New music for consort
Janet Coxwell and her choir, Cecilia Consort, will soon begin preparations for their forthcoming Eternal Light-themed concert, at Douai Abbey, on Saturday, October 18.
This very special evening will feature music by Howard Goodall – of Vicar of Dibley and Mr Bean fame – John Rutter, Gabriel Jackson and Elgar, plus there will also be a new piece in their programme, composed especially for the choir by local musician Fiona Bennett.
Fiona was a regular performer on the Newbury music scene for many years, singing with her function band and her jazz trio at Highclere Castle, Newbury Manor and Donnington Grove, but these days, she has stepped out of the spotlight to concentrate on composing music for piano and more recently, for voices.
“Jan and I both trained at London’s Guildhall School of Music in the 1980s” said Fiona. “She is a wonderful singer I was her ‘guinea pig’ student during her teaching exams, so we’ve known one another a very long time.”
Janet is Head of vocal studies at Cheam School and when she saw Fiona’s name in the school concert programme in 2009, she wondered whether it might be the same person she had met at music college.
Fiona’s two sons, Dominic and Zachary, were pupils at Cheam and Jan remembers being quite surprised to see one of the school mums turn up to play the trumpet in the orchestra. She put two and two together and realised it was the very same Fiona Bennett she had met in London all those years ago.
So, how did Fiona go about composing this new piece for the choir?
“I went online and typed in ‘poems about light’, the very first one to appear was Let The Light Enter by a poet called Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.
“I contacted the poetry society website in the US and they confirmed her work was no longer in copyright and said it would be fine to set the words to music.
The poem tells of Goethe, the German writer and poet, on his death bed, requesting the shutters be opened so he can see the light streaming in from outside before he dies.”
The Guildhall duo, Fiona and Janet, are very much looking forward to their musical collaboration and tickets for Cecilia Consort’s concert are available from the Corn Exchange. Visit www.cornexxchangenew.com
http://www.ceciliaconsort.org.uk/
Picture: Dominic Rae