St Martins Singers

A series of concerts on 18 and 20 May

Musica Sacra a cappella

by Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Lotti, Bruckner, Pearsall, Purcell  ed altri

Friday 18 May 5pm

Chiesa di San Francesco a Pienza

Sunday 20 May 5pm

Pieve della Santissima Annunziata a Montisi

Sunday 20 May 6.45pm

Monastero di Sant’Anna in Camprena

ST MARTINS SINGERS TUSCANY 2018

PROGRAMME

Peter Stevens writes:

“The choir was formed in 2001 in Plymouth, in the South-West of England, by four friends who had been singing together for some years in a local choir.  

We invited Michael Hodges a former Music Director of the Nonsuch Singers in London to be the Music Director, and also invited some former colleagues from that choir and from a wider group of their singing friends to join us.

Our singers have to be experienced because we only meet for two weekends in England before each tour. Our main purpose is to have the pleasure of travelling with good friends, and to sing glorious music in wonderful places. Some members of our choir now come from Russia, Germany and Switzerland.

To begin with, we undertook a cruise to Brittany in 2002, and since that date we have travelled to Norway, and Switzerland, to Italy five times, three times to Portugal. and five more times to France.  This is our sixteenth tour, and our first return to Tuscany since our memorable visit here in 2013.

The choir has 28 singers and a music director and they will be accompanied on the tour by a dozen or so wives, sweethearts and darlings plus a baby!

A note about our Music Director:

Michael Hodges was an organ scholar while at Durham University, but then moved on to a career in banking, while still pursuing his musical interests as a singer himself and as a conductor. Since retiring from commerce, he has played as organist for churches and cathedrals in London and all over UK as well as in Port Elizabeth Cathedral in South Africa. He conducts and directs a variety of musical events, and is much in demand as a piano accompanist. (He lives in France Yorkshire and London and wherever he can get a signal)

Michael keeps us on our toes, and inspires us to give of our best.”

Please come and see us!