The CD is available for purchase from the Minster website here.

Advent Procession

2nd December, 6.30pm, York Minster. Admission free.

Christmas Concerts

7th December, 7pm, York Minster. Admission by ticket only. Book here.

14th December, 7pm, York Minster. Admission by ticket only. Book here.

Nine Lesson and Carols

23rd December, 4pm, York Minster. Admission free.

24th December, 4pm, York Minster. Admission free.

On Wednesday 13th June the Minster choir broadcast Choral Evensong live on BBC Radio 3. The order service included two pieces by William Byrd; his anthem for Elizabeth I O Lord, Make Thy Servant Elizabeth our Queen as the introit, and his extraordinary ‘Great’ Service as the canticles. The anthem was David Sawer’s Wonder which was commissioned for the Choirbook for the Queen - a project of two volumes of brand new works composed in honour of Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The service was received with widespread praise and the at-times scathing internet forums were abound with praise for the fresh and exciting sound coming from the Minster choir!

You can listen to the service until Wednesday 20th June here on the BBC iPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01jrl1h/Choral_Evensong_York_Minster/

First was Easter at the Minster which was so fun and ridiculous but really ended me vocally. The Queen coming had its own perks – loads of people queueing up outside, crowds cheering etc and then the slightly farcically speaking a bit louder than needed in Starbucks afterwards to my grandmother (my one guest for the service) about things that happened during the service so that everyone around us knew we’d been in it. It was all so jolly and festive, and I loved the way that every different event and venue involved made tiny little improvements just to make sure everything was perfect. It was kind of a jerk to get back into the contrition and dolorousness of Holy Week after that, but the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday evening was beautiful and so moving. After the end of mass the altar was stripped, the holy sacrament reposed and then all of the lights in the Minster were extinguished and we left in a silent darkness. Lord knows how someone didn’t trip over and kill themselves, but it worked and it was amazing. Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday all trotted past at lightning speed and it was all done. SO much singing, after a long half of term, and I was really feeling it.

Then I got to go home for a day. I have counted that currently I’ve slept in my bed at home for only 5 days this year, which is such a waste because it’s a bloody comfy bed. But anyway. It was so nice just to get there and feel relaxed. It was all too quick, however, as the Tuesday of that week I had to travel down to Guildford to start rehearsals for the USA East coast tour I was doing with the Rodolfus Choir. We did a concert in Guildford on the Friday and then left London on Saturday evening for JFK. It was kind of hastily written and often on the bare scratchings of internet connection, but I was charged with writing the blog for that tour, so I shan’t repeat to you all the details of what I got up to. I will say, however, that the couple of days we spent in and around New York City were absolutely amazing and I am already devising a plan to go back later this year.

The main reason for this was twofold – firstly I got to see Ed P-T, a friend of mine for a few years now, who was playing organ for the tour and is so crazy, amazing and wonderful, I love him to bits. The second reason was a waitress in our hotel – who I am so sure was a transexual in some stage of transition – called Candy, who came up to us at breakfast and said the most ridiculously rude things. Funny, and not insulting, but ohymgod so rude. She (he?) could hear the shock in our laughter and met this with “This may be a classy joint but not so much a classy waitress”. Obviously this was hilarious, but it made me think. All of the Americans we met were so up front and plain-spoken in a way that the English just aren’t. We spend so much time darting around topics, avoiding the crux of arguments or simply white-lying our way out of awkwardness. I thought it was so refreshing to be met time and again with people who just said what they thought, and I am hoping to be more able to do this than I have previously. But obviously not to be curt or rude in the process. Hopefully it shan’t be thought rude my prudish English contemporaries…

If I thought I was tired after Holy Week, by the end of the USA tour I was exhausted but, again after only one night at home, I had to return up to York for the start of the Summer term. I was kind of hanging and tired and so coming back to the city, where everything is so incestuous and everyone knows everyone else’s business, was kind of unappealing. But I’m glad to say this apathy has worn off. I was  plunged back in the daily schedule of singing as soon as I got back, which has pulled my voice to the edge of its capabilities, especially as we sang Men’s Voices for the first two days back, which always seems harder work than when we have the trebles. I also had the second concert with the organ scholar at the Minster Ben Horden’s choir, Spectrum. I like singing with them a lot – it gives a break from the choir stalls and I find singing with adult female sopranos makes one consider more carefully the sound one’s making. Well, sort of. Anyway, it’s different and I like it. But Christ it nearly killed me.

