturday 13 April 2024
Poulenc's Gloria
Vivaldi's Gloria
Soloists - Gemma King and Samantha Lewis. Organist Paul Carr.
Conducted by Anthony Coupe
URC. Coleham Head. Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury Cantata Choir presented their Spring 2024 concert featuring sublime soloists and a wonderful organist.
Thank you once again to a wonderful audience. It was clear that the Poulenc Gloria is not well known and has not often been performed in Shrewsbury as our audience were not sure that it had finished. (It completes with a
ppp amen from choir and then the
soprano. Not your usual resounding and crescendo AMEN). The audience therefore waited politely for the next movement to start, whilst the choir smiled in hopeful anticipation of applause, until Tony (MD) turned around to the audience. We were then rewarded with welcome and loud appreciation.
Saturday 16 March 2024
DIXIT DOMINUS
THANK YOU from Cantata to Tony Coupe, Bells Lewers and Ellesmere College Choral Society for inviting us to join them and Ellesmere Camerata and a host of fabulously talented soloists and guest singers in the performance of Handel's Dixit Dominus as part of their Gala Choral Concert for Cancer at Ellesmere College.
It was simply the best night. A joyous occasion.
Bells enjoying her moment Tony with audience Bells slightly overcome Tony in his Cancer Research in standing ovation tutu. Shame about the legs.
Saturday 6th January 2024
Cantata sang Mozart's C Minor Mass as part of the Epiphany service at Ellesmere College, with the Bishop of Oswestry officiating.
Christmas 23 concert - Sunday 17 December 2023.
Mince pies, Mulled wine, Poulenc,
Carols familiar and less familiar, singing, fun and laughter.
Thank you audience for sharing a Christmas celebration with us at the United Reformed Church. Coleham Head.
Saturday 4 November 2023
Mozart's Mass in C Minor
and
Haydn's Little Organ Mass
at
St.Chad’s Church, Shrewsbury.
If you missed this you missed a real treat.
Tony Coupe (MD) was at his most energetic and charismatic. If the audience could see what we (choir and orchestra) see then their enjoyment would be doubled. It is hard to convey how a wonderful conductor lifts a performance but we were certainly 'lifted' that night.
The orchestra was one of the best, giving us all a double treat of the overtures to both The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute and then accompanying the choir and soloists to a very high standard.
The soloists were absolutely superb. Katie's double octave leap was worth the price of the ticket alone. What a very beautiful voice. Holly joined us at the last minute and her gorgeous strong mezzo voice joining Katie's top soprano was spell binding.
The choir.... what can we say. After frightening Tony at our last couple of rehearsals (Tony, we were only saving ourselves) it all came together and both Masses were delivered confidently, with a high degree of technical prowess, and most importantly, the choir enjoyed it all immensely, and it showed.
As always, thankyou audience for your support.
We remember our bass singer David Waterhouse who should have been singing with us but who died very suddenly. Sing in peace David.
MD Anthony Coupe
Soloists:
Soprano Katie Trethewey
Mezzo Soprano Holly Teague
Tenor Scott Phillips
Bass Jakob Fradley
Accompanied by
Organ - Paul Carr
Orchestra - Camerata Leader Ann Tupling
Saturday 24th June 2023
Shrewsbury Festival Chorus
Shrewsbury Cantata Choir and Shrewsbury Choral Choir together performed
Mendelssohn's
ELIJAH
at
Shrewsbury Abbey
A full house and thank you once again to all our supporters.
We hope you enjoyed hearing this performance as much as we enjoyed performing it.
Shrewsbury Festival Chorus also thank their sponsors for their support.
The Walker Trust
Saturday 22nd April 2023
United Reformed Church. Shrewsbury.
Requiems: Duruflé and Fauré
AGAIN, thank you for all your support.
Another full church and a knowledgeable and appreciative audience.
The choir thoroughly enjoyed singing these exquisite Requiems, having been instilled with confidence by our wonderful MD, Tony Coupe. Tony worked especially hard with us to gain accuracy and full interpretation of the Duruflé so that our performance of that Requiem matched that of the Fauré, a piece that is better known to choirs and audience alike.
Supporters had commented to choir members beforehand that they were looking forward to the Fauré but didn't think they liked the Duruflé as much. Those same people approached us afterwards to tell us they they are converted.
Thank you to our wonderful soloists and instrumentalists.
MD - Anthony Coupe Baritone Soloist - Daniel Roderick
Soprano Soloist - Gemma King
Accompanied by
Organ - Paul Carr
Harp - Penny Robin-Riddering
Cello - Sylvia Reverdy
Saturday
17th December 2022
St Alkmund's Church.
Shrewsbury.
Christmas Concert
Thank you for all support.
A full church and an audience ready to join in with the carols and with the 'silly bits' meant that the choir also enjoyed a fun and lively evening.
This inspired us to sing out even more heartily than usual and make Rutter's Magnificat a really good show.
Our thanks to the excellent accompanists and to our lovely soloist.
MD - Anthony Coupe Soprano Soloist - Sonia Ruth
Choirs - Shrewsbury Cantata Choir
Ellesmere Chapel Choir
Accompanied by
Piano - Catrina Lapage
Organ- Gerry Howe
Harp - Penny Robin-Riddering
Flute - Emma Lindsay
Saturday
5th November 2022
St Chad's Church
Shrewsbury
CARMINA BURANA
MD
- Anthony Coupe
Choirs
- Shrewsbury
Cantata Choir
- Children's Chorus.
