Canticum Anglicum, conducted by Marga Schoutens, is a mixed choir in Amsterdam. There are around 30 singers with an average age of about 30 years. For more than ten years we have been singing English choir music; the beautiful works from the Cathedral tradition of the Anglican Church. This explains the ‘Anglicum’ in the name of our choir. A large part of our repertoire consists of anthems of composers like Byrd, Tye, Tallis, Purcell, Croft, Wesley, Stanford, Wood, Britten and Howells. Hymns and psalms on chant are also familiar to us and mainly used for services.
Within this English setting, we do not prefer a specific time or period: we sing renaissance, modern and anything in between. All this music was written for use in church so we are happy we have one in which we can have rehearsals. That is the Vredeskerk, in the Pijnackerstraat in the south of Amsterdam, near the Okura hotel. We rehearse there every Wednesday evening from 8 till 10.30 pm. In return for the hospitality of the Vredeskerk we sing Sunday mass there once in every six weeks.
But what really keeps us going are the concerts; about six every season. Canticum Anglicum activities during the season We start at the end of August. Throughout the season we sing the regular, once-in-every-six-weeks masses in the Vredeskerk. In September we have our yearly choir-weekend, somewhere in Holland, Belgium or Germany, with combined singing and relaxing.
Usually, but not always, there is a Christmas concert in December. Singing mass in the Vredeskerk on Christmas eve is, however, an every year event, visited by 600 people. The choir prefers music written for Lent. So one or more concerts during this period give us a welcome opportunity to sing some of the most stunning pieces of our repertoire. Between the concerts, we perform at some ad hoc occasions for which we are asked to sing, like weddings, funerals or a special mass.
Before the start of the summer holidays, in the beginning of July, we cool down and rehearse some almost forgotten anthems and new music for the next season.
If you want to know more about the choir or are interested in singing with us, fill in your name (naam), email address (e-mail) and message and click the send (versturen) button.
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