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Parish Choir

The Parish Choir is an important part of regular worship at LSM and sings at High Mass on almost every Sunday morning (apart from the fifth Sunday of the month when the Junior Choir sings alone), at important Festivals throughout the year, and at weekly Sung Mass services on Saints' days. The choir also provides cantors for Sunday Evensong and Benediction.

A variety of music is sung with a strong emphasis on the English choral tradition, but also including works by composers of all nationalities, from the thirteenth century to the present day, and often unaccompanied. At High Mass, settings by Merbecke and Shaw are regularly used as well as the Missa de Angelis and a Lenten Mass setting. Psalms are usually Plainsong, although Anglican Chant is sometimes used.

As well as singing for the regular services at LSM, the Parish and Junior Choirs have sung Evensong at local Cathedrals, including Ely, Norwich, Peterborough and St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

From time to time, the Parish and Junior Choirs join together to perform more substantial works (such as Fauré's Requiem and Somervell's The Passion of Christ) in liturgical or concert settings.

The Parish and Juniors Choirs sang a concert and service at the church of Chant d'Oiseau in Brussels (which is ecumenically linked with LSM) in 2003 and returned there in April 2007. In 2005, a five-day Parish and Junior Choir tour to Rome took place, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Junior Choir. The choir sang services at Sta Maria Maggiore and All Saints Anglican church, as well as a concert at the Anglican Centre. Further tours are planned.

Rehearsals are held on Friday evenings from 18:30-20:00 and are directed by the Choir Director and Organist and the Assistant Choir Director and Organist. The first half hour of the rehearsal is held jointly with the Junior Choir.

Anyone interested in joining the Parish Choir should have a desire to enhance regular worship through music, an interest in the English sacred choral tradition, the ability to read music, a good ear and enthusiasm for singing. Admission is not usually by audition, but rather by invitation, and anyone interested should contact the Choir Director and Organist, Christian Rutherford (01223 352542 or by email) to discuss this further.