Much-loved Llandaff Cathedral Choir will perform a concert of music and readings for Christmas at 7.00pm on Saturday 21st December. The choir, with their angelic boy choristers, will sing a variety of choral favourites for the festive season, including “Ding dong! Merrily on high”, “Lully, lulla”, “In the bleak midwinter”, and music by Mathias, Leighton and Lauridsen. There will be one or two surprises along the way too!

The choir will be joined by brass ensemble for roof-raising audience participation in singing several of the nation’s favourite Christmas carols, including “O come, all ye faithful”, “Hark! The herald” and “O little town of Bethlehem”.

We are also delighted to welcome BBC Wales favourites Rebecca John and Nicola Heywood Thomas as special guest readers and Beverley Humphreys as host for the evening.

Do join us for what promises to be an evening of entertainment and festive fun in the company of one of Wales’ premier choirs!

Tickets cost £10, click here to buy yours now!

Organist David Geoffrey Thomas

Director of Music Stephen Moore

 

 

The Advent Procession begins the season of Advent with an evocative service at 4.30pm on Sunday 1 December, the First Sunday of Advent. Subtitled From Darkness to Light, the service captures an idea that is central to our keeping of Advent: the recognition that the beautiful world in which we live is marred by our human wilfulness, greed and violence.

The light that shines in the darkness of the church represents the light of Jesus Christ shining in our dark world. That light dispels the darkness, but not without showing up the dark places of our world, and of our lives. The light of Christ sees us as we are; it judges all, but it is also the illumination and the warmth, the guiding light, which leads us from darkness into light.

The Advent Procession is punctuated by sung phrases, drawn from scripture, known as the Advent Antiphons. With one exception, all refer specifically to Jesus, who is regarded – by Christians at least – as the fulfilment of Jewish expectation and Old Testament prophecy.

Also included is a later addition, the antiphon O Virgo Virginum, which clearly refers to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary is given prominence among the Advent Antiphons as the human agent called by God to bring forth God’s own word and being. The readings are chosen to reflect the theological imperatives contained in the antiphons with many coming from Prophetic texts.

The service takes the form of a Great Procession, moving throughout the building, with the Cathedral choir pausing to sing at several stations.

Music to be sung includes:

Attrib. Palestrina – Matin Responsory

MacMillan – O Radiant Dawn

Beamish – In the stillness

Goldschmidt – A tender shoot

Bruckner – Ave Maria

Joubert – There is no rose

Guerrero – Canite Tuba

Lauridsen – O nata lux

Attrib. Palestrina – Vesper Responsory

There will be well-known Advent Hymns for the Congregation to sing, including Come, thou Redeemer of the earth, Lo! He comes with clouds descending and O come, O come Emmanuel.

The Advent Procession is one of the most atmospheric services of the year, beginning with one solitary light and a voice singing ‘I look from afar’, and ending in a blaze of light.

All are welcome.

Join us at 7.00pm on Friday 18th October for what will be a special collaboration between the Cathedral Choir and the City of London Sinfonia as part of the London Chamber group’s UK Cathedral Tour.

As City of London Sinfonia and Llandaff Cathedral Choir perform in different spaces around the Cathedral, our audience members are also invited to explore and create their own musical journeys, stopping and taking in the incredible sights and sounds around some of the Cathedral. The music is meditative, calm and enveloping—from orchestral music by present-day composers who explore the mystic through their music, such as Arvo Pärt and Dobrinka Tabakova, to ancient melodies for choirs that have resounded in our cathedrals across centuries.

PĒTERIS VASKS The Fruit of Silence (piano and strings)
ARVO PÄRT Summa
DOBRINKA TABAKOVA Organum Light
ARVO PÄRT Fratres
PĒTERIS VASKS The Fruit of Silence (piano and choir)
DOBRINKA TABAKOVA Centuries of Meditations

In addition, choral music by Byrd, Lauridsen, Parsons and Stopford.

City of London Sinfonia
Llandaff Cathedral Choir – Stephen Moore (Director) and David Geoffrey Thomas (Organ and Piano)

For more information about the concert and to buy tickets, click here.