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The Renaissance Singers
The Renaissance Singers was founded in 1944 by Michael Howard
as the performing arm of the Renaissance Society, and led the
revival of interest in Renaissance sacred polyphony-the beginnings
of the "early music movement". Their first concert was
on 3rd June 1944 in St Marylebone Parish Church. The Singers made
many recordings and broadcast regularly-the first broadcast being
on Christmas Day 1945. They often sang from hand-written and
-copied parts produced by scholars such as Bruno Turner-now one of
the choir's vice-presidents.
In 1992, after a gap of some ten years, the Singers were re-formed
by Michael Procter as a chamber choir specialising in this
repertoire. In recent years their activities have included
performances at festivals in Warwick, Bath and Southwark and tours
in France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the Czech
Republic. These engagements, and their annual programme of
concerts and workshops in central London and Oxford have earned
the Renaissance Singers the reputation of being one of the best
specialist amateur choirs in the country.
From 1995 to 2005, the Renaissance Singers were directed by Edward Wickham,
making their first Compact Disc recording - of music by Willaert, Lassus and Manchicourt - released on the
ASV/Quicksilver label in 1998.
Since September 2005, JanJoost van Elburg has directed the
choir.
The Renaissance Singers is registered as a charity number
1015930. Admission is by audition and the choir rehearses weekly
during term time, giving six or so performances each year. In
addition, workshops are hosted to encourage amateur singers who
are not members of the choir to participate in discovering new
repertoire from the Renaissance.
In the programming of concerts, great emphasis is laid on the
investigation of newly discovered works from the Renaissance
period. The Renaissance Singers have always valued the scholarly
input of its members and directors: the current musical director,
Edward Wickham, is a musicologist in his own right, and the
current programming policy reflects a desire to continue to use
the Singers, at least in part, as a means of bringing to light
newly discovered repertory. This often leads to the publication of
new editions of music.
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