Overview

With an insider's knowledge but an outsider's perspective Sarah MacDonald lifts the lid on a choral tradition which is admired worldwide but mysterious in its inner workings to most of those not involved in it. How do you train a liturgical choir-whether its members are children or young adults-to the highest possible standard? How do you choose the right music for them to sing? How do you get to be a member of one of these choirs? How do you organise a choir tour or a recording? These and many other questions are addressed, and the daily trials and tribulations of abusy choir director-who is also a fine and active organist-are entertainingly chronicled.

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Reviews

'Sarah MacDonald has a unique relationship with the UK's cathedrals, chapels, organs and choirs not just as an exceptional conductor, organist and composer, but also as someone who lives within this community (and has done for many years) but hails from a different community (Canada). This perspective allows her to examine our world with delicacy but also with true honesty, and this book is both a perfect opportunity to dispel myths and open up, to everyone, a form of music-making often shrouded in secrecy. I recommend it wholeheartedly.' -Paul Mealor, Composer As we might expect, Sarah's collected writings encompass a vast array of topics and concerns which have arisen in a multi-faceted career which has seen so much change in the university and cathedral worlds she inhabits. She has demonstrated her potential to train first-rate choirs and organists with much success, enabling her to tackle a large, varied and complex variety of music. All of these challenges have required her to be an inspirational teacher, and I can testify that this is how so many of her students and choristers regard her. I salute her and thank her for somehow finding the time devise this collection which I thoroughly commend. -Paul Trepte, Director of Music Ely Cathedral 1992-2019 Having worked in sacred music on both sides of the pond, there are always things about the lives of organists and choir-trainers that get lost in translation (if not muddied by some romanticism). Sarah's writing is as down-to-earth as it is hearty and delightful, offering incredible insight and nuance. In an age where our art needs creative stewardship more than ever, this collection of essays sums up where things are going in sacred music and how bridges can be continually built across the Atlantic. -Parker Ramsay, Concert Artist, New York, New York It has been an absolute pleasure to work as producer and engineer with Sarah MacDonald and her choirs at Selwyn College and Ely Cathedral over the last fourteen or so years in over twenty-five recordings for the Regent label. Many of these have been first recordings of new sacred choral music, and Sarah's boundless energy and enthusiasm for exploring the work of both young and more established composers has been an inspiration to us all! I'm delighted that her perceptive and entertaining essays on the state of choral music scene in the UK have been collected together for this new publication. Gary Cole, MA (Cantab), GRSM, FRCO, ARCM, HonRSCM, (Producer, Regent Records Ltd, UK)

'Sarah MacDonald has a unique relationship with the UK's cathedrals, chapels, organs and choirs not just as an exceptional conductor, organist and composer, but also as someone who lives within this community (and has done for many years) but hails from a different community (Canada). This perspective allows her to examine our world with delicacy but also with true honesty, and this book is both a perfect opportunity to dispel myths and open up, to everyone, a form of music-making often shrouded in secrecy. I recommend it wholeheartedly.' -Paul Mealor, Composer As we might expect, Sarah's collected writings encompass a vast array of topics and concerns which have arisen in a multi-faceted career which has seen so much change in the university and cathedral worlds she inhabits. She has demonstrated her potential to train first-rate choirs and organists with much success, enabling her to tackle a large, varied and complex variety of music. All of these challenges have required her to be an inspirational teacher, and I can testify that this is how so many of her students and choristers regard her. I salute her and thank her for somehow finding the time devise this collection which I thoroughly commend. -Paul Trepte, Director of Music Ely Cathedral 1992-2019 Having worked in sacred music on both sides of the pond, there are always things about the lives of organists and choir-trainers that get lost in translation (if not muddied by some romanticism). Sarah's writing is as down-to-earth as it is hearty and delightful, offering incredible insight and nuance. In an age where our art needs creative stewardship more than ever, this collection of essays sums up where things are going in sacred music and how bridges can be continually built across the Atlantic. -Parker Ramsay, Concert Artist, New York, New York It has been an absolute pleasure to work as producer and engineer with Sarah MacDonald and her choirs at Selwyn College and Ely Cathedral over the last fourteen or so years in over twenty-five recordings for the Regent label. Many of these have been first recordings of new sacred choral music, and Sarah's boundless energy and enthusiasm for exploring the work of both young and more established composers has been an inspiration to us all! I'm delighted that her perceptive and entertaining essays on the state of choral music scene in the UK have been collected together for this new publication. Gary Cole, MA (Cantab), GRSM, FRCO, ARCM, HonRSCM, (Producer, Regent Records Ltd, UK)

Author Information

JOHN RUTTER is an English composer and conductor, associated mainly with choral music and active internationally for many years. His larger choral works, Gloria, Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, The Gift of Life, and Visions, are widely performed around the world, and many of his shorter pieces such as The Lord bless you and keep you, For the beauty of the earth, Look at the world, and All things bright and beautiful have become 'standards'. He has composed or arranged many Christmas carols. He established the Collegium record label in 1983 as a vehicle for recordings with his professional chamber choir the Cambridge Singers, and they have made over fifty recordings. He has enjoyed a long association with Clare College, Cambridge - first as student, then Director of Music, later as parent, and recording producer for their renowned choir. SARAH MACDONALD is a Canadian-born UK-based organist, conductor, pianist, and composer, where she is Fellow and Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of Ely Cathedral's Girl Choristers. She has been at Selwyn since 1999, and was the first woman to hold such a post in an Oxbridge Chapel. Sarah studied at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music Glenn Gould Professional School, and at Cambridge University, and her teachers were Leon Fleisher, Marek Jablonski, John Tuttle, and David Sanger. She has toured extensively as a conductor and organist, and is in demand internationally as a director of choral and organ courses. She has made over 35 commercial recordings, and her liturgical works (over 50 published titles) are performed regularly throughout the world. She holds the Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (RCO), and is a winner of the coveted Limpus prize. She is an examiner for the RCO and for Cambridge University's Faculty of Music. Sarah received the honorary ARSCM in recognition of her contribution to choral music. She is a Patron of the Society of Women Organists, President of the School Organists' Association, and an Honorary Patron of the Herbert Howells Society. In 2022 she was appointed Organist to the University of Cambridge. She is the first woman to hold this historic ceremonial role. In 2023, she was elected to serve as President of the Royal College of Organists, her term beginning in June of 2024. In her spare time, Sarah is a keen amateur photographer.

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