July, 7th  Festival Hall Bled: FAIREST ISLE, Londinium

Londinium, one of London's most versatile and accomplished chamber choirs, is excited to be making its Slovenian debut with Music Director Andrew Griffiths in July 2024. The choir is especially well-known for vibrant and exciting performances of a cappella works. Founded in 2005, it has a strong reputation for diverse and imaginative programming across centuries and national traditions, with an emphasis on rediscovering unjustly neglected works and giving premieres of new works.

Andrew Griffiths, Music Director of Londinium is a highly impressive and versatile musician. As a choral director, the many choirs he has worked with include the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Chorus. As a singer, he is a founder member of the internationally renowned vocal consort Stile Antico. In the world of opera, he is Head Coach at London’s National Opera Studio and has worked at opera houses including the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne, and Chicago Opera Theatre.

The acclaimed British choir Londinium, making its first visit to Slovenia, presents a feast of outstanding music by British composers. The programme celebrates the wonderful music of Charles Villiers Stanford and Gustav Holst in their anniversary years, and also includes masterpieces by the seventeenth and eighteenth-century composers Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, Robert Ramsey, and Henry Purcell, and more recent works by Kenneth Leighton and Judith Bingham. The choir will also perform music by the Slovenian composers Jakob Handl (Gallus) and Lojze Lebič.

https://https://www.londinium-voices.org.uk/

Londinium has performed in many prestigious central London venues, and has previously toured in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Scotland. On tours, the focus has been on introducing large and enthusiastic audiences to a great variety of well-loved works from the English choral tradition, attracting much praise from reviewers – in 2023, Edinburgh Music Review wrote "Clarity of diction was impressive, as was the rhythmic exactitude. Andrew Griffiths’ conducting style is clear, fluid and elegant…the balance and blending… were indeed truly impressive throughout.”

 

 

Londinium and Andrew Griffiths have recently released two major recordings of twentieth-century English choral music, the Gluepot Connection (SOMM Recordings, March 2018), and an album of choral music by Kenneth Leighton, Every Living Creature (SOMM Recordings, May 2023), a Gramophone Critic’s Choice 2023. Both recordings have been very warmly applauded by critics, for example "Andrew Griffiths secures a splendidly fervent, finely disciplined rendering from his assembled forces’ (Gramophone magazine).”

Kenneth Leighton                                              Hymn to the Trinity
Henry Purcell                                                     Hear my prayer
Charles Villiers Stanford                                    Beati quorum via
Thomas Tallis                                                     Loquebantur variis linguis
Gustav Holst                                                      The Evening Watch
William Byrd                                                      Laudibus in sanctis
Robert Ramsey                                                   How are the mighty fallen
Judith Bingham                                                  The Drowned Lovers
Stanford                                                              The Blue Bird
H. Purcell                                                            Fairest Isle
Holst T                                                               This have I done for my true love
Jakob Handl (Gallus)                                         Mirabile Mysterium
Lojze Lebič                                                        Fčelica zleteila
Stanford                                                             On Time