London Concord Singers is celebrating the life of the choir’s founder and musical director, Malcolm Cottle. Malcolm, who founded the choir in 1966, died 10 days before London Concord Singers’ Christmas concert in 2014. The concert went ahead as planned, with the programme selected by Malcolm, but the choir felt that it wanted to have an occasion when all could celebrate this much loved conductor. On 1 August 2015, the choir will be conducted by Matthew Collins the young conductor who has conducted the choir’s recent concerts, and will be joined by organist Jonathan Kingston.
The programme has been chosen to reflect Malcolm’s wide range of interests and many pieces have particular significance for the choir. London Concord Singers has always sung a significant amount of contemporary music. John Rutter’s Childhood Lyrics were premiered by the choir and Cecilia MacDowell’s Regina Coeli is a piece which the choir has performed with great enjoyment. The choir has given a number of premieres of music by Robert Hugill, Malcolm also conducted the premiere of Robert’s first opera. Robert is writing a work to be premiered in the concert.
Following a long standing choir tradition, former members will be joining the concert to sing in Elgar’s The Spirit of the Lord, the Te Deum from Herbert Howells’s Collegium Regale and Bruckner’s motet Locus Iste. The choir also hopes to be joined by members of Malcolm’s other choirs including the Latin Mass Choir from St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Chelsea, Alyth Choral Society and Southgate Progressive Synagogue.
The concert will be followed by a reception, which is open to all members of the audience.