Choirs’ Day 2024
The Priory’s Choral Correspondent reports from the 2024 Choirs’ Day…
On Saturday afternoon, as the sun shone in a blue sky, members of the Choirs’ Association converged on the Priory for their annual Choirs’ Day.
For a 62nd year, members of the existing choirs met up with others who had sung in the Priory choir in the past, from as recently as a couple of years ago to 60 years previously.
The first destination was the Guesten Room for the necessary AGM, then all decanted into the Priory for the customary group photograph and a combined choirs’ service of Choral Evensong. Amongst the serried ranks in the choir stalls were a previous Director of Music at the Priory and an erstwhile junior chorister who had gone on to become organist and choirmaster at two of England’s cathedrals.
The service included Grayston Ives’ Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, Piers Maxim’s Responses and, in this the centenary of his death, Stanford’s Te Deum - music that ranged from the quiet and gentle to a glorious full choral sound that soared to the ceiling of the building in praise to God and celebrating the great choral tradition of the Priory.
In the evening everyone met for dinner in the Foley Arms Hotel followed by an entertaining address from Dr Georgina Byrne from the Queen’s Foundation Theological Centre in Birmingham, bringing an enjoyable day to a close.
Do you know a youngster who’s interested in joining the Priory Choir as a Junior Chorister? No experience needed - they’ll learn and have fun, free; just contact Piers, here.
