A new professional choir based in Ripon that performs everything from choral music to opera is putting on a local concert.
Jervaulx Singers was founded by Charlie Gower-Smith and Jenny Bianco, who are based in North Yorkshire and perform across the UK.
The eight members of the group all work in the country’s top opera houses and professional choirs. They perform all forms of vocal music, including choral, sacred and secular, opera, and song.
On Saturday March 4, they will sing French choral music at St John’s Church in Sharow.
The diverse programme takes choral works from across the years and intersperses them with some of Francis Poulenc’s greatest songs for solo voice and piano.
Mr Gower-Smith said:
“We present a wide range of repertoire, putting sacred and secular choral music side by side, as well as exploring the great solo and ensemble repertoire from the opera stage in gala performances.
“Our choral concerts are typically eight solo voices, singing either one or two to a part, bringing an exciting vibrancy to the group’s sound.
Group members include baritone Edmund Danon, who has performed at the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, Opera North, Cadogan Hall and the London Southbank; Yorkshire-born mezzo-soprano Beth Moxon has performed as ‘L’enfant’ in Ravel’s ‘Lenfant et les sortilèges’ for Opéra de Lyon and Royal Opera House Muscat; bass Laurence Williams, who has toured the Messiah solos with Stephen Layton to Australia, singing with the Auckland Philharmonic and soprano Eleanor Garside, who was described in The Guardian as giving a ‘standout performance’ in Waterperry Opera’s Mansfield Park by Jonathan Dove.
Further details of the Sharow event are available here.
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Ripon Cathedral appoints new director of music
German organist Dr Ronny Krippner has been appointed director of music at Ripon Cathedral.
Dr. Krippner, who is currently organist and director of choral music at Croydon Minster and Whitgift School in London, will start in January.
He will take over from the cathedral’s interim director of music, Peter Wright.
Born in Bavaria, Dr Krippner has considerable experience of both the German and British choral traditions.
Described by BBC Music Magazine as a ‘phenomenal improviser’, Dr Krippner has recorded CDs of organ and choir music on German record labels.
He has performed on television and radio in Germany and the UK.
He has performed organ recitals in Germany, Holland, Belgium, the UK, the United States, Mexico and Australia.
Ripon’s music tradition
Music is an integral part of services and other aspects of life at Ripon Cathedral so this is a key appointment.
Dr Krippner will take charge of the cathedral choir, which consists of boy and girl choristers aged 8 to13 and professional adult singers.
The cathedral’s website says about the choir:
“They sing six services each week and at the great festivals of Christmas and Easter.
“CD recordings, broadcasts, concerts and tours are a major part of the choir’s schedule.”
Dr Krippner studied organ playing and improvisation with Prof. Franz-Josef Stoiber at the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik in Regensburg while at the same time working as assistant choirmaster of the Regensburger Domspatzen, Regensburg Cathedral’s famous boys’ choir.
After graduating, he went to Exeter University to take his master’s degree in English Cathedral Music, while singing in the city’s cathedral choir as a choral scholar.
Ripon Cathedral has a strong musical tradition
Building on his twin musical foundations, Dr Krippner went on to take up various posts.
In 2005 he became organ scholar at Bristol Cathedral, organist at Clifton College and a member of staff at Bristol Grammar school, combining his expertise in organ playing with a gift for choral direction.
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After a period working at Newport Cathedral, he moved to London where he was organist and teacher of music at King’s College School, Wimbledon.
In addition to his school activities, Dr Krippner also held the post of assistant director of music at the celebrated ‘Handel church’, St George’s, Hanover Square, London, with its professional choir and annual Handel Festival.