Live from Sidney Chapel: BBC Radio 3 Evensong for International Women's Day

This hour-long service will spotlight new music by female composers, reflecting both the College’s 50th anniversary of the admission of women, and International Women’s Day, which this year falls just four days after the broadcast. As such, the service will be aired on Radio 3 once again this Sunday, at the same time of 3pm.

Among the internationally renowned composers featured in the programme is Sidney alumna and former Composer-in-residence Joanna Marsh, whose ‘St Paul’s Service’ for upper voices forms the centrepoint. Other choral items nod to the beginning of Lent last month, including Cecilia McDowall’s ‘Ash Wednesday’, and chanted Office Hymn, ‘Audite benigne Conditor’, which the Choir sang for its Ember Wednesday Vespers service last week.

The Rev’d Dr Brett Gray, College Chaplain, will lead the service, with readings provided by members of the Choir. The voluntary will be performed by Sidney’s Senior Organ Scholar, Samuel Kemp FRCO, and the Choir will sing under the direction of Dr David Skinner, Osborn Director of Music. 

Dr Skinner says:

"We are delighted to return to BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong once again. This presents a fantastic opportunity for our choir and organ scholars to share their talents and the fruits of their labour with audiences across the nation and beyond."

As the third service of Choral Evensong sung by the Choir live on national radio, it marks a highlight in an already flourishing academic year. So far, the Choir has embarked upon trips to Austria (September) and New York (December). In Austria, the Choir recorded a new CD of music by Jean L’Héritier, set to be released later this year to complete a trilogy of discs by Franco-Flemish composers. This collection includes a CD of music by Jheronimers Vinders, released in 2023, which was awarded Gramophone magazine’s ‘Editor’s Choice’ in August that year, and included in its list of ‘Best Classical Music Albums of 2023’. The Choir’s tour to New York spanned eight days, with performances taking place in famous venues across Manhattan.

Following the broadcast, the Choir looks forward to touring Berlin this April, and Spain in July, with concerts and services in Madrid, Ávila, Las Navas, and Menorca. 

Listen live/on BBC Sounds

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Full Programme:

• Readings Job 1: 1-22, Luke 21: 34 - 22: 6 
• Introit The Lord’s Prayer (Walker) 
• Responses Johnson Manning 
• Psalms 22-23 
• Office Hymn Audi, benigne Conditor (plainchant) 
• Canticles St Paul’s Service (Marsh) 
• Anthem Ash Wednesday (McDowall) 
• Voluntary Prelude and Fugue on ‘O Traurigkeit, O Herzeleid’ (Smyth)