Ellesmere School.
Soloists
Soprano
- Sonia Ruth
Tenor
- Russell Painter
Baritone
- Barry Thatcher
Accompanied by
Piano
- George Fradley
- Catrina Lapage
In addition:
A wonderful percussion section.
Carl Orff - Carmina Burana
Another memorable evening for Cantata at St Chad's Church.
A large audience chose the fireworks of O Fortuna and the excitement of this varied and entertaining work by Carl Orff over firework displays, and judging by the applause they did not regret their choice.
The choir thank all concerned for their support.
This concert was dedicated to the memory of Chris Walker.
A wonderful tenor who joined the choir on 1st October 2011 and who is sadly missed.
Also to the memory of Zbig Pacult.
A long time staunch supporter of the choir.
Both were true Gentlemen.
Saturday 21st May 2022
Chapel of St Oswald
Ellesmere College
Ellesmere. Shropshire.
MD
- Anthony Coupe
Choirs
- Ellesmere College Choral Society
- Shrewsbury Cantata Choir
Soprano soloist
- Imogen Russell
Accompanied by
- Gerry Howe. Organ
- Kevin Whitley. Piano
- Ruth Hayward. Flute
- Penny-Robin Riddering. Harp
- Ivor Evans. French Horn
In addition:
- Ellesmere Sinfonia
Conducted by
- Ed Wadon
John Rutter
Magnificat
Shrewsbury Cantata Choir and Ellesmere College Choral Society combined under the baton of the talented Anthony Coupe to deliver an evening to remember.
Cantata travelled to atmospheric Ellesmere College and enjoyed the setting and acoustics of the Chapel of St Oswalds. We also enjoyed the excellent cooked tea provided by the school canteen. Lucky pupils.
The two choirs blended seamlessly and everyone hugely enjoyed performing this uplifting and joyous work.
Cantata are getting used to standing ovations and here is just one of the comments from a member of the audience:
"Thank you for a superb performance last evening. We thoroughly enjoyed it." Sue S.
Saturday 2nd April 2022
St Chad's Church
Shrewsbury
MD
- Anthony Coupe
Childrens Chorus
- Students from Ellesmere College
Soprano soloist
- Imogen Russell
Accompanied by
Shrewsbury Camerata.
- Leader Anne Tupling
Flautist soloist
- Emma Lindsay
Featuring Saxophonist
- Stuart Spiers
Karl Jenkins
The Peacemakers
What atmosphere.
What excitement
We opened with Oleksandr Konysky's beautiful arrangement of 'A Prayer for Ukraine'.
Set in the wonderful St Chad's Church, led by our very talented and charismatic Anthony Coupe, accompanied by brilliant musicians, enjoying the addition of young students from Ellesmere College singing chorus and descant, supported by a large and appreciative audience who certainly enjoyed themselves.
The choir had a wonderful evening and thank everyone involved.
Listen here to our bass Robert Fowke chatting to Radio Shropshire's Mark Elliott about The Peacemakers. >>>>>>
CONCERTS in 2021
Candle-lit for Charpentier, full lights for Handel, with soloists:
Elizabeth Adams - first soprano
Gemma King - second soprano
Samantha Lewis - contralto
Andrew Henley - tenor
Piran Legg - bass
accompanied by an excellent chamber orchestra and directed by Anthony Coupe.
This event was a near sell-out.
Our sincere thanks for the support and appreciation of such a splendid audience.
Choir member Bob Fowke (bass) is interviewed in June 2021 by Mark Elliott of Shropshire Radio about our lockdown choir activities and concert plans.
Saturday 11th December 2021. St Alkmunds. Shrewsbury
We enjoyed this concert SO much. The Charpentier is beautiful and the Handel is fun.
Our MD Tony Coupe deserves recognition for his patience and hard work in raising Cantata to deliver a first class performance.
Saturday 6th November 2021
St Chad's Shrewsbury.
Conducted by Anthony Coupe.
Gemma King - soprano soloist
Samantha Lewis - contralto soloist
Richard Jackson - tenor soloist
Timothy Emberson - bass soloist
Mozart's Requiem and Coronation Mass (Mass in C Major).
This is the concert that we had intended to perform on 21st March 2020, which turned out to be the first week of lockdown.
For the background to that, an interview with Radio Shropshire's Mark Elliott and our publicity officer Bob Fowke (bass), and links to rehearsal files click below:
All the better for waiting for, we presented these pieces on 6th November 2021.
What a resounding success this concert was.
Led by our ever enthusiastic, talented and charismatic MD, supported by very able orchestra and soloists, Cantata received a standing ovation and requests for an encore (unusual in a choral concert).
We chose the Lacrimosa from the Requiem and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to sing this beautiful, haunting movement again.
Thank you to everyone who supported us.
Summer Concert for Friends and Family
Handel: Dixit Dominus
Charpentier: Messe en Minuit
Performed on Wednesday 21st July 2021. Church Hall. Holy Trinity Church.
Meole Brace. Shrewsbury
