Lacock

Courses for choral and consort singers

The Lacock team has been organising courses for choral singers since 1986. The courses normally take the form of a week of rehearsal and vocal training leading to a public performance, with directors who are leading specialists in their field and often internationally-known performers. The courses are open to all ages and nationalities and the group is usually restricted to around thirty singers. The general aim is to broaden musical enthusiasm, stimulate international contact and to create an intense, memorable and enriching musical experience in a relaxed and congenial setting.

The repertoire naturally centres on the polyphonic era of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, the great age of unaccompanied choral music. In general participants are expected to be fluent readers and have had some vocal training. They should have straight, blending voices with full dynamic range, be accustomed to normal choral discipline and be able to respond quickly to direction. The aim is always to combine amateur enthusiasm with professional pace of work. With a high proportion of participants becoming Lacock regulars a club-like atmosphere has built up over the years, each course seeming like a reunion of old friends; however, we are always very pleased to welcome new faces and first-time ‘members’ are very warmly welcomed.

A scholarship scheme awards free places to current, recent or prospective university choral scholars and other young people with a similar interest in ensemble singing. The London-based Lacock Scholars is a 12-part ensemble formed originally from past holders of these scholarships. They have their own programme of concerts and a web site at www.lacockscholars.org.

These pages give details of our forthcoming courses until the end of 2024. They include Lamentations by Pedro Ruimonte in Granada with Gabriel Díaz in March; Portugugese polyphony in Lyme Regis with Patrick Craig in April; a week for invited singers in Tenby with Lionel Meunier in May; and motets in seven parts with Patrick Craig and music inspired by the Song of Songs with Lucy Goddard in our two weeks at Monteconero in Italy in June; early Tudor music with Rory Wainwright Johnston in Ludlow in July; Palestrina, Gombert, Arvo Pärt and James MacMillan with JanJoost van Elburg in Croatia in early September; Josquin and his contemporaries with Rory McCleery in Gourdon in southest France later in the month; and Philippe de Monte, Vaet and Utendal in Dartmouth with Eamonn Dougan in October.

Email us if you would like to receive email alerts of new courses as they are announced.

© 2001-2023