Now I have a few weeks with a fairly light schedule and for the past couple of days nothing at all – hence the slobbing around and doing nothing at the moment. I’ve just finished a new choral composition, a setting of some of the verses of the Golden Sequence for Pentecost, which I wrote for a competition at St Paul’s. I really doubt anything will come of it, but it was fun to do. I already have some ideas for things to write next – I really want to write my first set of canticles, though I worry because I want to write for organ as well and I’m slightly scared about how to get it right. I’ve previously shrouded my past compositions, all of which are for unaccompanied SATB, with the premise of artistic choice, but in reality it’s because I’m shit scared of how to deal with the instrument. But I’m sure with consultation with friends I’ll be able to do it. I’m quite determined to get a set finished before the term’s done, though I have some exams to do at the end of this month which I should probably focus on (though I won’t). And then a mass setting – though I am more inclined to return to unaccompanied SATB for that. I have already written a sanctus (which needs changing) and benedictus for it and most of an agnus dei. Writing the gloria is stumping me slightly because I never feel like I can get over the words quickly enough, and there’s such a lot to get through. I’m thinking that playing with textures is the way forward as it will allow me to deal with words more quickly than if every single line says everything. I’m increasingly aware that my taste in contemporary classical music is getting a little bit more avant-garde, so I want to make sure I finish it before the different movements bear no relation to one another style-wise. I’m certain the canticles that I’m going to write will, necessarily, have to be two very different beasts stylistically to a gloria which will have to match the sanctus and benedictus I’ve already written.

On another note entirely, Kate won a Southbank Award for 50 Words for Snow which is amazing and she totally deserved it. I hope she gets the Ivor Novella aware for which she’s nominated, which is coming up later this month. I’m still questioning why on earth she wanted someone like me to sing on it for her, but I’m so grateful that she was crazy enough to let a nobody 18-year-old sing on her album.

Summer will be relaxed and calm, which I totally require now. And hopefully some of it may occur in New York, which will be fun.

Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Beatrice, distributed the Royal Maundy at York Minster on Thursday 5th April 2012, in this her Diamond Jubilee year. Stefan sang with the choir which comprised of both the Minster choir and the choir of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal.

Her Majesty had only visited York once before to distribute the Royal Maundy money, and it was an huge honour to be present at such an ancient ceremony. As well as the 170 pensioners who received maundy money – coins that are especially minted for the occasion – the choir received maundy money as their payment for singing at the service.

The music sung was praised enormously and Her Majesty expressed her thanks to the choir for its singing during the service.

Kate Bush’s new album, 50 Words for Snow, has been released on her own record label Fish People. The CD has met with international acclaim and been lovingly welcomed into her extraordinary body of work by her millions of fans around the world.

Stefan features as a soloist in the second track of the album “Lake Tahoe”.

For more information on the CD and where you can purchase it, check out Kate’s website.

There is also an animation that Kate has released for “Lake Tahoe” entitled “Eider Falls at Lake Tahoe”.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Stefan will be touring with the Rodolfus Choir around the United States in April 2012. The tour will focus on the East Coast of the US, starting in New York City and ending in Washington D.C..

For more information and tour dates, check out the calendar.

As the Christian year turns to the end of Lent and the celebration of Easter, York Minster is gearing up for one of its busiest times of the year. There are a number of services every day, and these increase towards the end of Holy Week and the Easter Weekend. Stefan will be singing at every sung service at the Minster during Holy Week and on Easter Sunday.

For more information on all of the services and events at the Minster during Holy Week and Easter, visit the Minster’s 8 Wonders Website.

In September, Stefan took up a choral scholarship with the choir of York Minster. It’s an extraordinary opportunity to work in one of the largest and undoubtedly beautiful cathedrals in the world, and with one of the most exciting and ascendent choirs in the UK at the moment.

Stefan will hopefully be at the Minster for three years, while he is also taking a degree at the University of York in History.

The choir sings daily services of evensong (except Mondays) which, on weekdays and Saturdays, are at 5.15pm. They sing 10am Eucharist, 11.30am Matins and 4.00pm Evensong on Sundays. For more information and for any extraordinary services, please see the Minster’s website.