A Winter's Night

17th January 2020
BY Carson White, pupil and member of Chapel Choir

In early January I was fortunate to go as part of Chapel Choir to Merton College, Oxford to record an album of Christmas music, A Winter’s Night. Merton College's Chapel is one of the best places to record in the country. It’s a beautiful building and the acoustics are truly incredible.

We recorded fourteen pieces over the three days and the album will also feature three performances by Onyx Brass, the amazing ensemble who collaborated with us on some of our pieces. Singing and recording for up to seven hours a day is a gruelling process. You have to go over phrases and verses until they are absolutely perfect. Thankfully, we had an amazing team. Our producer, Isabella Gardiner was endlessly supportive and always had something positive to say to keep our spirits up. We got through our schedule on time thanks to all the work that Mr Ionascu had put in over the last few months. We’re also extremely grateful to all the dons who took time from their holiday to help us: Mr Cunningham, our organist, Mr Tarney, Mr Thomas, Ms Quinault, and Mr Hurley.

When we weren’t busy recording we were able to look around Oxford and Mr Tarney organised thing for us to do in the evenings, such as going to see the film 1917. We also explored St Anne’s College, where we were staying.

The opportunity to record in Merton College was very special and the music we were singing was really fun; I’m so glad to have done it. I’m looking forward to continuing Choir this term and our tour of the Baltics, including concerts in Riga and Tallinn, this February.

The album will be released by Signum Records later this year, once all the editing and collating is finished. News of its release will be shared on our website.

Photographs courtesy of Mr Thomas.

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